How to Write a Blackwood Article

determined upon your incidents and tone. The most important portion⁠—in fact, the soul of the whole business, is yet to be attended to⁠—I allude to the filling up . It is not to be supposed that a lady, or gentleman either, has been leading the life of a book worm. And yet above all things it is necessary that your article have an air of erudition, or at least afford evidence of extensive general reading. Now I’ll put you in the way of accomplishing this point. See here!” (pulling down some three or four ordinary-looking volumes, and opening them at random). “By casting your eye down almost any page of any book in the world, you will be able to perceive at once a host of little scraps of either learning or bel-esprit-ism , which are the very thing for the spicing of a Blackwood article. You might as well note down a few while I read them to you. I shall make two divisions: first, Piquant Facts for the Manufacture of Similes , and, second, Piquant Expressions to be introduced as occasion may require . Write now!”⁠—and I wrote as he dictated.