I am just now beginning to discover the difficulty of expressing one’s ideas on paper. As long as it consists solely of description it is pretty easy; but where reasoning comes into play, to make a proper connection, a clearness & a moderate fluency, is to me, as I have said, a difficulty of which I had no idea.
Darwin to C. S. Darwin,
29 April 1836, DCP 301
I find the style [of On the Origin of Species] incredibly bad, & most difficult to make clear & smooth.
Darwin to John Murray,
14 June [1859], DCP 2469
To me, observing is much better sport than writing.
Darwin to Henry Fawcett,
18 September [1861], DCP 3257
In writing, he sometimes showed the same tendency to strong expressions as he did in conversation. Thus in the Origin, p. 440, there is a description of a larval cirripede, “with six pairs of beautifully constructed natatory legs, a pair of magnificent compound eyes, and extremely complex antennæ.” We used to laugh at him for this sentence, which we compared to an advertisement. This tendency to give himself up to the enthusiastic turn of his thought, without fear of being ludicrous, appears elsewhere in his writings.
F. Darwin in Life and Letters, vol. 1, 156
Write the book carefully and then go over it again, crossing out every sentence that looks like particularly fine composition.
Advice to H. W. Bates, quoted in
Obituary of Henry Walter Bates, Proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society 14 (4): 251
There seems to be a sort of fatality in my mind leading me to put at first my statement and proposition in a wrong or awkward form. Formerly I used to think about my sentences before writing them down; but for several years I have found that it saves time to scribble in a vile hand whole pages as quickly as I possibly can, contracting half the words; and then correct deliberately. Sentences thus scribbled down are often better ones than I could have written deliberately.
Autobiography, 136–37
I may mention that I keep from thirty to forty large portfolios, in cabinets with labelled shelves, into which I can at once put a detached reference or memorandum. I have bought many books and at their ends I make an index of all the facts that concern my work; or, if the book is not my own, write out a separate abstract, and of such abstracts I have a large drawer full. Before beginning on any subject I look to all the short indexes and make a general and classified index, and by taking the one or more proper portfolios I have all the information collected during my life ready for use.
Autobiography, 137–38
Please read the Ch. [proof sheets of Descent of Man] first right through without a pencil in your hand, that you may judge of general scheme; as, also, I particularly wish to know whether parts are extra tedious; but remember that M.S is always much more tedious than print…. I fear parts are too like a Sermon: who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn parson?
Darwin to Henrietta Darwin,
[8 February 1870], DCP 7124
I have worked through (and it is hard work), half of the 2nd chapter on mind [proofs of Descent of Man], and your corrections and suggestions are excellent. I have adopted the greater number, and I am sure that they are very great improvements. Some of the transpositions are most just. You have done me real service; but, by Jove, how hard you must have worked, and how thoroughly you have mastered my MS. I am pleased with this chapter now that it comes fresh to me. Your affectionate, and admiring and obedient father, C. D.
Darwin to Henrietta Darwin,
[March] 1870, Emma Darwin, vol. 2, 230