To celebrate the 250th birthday of our country, I took a trip to Philadelphia and Gettysburg in June. Both are great places to visit, with history around every corner. They also provide nice opportunities for travelers who like to stroll as part of sightseeing.

My trip included good food, wonderful tour guides, and fascinating historical tales. One annectdote, in particular, appealed to me as an author.

During a ranger-led walking tour around Independence Hall, the guide told a story about Thomas Jefferson. According to the story, after the Continental Congress had made all its changes to the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson sent a few copies of his original draft to close friends. Apparently, he wanted them to see what he had written, as opposed to the final document that came out of the congress.

No doubt, many of his concerns involved the substantive changes that his colleagues made to the document. But as an author, I wonder if the alterations to the language itself also troubled him. After he carefully chose the words for his declaration, did it bother him to see his wording changed and deleted by people who cared only about what he said and not the way he said it?

While I can’t speak for all authors, I know it is very easy for me to grow attached to the words and phrases I choose for my writing. A novel may have 60,000 words in it, but when my beta readers object to what I think is a cleverly-written passage, it can hurt to change it, even when I’m pretty sure that their suggestions will make the story more readable or understandable. I can only imagine with horror what it would be like to have an entire congress changing what I wrote.

As I listened to the annecdote that day, it gave me a new appreciation for Thomas Jefferson, not as a historical figure or a Founding Father, but as a fellow author. If it had been my declaration that the Continental Congress changed, I probably would have done the same thing he did. At least my friends would know what I really wrote.

-Susan 11/6/2026

p.s. As an amusing post-script to today’s blog, I apparently earned the “Perfectionist” achievement from WordPress. The achievement says: “Edit a single post over and over again. It’s still not right, is it?”
Despite that achievement, there are probably still typos and grammatical errors in this blog post. Lol!