Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process
John McPhee
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux (September 2017)

“Actually, the essence of the process is revision.”

I have read many of John McPhee’s previously published books and consider him to be among the finest writers of non-fiction. You can thus understand my excitement when learning about and then reading his latest, Draft No. 4. It was not what I expected. Rather than a narrative of linear explanation with lists of dos and don’ts, it is multi-dimensional as is the writing process itself. Every human life is a process, best viewed as a journey of personal growth. McPhee shares much of his own.

Of special interest to me is what he has to say about the importance of structure. He observes, “Readers are not supposed to notice the structure. It is meant to be as visible as someone’s bones. And I hope this structure illustrates what I take to be a basic criterion for all structures: they should not be imposed on the material. They should arise from within it.”

Yes, a writer needs the skills and perspective of an architect but there are other stages of the process that must first be completed. The initial question to be addressed is “What will I write about?”; then others: “What interests me?”; “What information do I need?”; and “How and where can can I obtain it?”

“Actually, the essence of the process is revision.” This book no doubt is the result of rigorous and at time frustrating drafts, as do all other works of art. Consider this observation McPhee shares, expressed by Michelangelo: “I’m just taking away what doesn’t belong there.”

Since my childhood, books have been “magic carpets” that have transported to me to people, places, and events throughout human history. To the plains of Troy, for example, and to Christmas in Charles Dickens’ London. I have also followed Alice down a rabbit hole, wished I had a seat belt when riding along with Mr. Toad, and wept when Charlotte died.

That’s why this passages caught my eye:

“I once made a list of all the pieces I had written in maybe twenty or thirty years, and then put a check mark beside each one whose subject related to things I had been interested in before I went to college. I had checked more than ninety percent.”

Curious, I made a list of what has been of greatest interest to me during the years since childhood and I have been able to think of only a few that cannot be traced back to the years before I enrolled in college. That said, my memory is not what it once was so John McPhee’s 90% probably applies to me, also.

This book really is about the writing process…and just about everything else worth caring about, and then sharing with others.