I recently finished John McPhee's "Draft No. 4". He is a professor of creative non-fiction #writing and gives lots of valuable insights on his writing process. Here are three things I learned: 🧵

1) Structure is everything. Most writing problems do not stem from a lack of research or sources. The problem is getting them in an engaging and clear order. He advises to break down the material into smaller sets of ideas. These can be shuffled around and give new perspectives.

2) Generate a lead - an issue or a topic. Order your materials with regard to it. Are there ideas in your material that add to that lead or counteract it? Can you synthesize some of the points in the material?

3) Writing is re-writing. Your first draft helps you to get your general idea on paper, later drafts (up to four) help you to refine it. Thats where the lead and the smaller ideas come in handy: They can easily be rearranged, all along a larger structure.

I found these insights highly applicable, especially for #acwri. Do you have any books that helped wit your writing?

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/MR_Herbers/ByUuDTC

Lessons from John McPhee's "Draft No. 4"