I enclose words and phrases in pencilled boxes for Draft No. 4. If I enjoy anything in this process it is Draft No. 4. I go searching for replacements for the words in the boxes.

said I could not imagine anything said more plainly.

I had little else to do but show up for cocktails at five in the evening.

On a highly competitive list, her foremost peeve in factual writing was indirection—sliding facts in sideways, expecting a reader to gather rather than receive information. You don’t start off like an atmospheric fictionist: “The house on Lovers’ Lane was where the lovers loved loving.” A Gould proof would have asked, “What house?” “What lovers?” “

In the course of writing, you really find out what you don’t know, and you read in an attempt to get it right.

The lead—like the title—should be a flashlight that shines down into the story. A lead is a promise. It promises that the piece of writing is going to be like this. If it is not going to be so, don’t use the lead. Some leads are much longer than others. I am not talking just about first sentences. I am talking about an integral beginning that sets

awash in natural light.

If doing nothing can produce a useful reaction, so can the appearance of being dumb.

He said, “It takes as long as it takes.” As a writing teacher, I have repeated that statement to two generations of students. If they are writers, they will never forget it.