Draft No. 4

Never market-research your writing. Write on subjects in which you have enough interest on your own to see you through all the stops, starts, hesitations, and other impediments along the way.

My advice is, never stop battling for the survival of your own unique stamp. An editor can contribute a lot to your thoughts but the piece is yours—and ought to be yours—if it is under your name.

Young writers generally need a long while to assess their own variety, to learn what kinds of writers they most suitably and effectively are,

“I’m just taking away what doesn’t belong there.”

You find your lead, you build your structure, you are now free to write.

“a no-nonsense-mustache,”

I have often heard writers say that if you have written your lead you have in a sense written half of your story. Finding a good lead can require that much time, anyway—through trial and error. You can start almost anywhere. Several possibilities will occur to you. Which one are you going to choose? It is easier to say what not to choose. A lead sh

There are known knowns—there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

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?” “