Reviews

Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee

checkplease's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5 Stars

heydebigale's review

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informative medium-paced

3.25

think your mileage may vary on this one. I read this book because John McPhee is one of the originators of the creative nonfiction genre… which is the genre I’m trying to write! The beginning of the book talks about how this collection is some of the things that John McPhee teaches to his creative nonfiction class at Princeton. 

I found some really good nuggets in this book like “writing is selection”, using to help you understand and select an edit words, the importance of quotations and how quotations can be verbatim, and also still misrepresent the speaker. 

But at the same time, you kind of have to wait through some of John McPhee’s anecdote about him, traveling to Florida, and to write about oranges… or the time he talks about editing software that I’ve never heard of that is probably obsolete. these anecdotes are probably be really charming for people who follow his work and know who he is. But, for me, as someone who this author was completely new to me, it was a little bit that I had to wade through.

lukewarm_ravens's review

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funny informative inspiring medium-paced

3.0

Read for class. Mostly boring. 

tracirich's review

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informative

4.75

djwatch94's review

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informative inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

Interesting read. Essentially a collection of stories from his career. A few nuggets of actionable advice, but mostly learning about the writing process through anecdotes. Fun read!

aclaybaugh's review against another edition

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3.0

Hearing the process of writing was interesting, but it started getting to a point where the thoughts of the author on a subject became disjointed and boring. I think it was also hard for me to get into the book as the author’s style of writing (long-form nonfiction) on very specific subjects would not hold much personal interest for me.

quietdomino's review

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3.0

deep dive into the structural integrity of the nonfiction essay/book + stories of wallace-shawn-era new yorker offices = yes yes yes

jwsg's review

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4.0

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by John McPhee, which, unfortunately, hasn’t been as much as I’d have liked. So naturally, I devoured Draft No. 4, where McPhee breaks down his writing process and gives the reader a behind the scenes look at how works like Oranges, Encounters with the Archdruid, and Levels of the Game were developed.

In Draft No. 4, McPhee addresses questions like:

- How do you structure a piece of non-fiction? (“You’re a non-fiction writer. You can’t move that bear around like a king’s pawn or a queen’s bishop. But you can, to an important and effective extent, arrange a structure that is completely faithful to fact”)
- How do editors and publishers shape a piece of work?
- How do you engage an individual and find the right quotes, the right anecdotes that capture the essence of that person and convey it to the reader?
- What frames of reference do you use to add texture and vividness to your descriptions? How much currency and longevity do these references possess?

He offers words of advice like:

“All leads – of every variety – should be sound. They should never promise what does not follow. You read an exciting action lead about a car chase up a narrow street. Then the article turns out to be a financial analysis of debt structures in private universities. You’ve been had. 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 writing is going to be like this. If it is not going to be so, don’t use the lead.”

“Writing is selection. From the first word of the sentence in an actual composition, the writer is chosing, selecting and deciding (most importantly) what to leave out”… “The creative writer leaves white space between chapters or segments of chapters. The creative reader silently articulates the unwritten thought that is present in the white space. Let the reader have the experience. Leave judgment in the eye of the beholder… Creative non-fiction is not making something up but making the most of what you have.”

But Draft No. 4 is more than just a guide to writing non-fiction. A guide, no matter how well-written, is unlikely to be entertaining or fascinating (sorry Strunk and White). McPhee not only discusses his personal writing process (like his system of typing up all his notes, photocopying them, then cutting them up into slivers which he would then organise into themed folders, which the programme Kedit subsequently helped automate), he also discusses The Writing Process involving a whole cast of characters such as Editors, Publishers and Fact Checkers. He describes the colourful characters he encounters – fellow writers like Calvin Trillin, former New Yorker editor William Shawn, and the people he’s written about (there’s a particularly brilliant anecdote with actor Richard Burton).

What struck me most, perhaps, reading Draft No. 4, was McPhee’s statement that he had “once made a list of all the pieces [he] had written in maybe twenty or thirty years, and then put a check mark beside each one whose subject related to things [he] had been interested in before [he] went to college. [He] checked off more than ninety per cent.” Sounds like a career well spent.

kevenwang's review against another edition

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3.0

There are a lot of recommends for this book. But it is kinda hard to follow. Not interesting enough for me.

justplainbeth's review

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informative reflective slow-paced

4.0