Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process

Book review by Deane Barker • • tags: writing •
An image of the cover of the book "Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process"

You need to understand that this isn’t a book about the process of writing (as the title would suggest). This is really a meandering memoir of a particular writer’s life. I keep looking for some constructive instructional value, but it’s buried pretty deep. Mostly, McPhee just wants to tell stories. And, to be fair, some of those stories are entertaining, but that’s not what I was looking for.

I was tempted to withhold a rating, since I was the wrong audience and read the book under the wrong assumption of its contents. However, I take exception to the subtitle: “On the Writing Process.” I dispute that. I don’t think that’s honest.

I bailed out about 2/3rds of the way through, when it was obvious that it just wasn’t going to come back around to what I thought it was at the beginning.

Book Info

Author
John McPhee
Year
Pages
208
Acquired
  • I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
  • I own an electronic copy of this book.
Links to this – The Ransom of Russian Art March 28, 2023
This is an odd book. John McPhee is a journalist. I read his book – Draft No. 4 – about writing (I didn’t love it). This is essentially an expansion of a long article McPhee did for The New Yorker . It tells the story of Norton Dodge , who was an economist and professor. He wrote his thesis in the...