It’s not a stretch to understand that, as a narrative nonfiction writer, I consider John McPhee to be the GOAT. In my very wildest (and I do mean very wildest) dreams, I’m walking across the Princeton Campus when McPhee calls out to me by name. He tells me he is familiar with my “very excellent” work. And then he asks if I have time for coffee because he’d like to “talk about craft.” Of course, I wake up just as he holds the cafe door for us.
Having shared this, it’s also not a stretch to assume you have an inkling of how I feel when I listen to Draft No. 4, read aloud by the GOAT himself, as I drive in circles so as not to cut him off. What you don’t know is that I am like this about precious few other things.
So – you might wonder – when McPhee said it all starts with STRUCTURE – why on Earth did I not take him at his word?
I’m re-working my proposal for the What Can You Do With series because I think I’ve found the perfect home. They want me to demonstrate that I can write these books. I’m following every detail of their guidelines as if everything hung in the balance, which it pretty much does.
I started with a word count by page of their books that are like mine. I gave considerable thought to what I would use as examples. Then, I started writing. And – ever since – have been making myself crazier than crazy with mock-ups and slide decks and different colored sticky notes and a boatload of very sharp pencils. (I’m hoping none of this process is familiar to any of you – truly!) After weeks of twisting in the wind, I’ve finally hit the point where it all clicked into place.
And what is it that has made it possible for me to move forward? The STRUCTURE! Which I backed into and is precisely what McPhee says straight out is the starting point for everything he writes.
If only I had listened to the GOAT …
