Forget market research. Writing the lead and building the structure seem relatively easy for John McPhee. 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. On March 23, the first day of Princeton's transition to remote learning due to the coronovirus pandemic, John McPhee (top row, third from left), a Ferris Professor of Journalism in residence, took his legendary course "Creative Nonfiction" virtual, with guest David Remnick (top row, far left), a Princeton alumnus and editor of The New Yorker. John McPhee on writing as selection From Draft No. 4 to be insightful, illuminating (without being pedantic) and helpful. As a guide to the writing process I found Draft No. 4: ... That's a crude way to assess things, but it's all you've got. John McPhee on Writing and the Relationship Between Artistic Originality and Self-Doubt “Never stop battling for the survival of your own unique stamp.” By Maria Popova John McPhee is a professor of journalism at Princeton, writes for The New Yorker and has published thirty books. That's what he told my colleague Noah Adams in a 1998 interview for "All Things Considered." "My daughter Jenny tells me not to carry on as dourly as I do about the writing process," McPhee said. Not like writing the first draft, which he approaches with "dread." Never market-research your writing.