Yes, it's long. Hey, it's the New Yorker. But when you have time, click HERE to read the entire article. Hemingway and other greats get a mention.
Here's a bit- to entice:
Writing is selection. Just to start a piece of writing you have to
choose one word and only one from more than a million in the language.
Now keep going. What is your next word? Your next sentence, paragraph,
section, chapter? ... You select what goes in and
you decide what stays out. At base you have only one criterion: If
something interests you, it goes in—if not, it stays out. That’s a crude
way to assess things, but it’s all you’ve got. Forget market research.
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.
John McPhee
The New Yorker
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