Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2017. McPhee was eighty-six and had been writing for The New Yorker for over fifty years. The book collects essays (originally published in the magazine) on the craft of writing: structure, revision, fact-checking, writer’s block, the relationship between writer and editor, and the specific challenges of literary nonfiction.
The title essay argues that the crucial draft is the fourth: the first draft is terrible (everyone’s first draft is terrible); the second corrects the grossest errors; the third achieves acceptable competence; the fourth — where most writers stop — is where quality begins. McPhee’s fourth draft is other writers’ twelfth: his standard of revision is extreme, and he describes it with the same precision he brings to geology or freight transportation.
Other essays are equally valuable: “Structure” describes McPhee’s method of organizing material (he uses physical index cards, arranging and rearranging them on a table until a structure emerges). “Omission” discusses the discipline of cutting (McPhee has a green-to-red color scale for marginalia indicating degrees of potential deletion). “Frame of Reference” addresses the problem of selecting details and allusions that will mean something to readers without being either too obscure or too obvious.
The book has become essential reading for anyone who writes nonfiction — not because McPhee’s methods are universally applicable (they are highly personal) but because his intelligence about the problems of the craft is unmatched.
Collecting Draft No. 4
First edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2017): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $20–$50
- Signed: $50–$100
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
On Writing
Draft No. 4 (2017) is McPhee’s book about the writing process — drawn from his decades of teaching at Princeton and writing for The New Yorker. Eight essays cover structure, leads, revision, the relationship between writer and editor, and the agonies of composition. The title essay argues that the fourth draft is where the writing finally becomes your own. The book is essential reading for anyone who writes non-fiction and the closest McPhee has come to autobiography — his accounts of working with New Yorker editor William Shawn are particularly illuminating.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this useful for fiction writers too? Much of it applies to any kind of writing — McPhee’s advice on structure, revision, and overcoming writer’s block is universal. The specifics about non-fiction research and fact-checking are obviously more specialized.