“Dos” and “Don’ts”

DRAFT NO. 4

By John Mcfee

“Dos”

• Solve writer’s block by starting with a dear mom, dear dad, dear whomever, and then let your complaints and whatever needs to flow. You’ll find that you’ve actually written something you can use. Then delete the Dear whomever.
• One draft is never enough. Three to four times is better.
• Always revise your work.
• Persevere; don’t give up, and something will come.
• Right in a relaxed manner and (“don’ts”) don’t be overly self-conscious.
• Draw boxes around words that sound wrong because surely a better word exists.
• Being ambiguous isn’t always the best way. Try and be clear.

“Don’ts”

• Don’t linger. The words will come.
• Don’t always go for the complicated sounding word in the thesauruses because the meaning can be fussy; simple words can be better.
• Don’t just throw facts at the reader. A reader cannot digest too much information at once.
• Introduce a noun before you place “The” before it.