Writing is selection.
I noted this last year in my review of John McPhee's Draft No. 4, a book filled with writing advice (see my book notes for more). As a middling writer, I'm not the one to assess it, but I'll endorse it.
However, he omitted a vital skill - discretion. Perhaps as a professional writer he became accustomed to outside help and forgot about discretion. Lucky me, I've been told this is among my rare skills, so I guess I didn't need to learn it from a book. Based on the past week, many do.
It can be the most thoughtful, truthful, and compelling piece of writing in world history. It can be a master class in the art of selection. But without discretion, without considering when to put your work into the world, it isn't writing.
Writing is selection, but so is discretion.
