Drafting in Reverse

This is how he wrote:

He would select a volume from his bookshelf. He would open it to the last page. He would then copy out the last sentence and then the sentence before that. He would then copy out the sentence prior to that and again the one before that. He would do that until he had a page or two of text.

Putting the book away, he would take the one or two pages of text and place it on his desk. He would say to himself, “what do we have here?” or perhaps, “What poor soul wrote this drivel?”

Treating the text as if it were a short story handed in by a student he would write excoriating comments in the margins with a red pen. He would circle phrases in red: lazy metaphor, vague emotion, cowardly syntax. In the margins, he would scrawl Try again with courage.

The following day he would take the papers in hand just as if he were a young student being handed back a homework assignment. With tears in his eyes, he would read the harsh criticisms. He would sit in the same chair, unfold the same pages, and read the wounds he’d inflicted. He would nod, chastened. He would whisper, “Yes, yes, you’re right.” He would take them to heart and completely rewrite the pages, hoping the result would please his professor.