Why I Pull My Punches
extramuros.substack.com
Why I Pull My Punches
And let readers form their own conclusions–-
“Always leave ‘em wanting more!”
Gypsy Rose Lee
The most interesting things about an article are new facts and fresh perspectives. The least interesting things are the introduction and the conclusion. (The same, by the way, is true of books.)
As the last two paragraphs are also the most difficult to write, I have come to believe that leaving them out preserves my time and energy for the discovery of new facts and the crafting of new perspectives.
So, when tucking into Extra Muros, or its saber-wielding sister, don’t be surprised if I skip the starters and skimp on dessert. It’s all for the sake of the big juicy steak I am serving up for the main course.
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I should steal this idea, though I'd like to add onto it. The introduction is always hard to revise, because writers often plan to go somewhere and then end up going somewhere else. So you have to go back and clean up the introduction to match the rest of the essay. But since you constructed the rest of the essay with the introduction in mind, you have to edit the whole thing to match or just scrap the introduction and start from scratch.
And titles. No working title survives to the final print.