This tid bit is from Forbes magazine about an article in the New Yorker and now third hand to you:TECH | 11/11/2011 @ 7:51AM |95 views How To Pick Which Stories To Tell 1 comments, 1 called-out + Comment now In the Nov. 14 issue of The New Yorker, John McPhee writes an essay on how and what he writes. One of the gems in the master’s piece, and it’s a good piece, is when he gives the what. How does he choose what to write about, of all the streaming possibilities? It’s the question always asked at readings. Many writers cringe when asked. But people demand to know because it must be some talismanic thing that separates the good storytellers from the bad ones. McPhee has a simple answer to end all answers: I once made a list of all the pieces I had written in maybe twenty or thirty years, and then put a check mark beside each one whose subject related to things I had been interested in before I went to college. I checked off more than ninety per cent. Beginner’s mind, people. Beginner’s mind. My Progression as a writer, by John McPhee (Nov. 14, 2011 New Yorker, reg required)