Towards a theory of writing

Thank you all for your good wishes on my previous post.  I'm back from a marathon weekend in Massachusettswith my independent editor.  We worked until two every morning going through the manuscript for Body Work, and all the flaws in it are now strictly of my own production.  While I was going through the text line by line, comparing what I'd written to how it had been rewritten, I realized I have a goal in my writing.

My desire is that the written word be transparent, so that the reader is...