This book is a frank demystification of the writing process that originated as a series of lectures given in 1969 to friends and other potential contributors to Rand's magazine, The Objectivist. 'Any person who can speak English grammatically can learn to write nonfiction,' Rand declares. All you need 'is what you need for life in general: an orderly method of thinking.' Rand values clarity above all else in nonfiction writing, and it is her own clearheadedness that makes this book appealing. Within these pages, Rand discusses subject and theme, audience, philosophy, outlines, writing, and editing. She takes swipes at The New Yorker for its ''brilliant' essays that say nothing,' and at William Buckley, whose 'trademark is to use words he probably spends half his time looking up in the dictionary.' She rails against disruptions ('When I was writing Atlas Shrugged, I accepted neither day nor evening appointments, with rare exceptions, for roughly thirteen years'). And she is an exacting taskmaster who demands that you not choose a lesser aspect of a subject than 'the deepest one that interests you and that you can do.' Finally, says Rand, you must write from a position of complete confidence and omnipotence. 'While you are writing,' she says, 'you must be God's perfect creature (if there were a God).' --Jane Steinberg