How this is made
Eleven hours, of which about one is writing
Readers occasionally ask how long these take. Nine hours of reading and visiting, one of writing, and one of cutting the first draft roughly in half.
The reading
About nine hours across a month, mostly in the record office and on foot. Very little of it appears directly in the letter.
The writing
One sitting, usually a Sunday morning, about ninety minutes. It comes out badly and roughly the right shape.
The cutting
An hour, and it removes about forty percent. Almost all of what goes is the part where I explain how much research I did.
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