PG's essay on essays helped me a lot when I was stagnating. particularly his metaphor of a river. looking at the overall flow of a piece and shaping it with editing has immensely improved my writing. I now enjoy deciding whether to make an essay inductive or deductive, and playing with the order in which I introduce things to create weird effects (used a lot by one of my favorites Douglas Adams).

I've come to value structuring an argument so that it mimics the process of reaching the conclusion.

For example, I might write an essay on gender. When I start, I might think that there are two genders: male and female. By the end, I might have concluded that gender is meaningless. If I stopped there, my essay would be: gender is meaningless because a, b and c.

However, I find it more interesting to rewrite and end up with a journey through my abandoned conclusions. This allows the reader to reason along with me as they read, thus strengthening my conclusion. For example:

1. There are two genders: male and female because a and b.

2. a and b are faulty because c and d. Gender as a continuum between male and female fits with c and d.

3. c and d are unsound because e and f and g. Gender as a vector of n points on n continuums might work.

4. ...