Tracks

Purpose

Find where the writing shows its tracks. Annie Dillard: "Process is nothing; erase your tracks." This skill hunts for the scaffolding still visible in a draft—the exploratory thinking, the arrival sequences, the "how I got here" that helped the writer but slows the reader.

Use this when:

A draft reads like a journey log instead of a destination
You can see the writer thinking on the page
Sections narrate the process of figuring something out rather than presenting what was found
The piece feels like it's warming up for too long before it arrives
You've revised heavily and want to check for leftover scaffolding

Invocation

/cw-tracks [text] — Find the tracks in the provided text
/cw-tracks — System asks "What needs its tracks erased?"
Works on selection if provided, asks if not

Track Types

Track	What It Looks Like	Why It Should Go
The Arrival Sequence	"After much research, I realized..." "It took me a while to see that..."	The reader doesn't need your travel itinerary. Start where you landed.
The Scaffolding	Transitional paragraphs that connect old thinking to new thinking.	These helped you build the argument. The argument can stand without them now.
The Thinking-Out-Loud	"What if we consider..." "One might wonder..." "This raises the question..."	You already answered the question. Just give the answer.
The Hedge Trail	"It seems like," "I think," "perhaps," "it's possible that" — accumulated over drafts.	Hedges multiply during revision. Most can go once you know what you believe.
The Deleted Argument's Ghost	A rebuttal to a point no longer in the piece. A transition to a section that was cut.	Old structure leaves phantom limbs. Find and amputate them.
The Discovery Narration	"I didn't expect to find..." "Surprisingly..." "What I learned was..."	The reader experiences discovery through the idea itself, not through being told you discovered it.
The Warm-Up	First 1-3 paragraphs that exist because the writer needed a running start.	Your real opening is buried somewhere in paragraph 3 or 4.
The Belt-and-Suspenders	Making the same point twice in different words, because you weren't sure the first version landed.	Trust your first swing. If it didn't land, fix it—don't repeat it.

The Dillard Test

For every passage, ask:

Is this here for the reader or for the writer?
Does this describe the process of thinking, or the thought itself?
If I cut this, would the argument still stand?
Is this the destination, or the road I took to get there?

If the passage is road, not destination—erase the track.

Output Format

## Track Report

**Tracks found:** [count]
**Severity:** [Light — a few fingerprints / Moderate — scaffolding visible / Heavy — the draft reads like a process log]

---

### The Tracks

1. **[Track type]** — [Location/quote]
   Why it's showing: [Brief explanation]
   Erase it by: [Specific suggestion]

2. **[Track type]** — [Location/quote]
   Why it's showing: [Brief explanation]
   Erase it by: [Specific suggestion]

[Continue for each track found]

---

### The Warm-Up Check

**Does the real piece start where the draft starts?**
[Yes / No — the piece actually begins at: "[quote from where the real opening lives]"]

---

### The Clean Version

[Rewrite of the most track-heavy section with tracks erased]

---

**What changed:**
- [How erasing tracks improved the passage]

Is the path clear now, or are there tracks I missed?

Principles

Process is nothing; erase your tracks — The reader should experience the destination, not the journey you took to find it.
The writer's discovery is not the reader's discovery — You found the insight by wandering. The reader should find it by being led.
Scaffolding is for building, not for living in — Once the structure stands, take down the scaffolding.
Trust arrival — If you've arrived at a strong point, you don't need to narrate the arrival.
Revision leaves residue — Every round of revision can leave traces of earlier versions. The last pass should clean the glass.

The Box Canyon

Dillard describes writing as following a path into a box canyon—you dispatch reports from new territory. The reports are the writing. The path you took to get there is not. If your draft reads like a trail map, you're publishing the wrong thing.

Lessons

[Skill-specific lessons will be added here as they're captured]

cw-tracks