William Zinsser - On Writing Well (1976)

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Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author.

William Zinsser
Probably the finest travel book ever written by an American is Walden, though Thoreau only went a mile out of town.

William Zinsser
All your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don't keep remembering that writing is linear and sequential, that logic is the glue that holds it together, that tension must be maintained from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next and from one section to the next, and that narrative—good old-fashioned storytelling—is what should pull your readers along without their noticing the tug.

William Zinsser
The Exclamation Point. Don't use it unless you must to achieve a certain effect. It has a gushy aura, the breathless excitement of a debutante commenting on an event that was exciting only to her.

William Zinsser
A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.

William Zinsser
Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.

William Zinsser
I almost always urge people to write in the first person. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

William Zinsser
Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and an obstacle for the reader.

William Zinsser
Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.

William Zinsser
Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver—words like enthralling and luminous.

William Zinsser
I try to make what I have written tighter, stronger and more precise, eliminating every element that's not doing useful work. Then I go over it once more, reading it aloud, and am always amazed at how much clutter can still be cut.

William Zinsser
If you lose the dullards back in the dust, that's where they belong. You don't want them anyway.

William Zinsser
The Period. There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

William Zinsser
You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want

William Zinsser
My roster of the new literature, in short, would include all the writers who come bearing new information and who present it with vigor, clarity and humanity.

William Zinsser
Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.

William Zinsser
There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart... because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.

William Zinsser
Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.

William Zinsser