Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy?
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously resist explaining why the material is so moving.
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
I almost always urge people to write in the first person. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
There are many good reasons for writing that have nothing to do with being published. Writing is a powerful search mechanism, and one of its satisfactions is to come to terms with your life narrative. Another is to work through some of life’s hardest knocks—loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure—and to find understanding and solace.
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
As a writer you must keep a tight rein on your subjective self—the traveler touched by new sights and sounds and smells—and keep an objective eye on the reader.
Goodreads.com. (2019). William Zinsser Quotes (Author of On Writing Well). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7881675.William_Zinsser [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
