To inspire and motivate myself as I prepare to write a book this summer, I reread some of William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. I’ve pulled out ten of my favorite quotes to share with you:
- “Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.”
- “Clutter is the disease of American writing.”
- “Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds–the writer is always slightly behind.”
- “Be yourself when you write.”
- “Every writing project must be reduced before you start to write.”
- “Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before. Not two thoughts, or five–just one.”
- “Surprisingly often a difficult problem in a sentence can be solved by simply getting rid of it.”
- “Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost.”
- “You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft.”
- “Writing well means believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel. You will write only as well as you make yourself write.”
That last point could apply to almost any work: “Working well means believing in your work and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel. You will work only as well as you make yourself work.”
5 Comments
Hi Anne,
Just a quick thought on #8.
You have to know when to release here. I’ve known people who could never complete anything because they were caught in a mental whirlpool of rewrites. They were never finished.
But this comment is….
I was just thinking how much of this is applicable to painting as well. I love when wisdom crosses barriers like that!
Anne,
I’m going to break the rules, since I’ve got two points to make:
1. You turned me on to Zinsser and I’m forever grateful
2. I like the new theme. Is Anne 2.1 “green” now?
Cheers!
Zinsser is great. I loved his book. If you liked “On Writing Well” you may also want to check out “Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace” by Joseph M. Williams. Style is by far the best book on writing I’ve ever worked with because it goes into specific detail about /how/ to write clearly. Good luck writing your book!
Anne-
It’s great you’re drawing attention to Zinsser. Your readers might be interested that his book, On Writing Well, is part of the care-package O’Reilly (intelligently) gives to all their writers upon contract acceptance. I still have my copy…
…right up there on the shelf next to 4 copies of various editions in various states of dog-earedness (including my father’s 1950 edition) of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style. (Dad & EoS were fit company; he’s a man of few words.)
EoS, it’s the Font of Wisdom, the Fountain of Youth, the Charlotte’s Web, the Tom Sawyer and the foundation upon which Zinsser adds a great deal. I’m surprised to be the first here to mention it. Both, together, are to be taken for a lifetime of Obsessive-Compulsive iteration of an expressive & fitting style.
The beauty of EoS is that — being only a 1/2-inch thick (in hardcover) — it follows its own advice — the bit about omitting needless words.
There now, I’ve gone on way too long…