7 Truths Writers Can Learn From Writer William Zinsser
“If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”
William Zinsser was a celebrated American writer known for his influential contributions to nonfiction writing.
His renowned book On Writing Well, published in 1976, remains a timeless guide for writers, emphasizing clarity, brevity, and the importance of finding one’s voice.
Zinsser’s career included journalism and teaching at Yale University, where he mentored numerous aspiring writers.
What can you learn from Zinsser? Probably more than you’ll ever need to know, but here are a few things that stood out to me…
1.
Good writing is good writing. No matter the genre. “If nonfiction is where you do your best writing or your best teaching of writing, don’t be buffaloed into the idea that it is an inferior species. Good writing is good writing, whatever form it takes and whatever we call it.”
2.
The right method is the one that works for you. “There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.”
3.
You can only write for yourself. “If you consciously write for a teacher or for an editor, you’ll end up not writing for anybody. If you write for yourself, you’ll reach the people you want to write for. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience — every reader is a different person.”
4.
The secret to memorable writing is knowing when to end the story. “When you’re ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit. The perfect ending should take your readers by surprise and yet seem exactly right. Knowing when to end an article is far more important than most writers realize.”
Many of these quotes and ideas come from William Zinsser’s remarkable book, On Writing Well. Buy your copy right here.
5.
Your first draft will never be perfect. “Writing is like a good watch — it should run smoothly and have no extra parts. Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost. That idea is hard to accept. We all have an emotional equity in our first draft; we can’t believe that it wasn’t born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn’t.”
6.
The writers who stick to their personal guns are inevitably the most relatable. “[Writers] are driven by a compulsion to put some part of themselves on paper, and yet they don’t just write what comes naturally. They sit down to commit an act of literature, and the self who emerges on paper is far stiffer than the person who sat down to write. The problem is to find the real man or woman behind the tension.”
7.
The solution is elimination. “Unfortunately, this solution is usually the last one that occurs to writers in a jam. 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 secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.”
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Want more? All of these quotes help make up my first book about the craft of writing, Ink by the Barrel — Secrets From Prolific Writers. Get your copy for free, right here.
