I wanted to learn more about writing so I picked up a copy of the highly-recommended On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I thought I’d be set after reading the book, but soon came across his opening sentence of Part Two:

You learn to write by writing. It’s a truism, but what makes it a truism is that it’s true. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.

So much for a formal education. Having said that, the book is definitely worth reading - it’s easy to read, has really good lessons, and lots of examples.

Lessons

Here are nine takeaways to become a better writer:

  1. Writing is learned by imitation. If you want to get better at writing, read more and pay attention to the author’s style
  2. “Unity is the anchor of good writing.” If you’re writing in the first person, stick to it. If you’re writing in the past tense, stick to it.
  3. A good article leaves the reader with one provocative thought.
  4. Use active verbs unless there isn’t another choice. For example, “Joe saw him” is much stronger than “he was seen by Joe”, and easier for readers to process.
  5. Use short sentences. Break up longer sentences into two or three separate ones to ease understanding. Use short paragraphs to make your writing visually appealing.
  6. Most adverbs are unnecessary since the verb carries the entire meaning. Many adverbs are now common and redundant - for example, “clenching teeth tightly”. Tightly is redundant - there is no other way to clench teeth.
  7. Remove qualifiers since “good writing is lean and confident”. Examples of qualifiers: a bit, sort of, quite, rather, very. Instead of saying you’re a bit confused, just say you’re confused. It’s more confident.
  8. Add people to liven up your writing, instead of writing in the abstract. This could be as simple as saying ‘the author said.’
  9. If you’re having trouble with a sentence, remove it

Reflections

The book is filled with examples and is really interesting to read as you get to see small snippets from some of the best writing Zinsser’s come across. He also brings in a few examples of poor writing and suggests improvements.

My favourite chapter is called A Writer’s Decisions. Here, Zinsser talks us through an article he wrote for Condé Nast Traveler about a trip to Timbuktu. There are a few paragraphs of the article, followed by Zinsser’s commentary on his decisions whilst writing them, and then a few more paragraphs from the article…

The chapter focuses on how to organise a long article as well as pay attention to the small decisions. He starts by talking about the importance of the lead and points out which paragraphs build tension, which ones relieve it, and how they’re linked. For important sentences, he also discusses the words he used and why he discarded their synonyms.

Overview

Here’s a quick summary of the four parts of the book.

Part One (Principles)

This is a general introduction to writing. Zinsser covers topics such as: what writing is, paying attention to the audience, keeping writing simple, and removing clutter. He calls clutter the ‘disease of American writing.’

Part Two (Methods)

This deals with grammar and style points. I’ve listed many of these above in ‘Lessons’.

Part Three (Forms)

This part focuses on different types of nonfiction writing: interviews, travel, memoirs, science and technology, sports, arts, humour, and business.

These were fun to read, and Zinsser goes through important aspects to highlight when writing for different purposes. It’s a part of the book that I’ll come back to when needed.

The chapter on travel writing was an interesting one; his tip was to focus on the details that make a place distinctive. He insists on not stating the obvious. For example, don’t mention the sand on the beach was white, or the sky blue, or the temperature mild. Looking past the obvious will not only help your writing - it will also enrich your travel experience.

Part Four (Attitudes)

The fourth part is more exploratory and deals with some of the challenges you’ll face as you become a better writer. One of my takeaways is to focus on the process, rather than obsessing with the final product. He questions whether to adapt the sound of your voice when writing about different topics - his answer is no: your ‘voice’ should be distinctive.

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