William Zinsser
William Zinsser
William Knowlton Zinsserwas an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic and editorial writer. He was a longtime contributor to leading magazines...
anything-goes world
Never let anything go out into the world that you don't understand.
being-yourself writing say-anything
Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. Be yourself when you write. If you're not a person who says 'indeed' or 'moreover,' or who calls someone an individual ('he's a fine individual'), please don't write it.
toms
Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.
trying today routine
Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.
reading cutting trying
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.
successful two mind
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. So decide what single point you want to leave in the reader's mind.
reading writing white
Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.
eloquence transactions invites
Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.
reading writing men
Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I'd say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it.
errors marketing vagueness
Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.
hard-work writing simple
A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.
trying knows asks
Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
hard-work writing hard
Writing is hard work.
being-yourself writing trying
Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.