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...
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.
mistake corporations language
Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.
motivation faster spray
Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
weed fighting clutter
Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind,
dust want ifs
If you lose the dullards back in the dust, that's where they belong. You don't want them anyway.
reading writing next
Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author.
writing thinking talking
Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does - in his own words. His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land.
reading eye mind
Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.
dirty irony fitting
It is a fitting irony that under Richard Nixon, "launder" became a dirty word.