Ever wondered what separates a professional writer from a casual one, or how a writer's unique voice is developed? How does simplicity play a vital role in writing and how can one effectively cut through the clutter? Curious about the challenges and rewards of nonfiction writing or the art of humor writing? Dive in and find out more.

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

A school in Connecticut once held a day dedicated to the arts, and William Zinsser, the author, was invited to talk about writing as a vocation. Another speaker, Dr. Brock, a surgeon turned writer, was also invited to discuss writing as an avocation. This turned the session into a panel discussion with students, teachers, and parents eager to learn about the writing process.

Dr. Brock, dressed in a bright red jacket, portrayed writing as fun and effortless, a way to unwind after a long day at the hospital. He believed that rewriting was unnecessary and that writers should let their words flow naturally. In contrast, Zinsser emphasized that writing is hard and lonely work, requiring constant rewriting and a strict schedule. Dr. Brock advised taking breaks when writing felt difficult, while Zinsser argued that a professional writer must write daily, regardless of mood.

Their differing perspectives offered the students a broader understanding of the writing process, highlighting that there is no single "right" way to write. Every writer has their unique methods, but all face the challenge of putting a part of themselves on paper. Ultimately, good writing stems from humanity and warmth, driven by a writer's passion and clarity.

Simplicity in writing is crucial. Clutter, the disease of American writing, weakens sentences with unnecessary words and jargon. Clear thinking leads to clear writing, and writers must strive to strip their sentences to their cleanest components. The goal is to communicate effectively without burdening the reader with excess verbiage.

Clutter manifests in various forms, from verbose corporate language to political euphemisms. Writers must be vigilant in eliminating unnecessary words and phrases, ensuring that every word serves a purpose. Simplify your writing to maintain clarity and strength.

Style, while essential, should not overshadow the writer's authentic voice. Stripping down writing to its essentials allows the writer's true identity to shine through. Good writing is an intimate transaction between the writer and the reader, and the most engaging writing comes from a place of honesty and personal connection.

Ultimately, writing is a craft that requires dedication, clarity, and a genuine connection with the reader. By embracing simplicity and authenticity, writers can create compelling and meaningful work.

Can Simplicity and Authenticity Turn Writing into an Art Form?

When you start writing, a key question arises: “Who am I writing for?” The answer is simple: write for yourself. Don’t worry about pleasing editors or predicting what readers want. If you enjoy what you write, others will too. This might seem contradictory because writers are also taught to consider their readers’ patience. The trick is mastering your craft to keep readers engaged while staying true to yourself creatively.

Take inspiration from writers like E.B. White who wrote passionately about his love for hens, or H.L. Mencken who fearlessly critiqued society. Mencken’s irreverent style made him influential, not because he catered to his audience, but because he wrote what he believed.

Similarly, James Herndon’s book on teaching in a junior high school captures the reality of classroom life with humor and authenticity. His unique voice demonstrates that writing for oneself can resonate deeply with readers.

Good writing also requires a respect for words. Avoid falling into the trap of "journalese"—clichés and lazy phrases commonly seen in newspapers and magazines. Instead, strive to choose words that are fresh and precise. Use dictionaries and thesauruses to expand your vocabulary and ensure you understand the nuances between synonyms.

Additionally, pay attention to the sound and rhythm of your sentences. Read your work aloud to catch any awkward phrasing. Writing is not just about conveying information; it’s about creating a musicality that resonates with readers.

Words and their usage evolve, and writers must navigate these changes thoughtfully. Some new words enrich the language, while others are unnecessary jargon. The American Heritage Dictionary’s Usage Panel, which includes writers and editors, offers guidance on which words to accept based on their usefulness and clarity.

In short, write with your own enjoyment in mind, master the technical aspects of writing to keep readers engaged, and choose your words with care and precision. Remember, you’re not just writing for others; you’re writing to express yourself.

Write for Yourself: Lessons from E.B. White and H.L. Mencken

You learn to write by writing. It’s a truism because it’s true. Regularly forcing yourself to produce words hones your skills, builds confidence, and helps identify common problems. Writing is about solving problems—whether it’s how to obtain facts, organize material, or decide on a tone or style. Sometimes you’ll feel stuck, but persistence pays off, much like a surgeon with experience.

Unity in writing is crucial. Decide on your pronoun (first, second, or third person), tense (past or present), and mood (casual or formal) and stick to them. Avoid mixing styles, which confuses readers. Travel writing often suffers from this, shifting between personal anecdotes and guidebook information. Instead, establish your unities before starting. Ask yourself who your audience is, what pronoun and tense you’ll use, and what attitude you’ll take toward the material. Decide how much to cover and what single point to make.

The most important sentence in any article is the first one—it must hook the reader. Leads vary in length; some are short, while others are longer. The key is to capture the reader’s curiosity and keep them reading. Provide hard details without dwelling on them and continue to build with each paragraph.

Endings are equally important. Don’t drag on—when you’re ready to stop, stop. A good ending should take the reader by surprise yet seem exactly right. Sometimes bringing the story full circle or using a memorable quotation works best.

Use active verbs and avoid unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. Be precise and concise. Prune out qualifiers that dilute your style. Keep paragraphs short to make your writing visually inviting and easier to read. Don’t overstate or inflate incidents for effect. Trust your material and let the facts speak for themselves. Write about what interests you—no subject is too specialized or quirky if you’re passionate about it.

Rewriting is essential. It’s where good writing becomes great. Edit your work to improve clarity, remove clutter, and ensure a logical flow. The computer is a valuable tool for rewriting, making it easier to rearrange and refine your work.

Ultimately, trust your material and your instincts. Write about what you care about, and your passion will engage your readers.

Can You Master the Art of Writing Like a Pro with These Essential Tips?

Long ago, Zinsser spoke at a writers' conference in Buffalo organized by dedicated women writers. They invited him to join a radio talk show to promote the event. 

During the show, the host, full of enthusiasm, asked for their thoughts on the state of literature and advice for aspiring writers. The women and Zinsser remained silent at first, as he clearly missed the mark on what they wanted to discuss. Their focus was the craft of writing, not the revered literary giants he mentioned. The radio show was awkward, but it highlighted a common issue nonfiction writers face: the struggle against the traditional notion that literature must be fiction.

Nonfiction has become the dominant form of writing today, evidenced by the shift in the Book-of-the-Month Club's selections from fiction to nonfiction after World War II. Americans became fact-minded, a trend seen in magazines like Life and The New Yorker, which published groundbreaking nonfiction pieces. Nonfiction writers like Lewis Thomas and Joan Didion are now celebrated for their ability to address contemporary issues with clarity and humanity.

Writing about people, especially through interviews, is a crucial skill for nonfiction writers. A good interview brings writing to life by capturing people's voices, inflections, and idiosyncrasies. The key is to get people talking and to weave their quotes into your narrative. Whether writing about a library, an auction house, or a book club, focusing on the human element makes the story engaging.

Conducting interviews requires preparation, sharp pencils, and the ability to make your subject comfortable. While tape recorders can be useful, they often malfunction and distract from the personal connection. Taking notes by hand, despite its challenges, keeps you in the moment and allows you to capture the essence of the conversation. After the interview, distill the most important and colorful quotes, ensuring you present your subject accurately and concisely.

The art of writing about places, including travel writing, involves capturing the central idea and distinctive traits of a location. Avoid clichés and focus on significant details that set the place apart. Writers like Joan Didion and John McPhee excel at using concrete details to evoke the essence of a place. Travel writing should offer readers something new and meaningful, drawing out the best of the location and, sometimes, the writer.

Memoir writing, a powerful form of nonfiction, allows writers to explore their personal histories and unique experiences. Unlike autobiography, which covers an entire life, memoir focuses on specific, intense periods. The best memoirs, like those by Eudora Welty, Alfred Kazin, and Maxine Kingston, use rich details and sensory impressions to create a vivid, immersive narrative.

Memoir also provides a way to make sense of cultural differences and personal identity. Writers like Enrique Hank Lopez and Lewis P. Johnson use memoir to explore their heritage and the challenges of being a newcomer in America. The key to a successful memoir is to write with confidence and focus on the details that move the story forward.

Ultimately, the best gift a memoirist can offer is the gift of themselves, sharing their unique perspective and experiences with honesty and vulnerability. Whether writing for a teacher, an editor, or oneself, the goal is to create a narrative that resonates with readers and offers a window into the writer's life.

Joan Didion & The Rise of Nonfiction: Crafting Reality with Humanity

Take a class of writing students and ask them to write about science, and you'll hear a collective groan. They fear science, convinced early on that they don't have "a head for science." Similarly, ask a chemist or engineer to write a report, and they'll panic, believing they lack "a gift for words."

These fears are unnecessary. Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything, including science. Zinsser's own fear of science stems from flunking chemistry, yet he learned that scientific material can be made accessible with clear, sequential writing.

Zinsser assigns his students to describe how something works—whether it's a sewing machine or why an apple falls. This forces them to organize their thoughts and convey them logically, a breakthrough for many. One student, initially struggling with fuzzy generalities, wrote a clear, logical explanation of fire extinguishers, transforming him into a sequential writer.

Science writing should start with one fact and build outwards, like an upside-down pyramid. An example is an article about a chimpanzee playing tic-tac-toe, which reveals insights into brain research. The writer starts with a simple fact and expands it to broader implications.

Personal experiences and human elements help demystify science. Will Bradbury, for example, connects readers to the complex subject of memory by recalling a childhood memory. Similarly, Berton Roueché's "Annals of Medicine" stories in The New Yorker are detective tales involving real people.

Relating abstract principles to familiar sights also aids understanding. Architect Moshe Safdie explains natural forms by comparing them to familiar plants and animals. Diane Ackerman makes the complex process of bat echo-location relatable with vivid examples.

Scientists like Loren Eiseley and Lewis Thomas wrote compellingly by being themselves, sharing their passions and knowledge in clear, engaging prose. They demonstrated that scientists can write as well as anyone, making science accessible and enjoyable.

Ultimately, clear scientific writing is essential for educated public choices in areas like health, environment, and technology. By writing clearly and personally, scientists and writers alike can bridge the gap between complex subjects and general understanding.

Can Scientists and Writers Bridge the Gap Between Complex Science and Clear Understanding?

As a kid, Zinsser's love for sports pages taught him about "circuit clouts" before he understood electrical circuits. He learned that a left-handed pitcher is a "southpaw" and that a batsman's success or failure on the field has its own unique language. Sports lingo, like "twin killing" or "flag scramble," fascinated him, but over time, the vividness of these terms faded due to overuse. 

Great sportswriters, like Red Smith, knew this and avoided clichés, opting instead for fresh, precise language. Smith’s humor and originality stood out in his columns, such as his witty take on sports commissioners and baseball overlords. His ability to write in good English, rather than relying on tired sports jargon, kept his work engaging for decades.

Many writers have explored sports deeply, using it as a lens to examine human nature. Books like John McPhee’s "Levels of the Game" and John Updike’s essay on Ted Williams’ final game dive into the lives and psyches of athletes. Updike’s portrayal of Williams highlighted the solitude of baseball, suggesting it suited a reclusive star like Williams.

Sportswriting also reflects broader societal changes. Issues like drug abuse, crowd violence, and financial seduction in athletics are hot topics. Coaches often earn more than educators, illustrating skewed priorities in education. The vast salaries and emotional turmoil of modern athletes often dominate sports news, overshadowing the actual games.

In humor writing, the goal is to highlight absurdities in life. For instance, Zinsser's piece on women wearing hair curlers everywhere used parody letters to a fictional magazine, "Haircurl," to make a point about this bizarre trend. Humorists like Joseph Heller and Stanley Kubrick used exaggeration to expose the lunacy of war in works like "Catch-22" and "Dr. Strangelove."

Humorists often tackle serious issues. Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam War policies were critiqued by humorists like Jules Feiffer and Art Buchwald. Today, humorists continue to address societal changes, like Garrison Keillor’s satirical take on the government bailout of savings-and-loan institutions using a historical narrative of barbarian invasions.

In essence, humorists are serious writers using wit to make important points. Mastering the craft of writing good English, they often find humor in universal truths. Whether it’s the daily life depicted in "Blondie" or the absurdities of bureaucracy, humor provides a fresh perspective, making us laugh while reflecting on deeper truths.

Red Smith's Timeless Wit: The Art of Fresh Sportswriting

Zinsser once wrote a book about baseball and another about jazz, both in his usual style. Despite their different subjects, he wanted readers to hear the same voice. As a writer, your unique voice is your commodity. Don't alter it to fit your subject; develop a voice that readers recognize and enjoy, avoiding breeziness, condescension, and clichés. 

E.B. White mastered a relaxed, conversational style that seems effortless but is meticulously crafted. His writing is disciplined, formal in grammar yet warm in tone. In contrast, "breezy" writing, which tries too hard to be casual and friendly, often comes across as crude and condescending, making it harder to read than well-constructed prose.

Taste in writing involves knowing what not to do, choosing words with surprise, strength, and precision over clichés and corny synonyms. Imitating writers with good taste can help you develop your own voice. Reading eloquent writers like White and listening to well-constructed speech, such as Governor Wilbur Cross’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, can teach us the importance of simplicity and timelessness in language.

Enjoyment in writing is crucial. Zinsser's dream was to be a newspaperman, inspired by the New York Herald Tribune, where writers conveyed a sense of fun and engagement. Writing with enjoyment, as S.J. Perelman emphasized, requires audacity and exuberance. Even if you’re not feeling good, you must create that feeling for your readers. Confidence in writing comes from writing about subjects you care about and finding connections to your own life.

Fear of writing, often instilled in school, can be overcome by rewriting and infusing your personality into your work. Nonfiction writers must meet high standards of accuracy and craft, but writing about topics that interest you can help build confidence. For instance, writing profiles on people you respect can convey enjoyment and authenticity.

A sense of process, rather than fixation on the final product, can liberate writers. In Zinsser's School course, he encouraged students to think deeply about their subjects and explore personal connections. This approach can lead to revelations and more meaningful stories.

Ultimately, writing is about intention. Whether affirming or debunking, your values shape your writing. By figuring out your goals and working with integrity, you create writing worth sharing.

Can E.B. White's Timeless Style Teach Us to Craft Authentic Writing?

Writing involves a series of decisions, both large and small, each crucial in its own way. Using his own piece, "The News From Timbuktu," as an example, Zinsser illustrates how these decisions unfold.

Beginning an article is often the hardest part. The lead must captivate the reader and keep them engaged. In "The News From Timbuktu," Zinsser starts with a striking image: the streets of Timbuktu covered in sand, symbolizing defeat and the city's edge-of-the-world feel. Simple, declarative sentences help convey this idea clearly and maintain reader interest.

As the narrative progresses, it's essential to weave in historical context and personal voice. For instance, Zinsser mentions that Timbuktu’s legend stems from its role as a trading hub where salt and gold were exchanged. This historical note is concise yet informative, giving readers just enough background without overwhelming them.

The personal touch comes through in anecdotes, like Zinsser's experience with the travel agency promising a grand salt caravan spectacle, which turned out to be a bit of a letdown. This mix of humor and skepticism shows Zinsser's personality and keeps the narrative engaging.

Choosing the right words is another critical aspect. For example, instead of saying, "we were in our fifties and sixties", Zinsser used "from late middle age to Medicare," adding a fresh twist to a mundane fact.

The story's structure is also vital. Using signposts like asterisks helps transition between sections smoothly, guiding the reader through different phases of the journey.

Ultimately, writing well means making deliberate choices, from the overall structure down to individual words. It requires a balance of clarity, engagement, and personal voice. As writers, our goal is to take readers on a journey, making each step seem inevitable and ensuring they stay with us until the end.

Crafting Timbuktu: The Art of Writing with Precision and Personality

Writing can take two distinct paths: one where it is treated as a fun, effortless hobby, and another where it is a disciplined, challenging vocation. While some may find joy in the spontaneity of writing without rigid rules, others view it as a demanding craft requiring daily commitment and continual refinement. 

Regardless of approach, writing fundamentally involves the challenge of articulating personal experiences and emotions clearly and honestly. Clarity and simplicity are essential, as cluttered writing can obscure meaning. Every word should serve a purpose, allowing the writer's authentic voice to shine through.

Understanding one's audience is crucial, yet writing primarily for oneself ensures authenticity, which naturally resonates with others. Rewriting and refining are indispensable parts of the process, enhancing clarity and coherence. Good writing emerges from a union of technical skill, personal connection, and dedication.

Nonfiction writing, particularly, has gained prominence, offering a platform for exploring human stories and societal issues. Through interviews and detailed observations, nonfiction writers capture the essence of people and places, making their narratives compelling. Memoirs provide a unique lens into personal and cultural histories, emphasizing the importance of details in storytelling.

Even in specialized writing, such as science or sports journalism, the goal remains to present complex information in an engaging, understandable manner. Humor, too, plays a vital role in writing, offering insights into human nature through wit and satire.

Ultimately, writing is about intention and making deliberate choices. It's a craft that demands passion, precision, and the courage to express one's true self while connecting with readers.

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On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

William Zinsser

9 Key ideas

25 MINS

4.8 (2.2k)

Ever wondered what separates a professional writer from a casual one, or how a writer's unique voice is developed?

How does simplicity play a vital role in writing and how can one effectively cut through the clutter?

Curious about the challenges and rewards of nonfiction writing or the art of humor writing?

Dive in and find out more.

Key Ideas

#1