On Writing Well was the right book for me to read at this point in my writing journey. I’ve spent a few months putting pen to paper, and now it’s time to take a step back and be deliberate about what I’m doing. How I choose my language, subjects and tone. At it’s core, that is what Zinsser’s book does, and it does it very effectively.
Principles
The first section of the book is all about the basics. What is good writing? “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. It’s a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.” Achieving that clarity is an arduous task. “Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident… If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.” The bottom line is that writing is does not need to sound educated, or be particularly stylish – it needs to convey its point in a way that holds the reader’s attention.
Methods
The next part covers tools of good writing. Writers first need to ensure their piece has unity: unity of pronoun (first person, third person etc…), unity of tense (we went, we go etc…) and unity of tone (formal/informal). The key here is to choose what works with your subject and stick to it – anything different throws off the reader.
A piece of non-fiction also needs a great lead. “The most important sentence in any article is the first one.” The lead draws a reader in, and subsequent sentences build upon the first. Here is a great example from Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker: “If I get addicted to vaping, I thought, in March, I will always remember this Texas strip mall.” As Zinsser puts it, “readers want to know – very soon – what’s in it for them.”
The ending is similarly important: “The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right. They didn’t expect the article to end so soon, or so abruptly, or to say what it said. But they know it when they see it… When you’re ready to stop, stop.”
Then Zinsser wraps up the section with some miscellaneous (but important) guidelines:
“Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb.”
“Again and again in careless writing, strong verbs are weakened by useless adverbs.”
“Most adjectives are also unnecessary… precipitous cliffs and lacy spiderwebs.”
“Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be confused. Be tired.”
“Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with ‘but’… If that’s what you learned, unlearn it – there’s no stronger word at the start.”
“Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual.”
“Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost.”
Forms
Part Three of On Writing Well breaks down how to write effectively about a variety of subjects and fields: people, places, business, science, sports, the arts. There is a lot of great material here, but nothing that can be adequately summarized, or be of much use after just one read. This is a manual, after all, and I will come back to consult this section anytime I write in one of the genre’s Zinsser covers.
Travel: “Never be afraid to write about a place that you think has had every last word written about it. It’s not your place until you write about it.”
Business: “Countless careers rise and fall on the ability or the inability of employees to state a set of facts, summarize a meeting or present an idea coherently.”
The Arts: “Critics should like – or, better still, love – the medium they are reviewing. If you think movies are dumb, don’t write about them.”
Attitudes
The final section of the book is on the intangibles. Stay true to your voice. Enjoy the subjects you write about and your writing will be enjoying to read. Write without worrying about the final product. Finally this:
“Where, then, is the edge? Ninety percent of the answer lies in the hard work of mastering the tools discussed in this book. Add a few points for such natural gifts as a good musical ear, a sense of rhythm and a feeling for words. But the final advantage is the same one that applies in every other competitive venture. If you would like to write better than everybody else, you have to want to write better than everybody else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft.”
Afterword
I love books like On Writing Well because their message is nothing special. I don’t need to be told not to start a sentence with the word however, because it “hangs there like a wet dishrag.” I know those sentences sound bad. But, like any good self-improvement book, the simplest messages and strategies are the ones I need repeated, over and over until they come second nature. That is what Zinsser does so well, and it’s why I will revisit this book many times in the future.