On Writing Well The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser offers 300 or so pages of some of the best writing advice I’ve ever come across.
I’ve read a lot of writing books, many of which I never even finished because, well, the writing just wasn’t that good.
This post may contain affiliate links meaning if you click them I could earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you!
quotes from on writing well by william zinger
While it may not be the latest, greatest, flashiest of books on writing well, Zinnser’s updated 30th Anniversary edition (originally published in 1976) is brimming with solid advice on basically all aspects of the writing process. Whenever I’ve been stuck writing an article, or feel like my writing and creativity are sliding into the murk, I pull this book out and re-read my favorite quotes.
This book won’t cure all your writing woes, but if you keep working at it and building on the advice, you’re probably going to be pleased with the results.
In a world where AI-driven content continues to gain a foothold, I find it refreshing to go back to basics. It’s not that I’m completely against AI writing or even using it to brainstorm ideas, organize thoughts, and generate content for general forms or other types of writing that don’t require an element of creativity.
Original sparks of creativity are still best sourced from the human mind.
Good writing usually looks easy, but the process to get there is rarely a smooth one. But that’s part of the journey and the growth. Without the first and second drafts, re-working the sentences until they say and sound exactly as you want, the magic gets lost.
So, if you’re not looking to take the easy way out by having a computer hive-mind do all the work and write for you, then give these quotes from On Writing Well by William Zinsser a read, and check out the book in its entirety when you really want to delve into the details.
65 Quotes from On Writing Well by William Zinsser With Page Numbers
Part I: Principles
1. “Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.” pg. 5, Chapter 1: The Transaction
2. “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.” pg. 5, Chapter 1: The Transaction
3. “Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.” pg. 6, Chapter 2: Simplicity
4. “But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.” pg. 6, Chapter 2: Simplicity
5. “Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” pg. 8, Chapter 2: Simplicity
6. “Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don’t know.” pg. 9, Chapter 2: Simplicity
7. “Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.” pg. 19, Chapter 4: Style
8. “Never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation. 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.” pg. 26, Chapter 5: The Audience
9. “You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive.” pg. 32, Chapter 6: Words
10. “Take the time to root around and find the ones [words] you want.” pg. 32, Chapter 6: Words
11. “Good writers of prose must be part poet, always listening to what they write.” pg. 36, Chapter 6: Words
Part II: Methods
12. “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.” pg. 49, Chapter 8: Unity
13. “Enthusiasm is the force that keeps you going and keeps the reader in your grip. When your zest begins to ebb, the reader is the first person to know it.” pg. 52, Chapter 8: Unity
14. “As for what point you want to make, every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before.” pg. 52, Chapter 8: Unity
15. “The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead.” pg. 54, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
16. “Therefore your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve.” pg. 55, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
17. “Make the reader smile and you’ve got him for at least one more paragraph.” pg. 55, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
18. “One moral of this story is that you should always collect more material than you will use.” pg. 58, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
19. “Another approach is to just tell a story. It’s such a simple solution, so obvious and unsophisticated, that we often forget that it’s available to us. But narrative is the oldest and most compelling method of holding someone’s attention; everybody wants to be told a story.” pg. 60, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
20. “The positive reason for ending well is that a good last sentence—or last paragraph—is a joy in itself. It gives the reader a lift, and it lingers when the article is over. 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. Like a good lead, it works.” pg. 64, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
21. “Something I often do in my writing is to bring the story full circle—to strike at the end an echo of a note that was sounded at the beginning. It gratifies my sense of symmetry, and it also pleases the reader, completing with its resonance the journey we set out on together.” pg. 65, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
22. “Surprise is the most refreshing element in nonfiction writing. If something surprises you it will also surprise—and delight—the people you are writing for, especially as you conclude your story and send them on their way.” pg. 66, Chapter 9: The Lead and the Ending
23. “Again and again in careless writing, strong verbs are weakened by redundant adverbs.” pg. 68, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
24. “Most adjectives are also unnecessary. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don’t stop to think that the concept is already in the noun. This kind of prose is littered with precipitous cliffs and lacy spiderwebs…This is adjective-by-habit—a habit you should get rid of. Not every oak has to be gnarled. The adjective that exists solely as decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader.” pg. 69, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
25. “Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be confused. Be tired. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.” pg. 70, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
26. “The large point is one of authority. Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader’s trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying. Don’t diminish that belief. Don’t be kind of bold. Be bold.” pg. 70, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
27. “There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough.” pg. 71, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
28. “If you want to write long sentences, be a genius. Or at least make sure that the sentence is under control from beginning to end, in syntax and punctuation, so that the reader knows where he is at every step of the winding trail.” pg. 71, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
29. “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. It announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.” pg. 73, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
30. “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. It announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.” pg. 74, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
31. “Always make sure your readers are oriented. Always ask yourself where you left them in the previous sentence.” pg. 74, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
32. “Let the humor sneak up so we hardly hear it coming.” pg. 77, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
33. “Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.” pg. 78, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
34. “Do I need it at all?” Probably you don’t. It was trying to do an unnecessary job all along—that’s why it was giving you so much grief. Remove it and watch the afflicted sentence spring to life and breathe normally. It’s the quickest cure and often the best.” pg. 79, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
35. “Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual—it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a long chunk of type can discourage a reader from even starting to read.” pg. 79, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
36. “Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost.” pg. 83, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
37. “You won’t write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process, not a finished product. Nobody expects you to get it right the first time, or even the second time.” pg. 84, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
38. “No subject is too specialized or too quirky if you make an honest connection with it when you write about it.” pg. 92, Chapter 10: Bits & Pieces
Part III: Forms
39. “Good writing is good writing, whatever form it takes and whatever we call it.” pg. 99, Chapter 11: Nonfiction as Literature
40. “Take heart. You’ll find the solution if you look for the human element.” pg. 101, Chapter 12: Writing About People: The Interview
41. “If you quote a person for three or four consecutive paragraphs it becomes monotonous. Quotes are livelier when you break them up, making periodic appearances in your role as guide. You are still the writer—don’t relinquish control.” pg. 110, Chapter 12: Writing About People: The Interview
42. “So when you write about a place, try to draw the best out of it. But if the process should work in reverse, let it draw the best out of you. One of the richest travel books written by an American is Walden, though Thoreau only went a mile out of town.” pg. 128, Chapter 13: Writing About Places: The Travel Article
43. “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. I set myself that challenge when I decided to write a book, American Places, about 15 heavily touristed, cliché sites that have become American icons or that represent a powerful idea about American ideals and aspirations.” pg. 129, Chapter 13: Writing About Places: The Travel Article
44. “Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.” pg. 136, Chapter 14: Writing About Yourself: The Memoir
45. “don’t strain for laughs; humor is built on surprise, and you can surprise the reader only so often.” pg. 213, Chapter 19: Humor
Part IV: Attitudes
46. “There is a kind of writing that sounds so relaxed that you think you hear the author talking to you.” pg. 231, Chapter 20: The Sound of Your Voice
47. “The common assumption is that the style is effortless. In fact the opposite is true: the effortless style is achieved by strenuous effort and constant refining.” pg. 232, Chapter 20: The Sound of Your Voice
48. “The grammar is formal, the words are plain and precise, and the cadences are those of a poet. That’s the effortless style at its best: a methodical act of composition that disarms us with its generated warmth. The writer sounds confident; he’s not trying to ingratiate himself with the reader.” pg. 232, Chapter 20: The Sound of Your Voice
49. “[T]aste is a quality so intangible that it can’t even be defined. But we know it when we meet it. A woman with taste in clothes delights us with her ability to turn herself out in a combination that’s not only stylish and surprising, but exactly right. She knows what works and what doesn’t.” pg. 233, Chapter 20: The Sound of Your Voice
50. “Taste chooses words that have surprise, strength and precision.” pg. 235, Chapter 20: The Sound of Your Voice
51. “[W]e assume that when they go to work the words just flow. Nobody thinks of the effort they made every morning to turn on the switch. You also have to turn on the switch. Nobody is going to do it for you.” pg. 243, Chapter 21: Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence
52. “Fear of writing gets planted in most Americans at an early age, usually at school, and it never entirely goes away. The blank piece of paper or the blank computer screen, waiting to be filled with our wonderful words, can freeze us into not writing any words at all, or writing words that are less than wonderful. I’m often dismayed by the sludge I see appearing on my screen if I approach writing as a task—the day’s work—and not with some enjoyment. My only consolation is that I’ll get another shot at those dismal sentences tomorrow and the next day and the day after. With each rewrite I try to force my personality onto the material. Probably the biggest fear for nonfiction writers is the fear of not being able to bring off their assignment.” pg. 243, Chapter 21: Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence
53. “Living is the trick. Writers who write interestingly tend to be men and women who keep themselves interested. That’s almost the whole point of becoming a writer. I’ve used writing to give myself an interesting life and a continuing education. If you write about subjects you think you would enjoy knowing about, your enjoyment will show in what you write. Learning is a tonic.” pg. 245, Chapter 21: Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence
54. “Learning how to organize a long article is just as important as learning how to write a clear and pleasing sentence. All your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don’t keep remembering that writing is linear and sequential, that logic is the glue that holds it together, that tension must be maintained from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next and from one section to the next, and that narrative—good old-fashioned storytelling—is what should pull your readers along without their noticing the tug. The only thing they should notice is that you have made a sensible plan for your journey. Every step should seem inevitable.” pg. 261, Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
55. “The hardest decision about any article is how to begin it. The lead must grab the reader with a provocative idea and continue with each paragraph to hold him or her in a tight grip, gradually adding information. The point of the information is to get readers so interested that they will stick around for the whole trip. The lead can be as short as one paragraph and as long as it needs to be. You’ll know it’s over when all the necessary work has been done and you can take a more relaxed tone and get on with your narrative.” pg. 262, Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
56. “In travel writing you should never forget that you are the guide. It’s not enough just to take your readers on a trip; you must take them on your trip.” pg. 264, Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
57. “Banality is the enemy of good writing; the challenge is to not write like everybody else.” pg. 266, Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
58. “No writing decision is too small to be worth a large expenditure of time. Both you and the reader know it when your finicky labor is rewarded by a sentence coming out right.” pg. 267, Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
59. “Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.” pg. 280, Chapter 23: A Writer’s Decisions
60. “Memories too often die with their owner, and time too often surprises us by running out.: pg. 282, Chapter 24: Writing Family History and Memoir
61. “Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and your readers will jump overboard to get away.” pg. 283, Chapter 24: Writing Family History and Memoir
62. “The small stories that still stick in your memory have a resonance of their own. Trust them.” pg. 292, Chapter 24: Writing Family History and Memoir
63. “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.” pg. 298, Chapter 25: Write as Well as You Can
64. “Writing well means believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel.” pg. 302, Chapter 25: Write as Well as You Can
65. “You will write only as well as you make yourself write.” pg. 302, Chapter 25: Write as Well as You Can
Related Posts:
You’re welcome. I’m glad it was helpful.
This was exactly what I needed to read today, thank you.