On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction - By William Zinsser
Date read: 2016-12-18How strongly I recommend it: 8/10
(See my list of 150+ books, for more.)
Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.
Great book on best practices for writing non-fiction, including basic writing and grammer skills.
Contents:
- PRINCIPLES
- METHODS
- WRITING ABOUT PEOPLE
- WRITING ABOUT PLACES
- WRITING ABOUT YOURSELF
- SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- BUSINESS WRITING
- ATTITUDES
My Notes
Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next.
The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
Ask yourself: What am I trying to say? Have I said it?
Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve a purpose.
You have to strip your writing down before you can build it back up.
Be yourself.
I urge people to write in the first person: to use "I" and "me" and "we" and "us."
If you aren't allowed to use "I," at least think "I" while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the "I"s out. It will warm up your impersonal style.
"Who am I writing for?" You're writing for yourself.
Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation.
Care deeply about words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply.
Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters.
Get in the habit of using dictionaries and get yourself a dictionary of synonyms.
The Thesaurus is to the writer what a rhyming dictionary is to the songwriter.
Sound and rhythm should go into everything you write. Read sentences aloud.
Be liberal in accepting new words and phrases, but conservative in grammer.
Unity is the anchor of good writing:
Ask yourself the basic questions before you start:
Think small and decide what corner of your subject you're going to bite off, and content to cover it well and stop.
Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before. Just one.
The most important sentence in any article is the first one.
Collect more material than you will use and look for your material everywhere, not just by reading the obvious sources and interviewing the obvious people.
Just tell a story and always look for ways to convey your information in narrative form.
If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
What usually works best is to close with a quotation.
Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb ("Joe saw him" is strong. "He was seen by Joe" is weak).
Most adverbs are unnecessary. You will clutter your sentence and annoy the reader if you choose a verb that has a specific meaning and then add an adverb that carries the same meaning (e.g. "effortlessly easy").
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.
Make your adjectives do work that needs to be done. ("He looked at the gray sky and the black clouds and decided to sail back to the harbor.")
Prune out the small words that qualify how you feel and how you think and what you saw: "a bit," "a little," "pretty much," etc.
Good writing is lean and confident. It's the short sentence that predominates.
Don't use the exclamation point unless you must to achieve a certain effect.
Resist using an exclamation point to notify the reader that you are making a joke or being ironic.
Learn to alert the reader as soon as possible to any change in mood from the pervious sentence (but, yet, however).
Often a difficult problem in a sentence can be solved by simply getting rid of it.
Keep your paragraphs short.
Your job is to present the colorful fact.
Don't annoy your readers by over-explaining.
Learn how to conduct an interview.
Never go into an interview without doing whatever homework you can.
Consider using a tape recorder in situations where you might violate the cultural integrity of the people you're interviewing.
Your ethical duty to the person being interviewed is to present his position accurately. After that, your duty is to the reader.
When you get people talking, handle what they say as you would handle a valuable gift.
Choose your words with unusual care and eliminate every fact that is a known attribute (e.g. the sea had waves and the sand was white).
Your main task as a travel writer is to find the central idea of the place you're dealing with.
Let it draw the best out of you.
To write a good memoir you must become the editor of your own life.
Memoir is the art of inventing the truth. One secret of the art is detail.
The crucial ingredient in memior is people.
Imagine science writing as an upside-down pyramid. Start at the bottom with the one fact a reader must know before he can learn any more. The second sentence broadens what was stated first, making the pyramid wider, and the third sentence broadens the second, so that you can gradually move beyond fact into significance and speculation - how a new discovery alters what was known, what new avenues of research it might open, where the research might be applied. There's no limit to how wide the pyramid can become, but your readers will understand the broad implications only if they start with one narrow fact.
Always start with too much material. Then give your reader just enough.
Four articles of faith: calrity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity.
"I" is the most interesting element in any story.
Don't alter your voice to fit yoru subject.
Write with respect for the English language at its best - and for readers at their best. If you're smitten by the urge to try the breezy style, read what you've written aloud and see if you like the sound of your voice.
Knowning what not to do is a major component of taste.
Cliches are the enemy of taste.
The reader has to feel that the writer is feeling good. Even if he isn't.
One way to generate confidence is to write about subjects that interest you and that you care about.
Think broadly about your assignment and bring some part of your own life to it; it's not your version of the story until you write 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.
Never be afraid to break a long sentence into two short ones, even three.
After every sentence ask yourself, "What do your readers want to know next?"
The challenge is to not write like everybody else.