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William Zinsser

“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”

WILLIAM ZINSSER

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5.79K reads

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Rewriting is the essence of writing

Rewriting is the essence of writing

Professional writers rewrite their sentences over and over and then rewrite what they have rewritten.

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Writing well: getting to the point

Writers must constantly ask: "What am I trying to say?" Most of the time, they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: "Have I said it?"

If something isn’t important enough for your writing, then remove it. In fact, most ...

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Don’t inflate what needs no inflating

Clutter doesn’t make your writing stylish; in fact, trying too hard makes your writing seem fake.

Just write naturally and clearly; don’t try too hard with fancy words or complicated sentences that are just confusing.

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Writing well: the perfect ending

Writing well: the perfect ending

  • Give as much thought to choosing your last sentence as you did to your first.
  • Bring the story full circle: strike an echo of a note that was sounded at the beginning.
  • The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise...

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Eliminate words with no purpose

Eliminate words with no purpose

Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there.

Consider all the prepositions that are draped onto verbs that don’t need any help. Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that doesn’t serv...

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William Zinsser

“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.”

WILLIAM ZINSSER

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The principle of simplicity

There are many methods for writing nonfiction, but the most effective method is to find what works for you. Whatever helps you is the “right” way.

However, there are key principles to good writing, and one of them is simplicity. Writers often use complica...

1.77K

4.72K reads

Write for yourself

You can’t predict what people will want to read. So don't worry about pleasing others.

Don’t try to visualize your audience; every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read...

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William Zinsser

“Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.”

WILLIAM ZINSSER

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9.56K reads

William Zinsser

"But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.”

WILLIAM ZINSSER

1.77K

9.78K reads

Writing well: choosing the right words

  • Avoid at all costs the cliches of the thousands of writers who have gone before you.
  • When you’re choosing words and stringing them together, be aware of how they sound.
  • Use words you enjoy and that are vivid.

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The most important sentence in any writing: the first one

  • If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your work is dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until he is hooked, a writer constructs that fateful unit, the “lead.”
  • Do not count on the reader to st...

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Writing is learned by imitation

Writing is learned by imitation

"The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original."

Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters.

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4.03K reads

A reader's attention span

  • A reader's attention span is about 30 seconds. And this is usually a person assailed by many forces competing for attention.
  • In the past, those forces were relatively few: newspapers, magazines, radio, spouse, children, pets.
  • Today they also include multip...

1.69K

7.09K reads

Write in the first person

  • Writers at their most natural when they write in the first person.
  • Better to have an opinion and say 'I', 'we', 'us', 'me' than to take everything into a passive voice.
  • If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the fi...

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CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

mia_w

Social media lover and beer specialist. Love cats.

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Write A Book Using Positive Feedback Loop

  1. Plan to write one sentence a day for the next few days. It is an easy thing to do.
  2. Feel good about writing one sentence a day.
  3. When it becomes too easy, change it to two sentences a day.
  4. Focus on small victories and share them with others.
  5. If you get off-...

Multitasking: What We Know

Multitasking: What We Know

  • The ideal state of work is the ‘flow’ state, where we have a clear, long period of focussed work without any distraction.
  • Busy periods of multitasking are generally seen as something that hinders our performance and increases stress, with visible c...

Do We Have Enough White Space In Our Daily Routine?

Do We Have Enough White Space In Our Daily Routine?

Consider building a few white space blocks directly into our schedule weeks in advance so that no matter what meetings or deadlines come up, we still have time blocked off to take a few moments and think about the big picture — or think about nothing at all.

Because if we’re all get up and ...

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