My commodity as a writer, whatever I'm writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don't alter your voice to fit the subject. Develop one voice that readers will recognize when they hear it on the page, a voice that's enjoyable not only in its musical line but in its avoidance of sounds that would cheapen its tone: breeziness and condescension and clichés.

William Zinsser

Categorized in : Writing Voice Musical

Writing is thinking on paper.

William Zinsser

paper writing thinking

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. It's one of the hardest things that people do

William Zinsser

hard-work writing people

Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.

William Zinsser

reading easy writing

Writing is not a special language that belongs to a few sensitive souls who have a 'gift for words'. Writing is the logical arrangement of thought. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly---about any subject at all.

William Zinsser

soul writing thinking

Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

William Zinsser

simplicity writing inspirational

Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get to Sentence Z. The hard part of writing isn't the writing; it's the thinking. You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: What does the reader need to know next?

William Zinsser

doe writing thinking

One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.

William Zinsser

narrative shapes writing

Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.

William Zinsser

style writing people

You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?

William Zinsser

doe writing needs

Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.

William Zinsser

competition writing trying

If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.

William Zinsser

nails house fall

Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.

William Zinsser

purpose paper numbers

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

William Zinsser

soon-enough enough said

Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

William Zinsser

jargon disease writing

Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.

William Zinsser

eye reading mind

If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.

William Zinsser

want writing people

If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.

William Zinsser

perfection writing people

Writing is a craft not an art.

William Zinsser

writing inspirational art

To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.

William Zinsser

marketing alive writing

But nothing has replaced the writer. He or she is still stuck with the same old job of saying something that other people will want to read.

William Zinsser

old-job jobs people