Quote

Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.

William Zinsser

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William Zinsser
Age: 92 †
Born: 1922
Born: October 7
Died: 2015
Died: May 12
Journalist
Literary Critic
Writer
New York City
New York
William Knowlton Zinsser
Still
Small
Theme
Saga
Self
Family
Findings
Themes
Writing
Bigs
Finding
Incidents
Think
Lives
Recognize
Contained
Thinking
Write
Memory
Contain
Stills
Reader
Vivid
Truth
Wind
Readers
Remember
Memories
Larger

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Finding a voice that your readers will enjoy is largely a matter of taste. Saying that isn't much help-taste is a quality so intangible that it can't even be defined. But we know it when we meet it.
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You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
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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 a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
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Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.
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Scholarship hath no fury like that of a language purist faced with sludge.
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Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.
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Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and an obstacle for the reader.
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Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
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Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. Be yourself when you write. 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.
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Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.
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Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.
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People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.
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The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.
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One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
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