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Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.

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
Habit
Learned
Written
Reading
Today
Writing
Make
Imitation

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There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.
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Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.
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Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.
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Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and will shed the skin of the writer you imitated.
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A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.
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The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do.
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Be grateful for every word you can cut.
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Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.
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If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.
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Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . 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.
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Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there.
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All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.
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Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso they needed models. This is especially true of writing.
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Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before. Not two thoughts, or five - just one. So decide what single point you want to leave in the reader's mind.
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Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
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Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.
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Writing is a craft not an art.
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All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.
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When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
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Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
William Zinsser