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The sound of the bat is the music of spring training.

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
Music
Bats
Spring
Training
Sound

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Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.
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Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.
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A writer is always working.
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The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.
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Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.
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Every time you look at a blank piece of paper, you're doing something new. You have to step onto that blank territory and remind yourself the sky didn't fall in the last time you wrote. Writing is a question of overcoming your fears-and everybody has them.
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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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Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to personalize the author.
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If writing seems hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things people do.
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Good writers are visible just behind their words.
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Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away.
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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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Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.
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Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
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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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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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You'll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. The English language is rich in strong and supple words. Take the time to root around and find the ones you want
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Writers must constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often, they don't know.
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Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy the choice is ours.
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