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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.

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
Weak
Fall
Rickety
House
Syntax
Verbs
Nails
Collapse
Sentences
Apart

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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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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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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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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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Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.
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A clear sentence is no accident.
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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.
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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.
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Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.
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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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Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.
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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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Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Proceed with confidence, generating it, if necessary, by pure willpower. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.
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Writing is a craft not an art.
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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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People read with their ears, whether they know it or not.
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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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Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.
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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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Much of my writing has taken the form of a pilgrimage: to sacred places that represent the best of America, to musicians and other artists who represent the best of their art.
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