The Only Writing Handbook You Need
The introduction’s first pages speak of Zinsser meeting young reporters who were given the book by editors, just as those editors were first given the book by the editors who hired them. A book that is passed on is a hallmark in itself, and the ideas it portrays are a testament to that.
Interested in the first read? Check out the last book review of On Writing Well here.
Upon reading all of it, I found myself revisiting this statement because I, too, am someone who is looking to dissect this book. Although clear and concise, multiple read-throughs will cement these ideas further, + it’s a great reminder throughout any writer’s life.
What does the book cover?
The book has 4 sections:
Principles: the bread and butter of writing.
Methods: the connection of writing fluidly.
Forms: different nonfiction articles of writing.
Attitudes: what to keep in mind as you write.
The chapters range from a few pages to 20-30 pages. It’s a variety that keeps you on your toes. Not with fluff, but with key details that keep you on one storyline.
Feel
Whether you’re starting with writing or a seasoned veteran, this book is a bible of a writing book. Each chapter is timeless. Granted, some you may skip in forms due to the relevance of your needs. Check out the book quotes after the rating for an idea of what Zinsser’s writing is like.
Rating
My past rating:
timelessness (5/5)
clarity (4.5/5)
entertainment (3.5/5)
education (4/5)
Overall, a ~4/5 read.
My updated rating:
timelessness (5/5)
clarity (5/5)
entertainment (4/5)
education (5/5)
Overall (5/5)
The entertainment is still a bore with some of the Form chapters, but everything else is up there. Do I think it could be catered to my own liking more? Sure, but its message to the target audience makes it a strong candidate for 5 stars through & through.
If you’re interested in another book like it, I’d recommend checking out Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
Book Quotes
Introduction
“Good writers welcomed the gift of being able to fuss endlessly with their sentences–pruning and revisiting and reshaping–without the drudgery of retyping. Bad writers became even more verbose because writing was suddenly so easy and their sentences looked so pretty on the screen.” – pg. Xii
Part I: Principles
The Transaction
“Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about but who he or she is.” – pg. 5
Simplicity
“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.” – pg. 6
“The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” – pg. 8
Clutter
“Read the sentence without the bracketed material and see if it works.” – pg. 16
Style
“The point is that you have to strip your writing down before you can build it back up.” – pg. 18
“If you aren’t allowed to use ‘I,’ at least think ‘I’ while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the ‘I’s’ out. It will warm up your impersonal style.” – pg. 21
“Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.” – pg. 23
The Audience
“Relax and say what you want to say.” – pg. 25
Words
“The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original.” pg. 34
“An occasional short sentence can carry a tremendous punch. It stays in the reader’s ear.” – pg. 36
Usage
“What is good usage? One helpful approach is the separate use of jargon.” – pg. 44
Part II: Methods
Unity
“All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.” – pg. 49
“Unity is the anchor of good writing.” – pg. 50
“How much do I want to cover? What one point do I want to make?” – pg. 52
“Every writing project must be reduced before you start to write.” – pg. 52
The Lead and the Ending
“Knowing when to end an article is far more important than most writers realize. You should give as much thought to choosing your last sentence as you did to your first.” – pg. 63
“The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.” – pg. 64
“What delights us is the playwright’s perfect control. For the nonfiction writer, the simplest way of putting this info into a rule is: when you're ready to stop, stop.” – pg. 64
“If something surprises you it will also surprise – and delight – the people you are writing for, especially as you conclude your story and send them on their way.” – pg. 66
Bits & Pieces
“Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb…it leaves no doubt about who did what.” – pg. 67
“Verbs are the most important of all your tools. They push the sentence forward and give it momentum.” – pg. 68
“Most adverbs are unnecessary…Most adjectives are also unnecessary,.” – pg. 69
“Don’t be kind of bold. Be bold.” – pg. 70
“Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual–-it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.” – pg. 79
“Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost. That idea is hard to accept.” – pg. 83
“You won’t write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process, not a finished product. Nobody expects you to get it right the first time, or even the second time.” – pg. 84
“Read your article aloud from beginning to end, always remembering where you left the reader in the previous sentence.” – pg. 86
“If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.” – pg. 91
Part III: Forms
Nonfiction as Literature
“Good writing is good writing, whatever form it takes and whatever we call it.” – pg. 99
Writing about People: The Interview
“To learn the craft of nonfiction you must push yourself out into the real world–your town or your city or your county–and pretend that you’re writing for a real publication.” – pg. 104
“Writing is a public trust…When you get people talking, handle what they say as you would handle a valuable gift.” – pg. 115
Writing about Places: The Travel Article
“Your main task as a travel writer is to find the central idea of the place you’re dealing with.” – pg. 122
“But whatever place you write about, go there often enough to isolate the qualities that make it distinctive.” – pg. 126
Writing about Yourself: The Memoir
“If you write for yourself, you’ll reach the people you want to write for.” – pg. 134
“EXCESSIVE WRITING ABOUT YOURSELF CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO THE HEALTH OF THE WRITER AND THE READER.” – pg. 134
“Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.” – pg. 136
“But the most interesting character in a memoir, we hope, will turn out to be the person who wrote it.” – pg. 144
“Give yourself permission to write about yourself, and have a good time doing it.” – pg. 146
Science and Technology
“Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all.” – pg. 147
“A tenet of journalism is that ‘the reader knows nothing.’” – pg. 148
“Any subject can be made clear and robust by all you writers who think you’re afraid of science and all you scientists who think you’re afraid of writing.” – pg. 164
Business Writing: Writing in Your Job
“What I realized was that most executives in AMerica don’t write what appears over their signature or what they say in their speeches. They have surrendered the qualities that make them unique.” – pg. 176
Sports
“Remember that athletes are men and women who become part of our lives during the season, acting out our dreams or filling some other need for us, and we want that bond to be honored.” – pg. 183
“If you want to write about sports remember that the men and women you’re writing about are doing something immensely difficult, and they have their pride. You, too, are doing a job that has its codes of honor. One of them is that you are not the story.” – pg. 186
Writing about the Arts: Critics and Columnists
“This is criticism at its best: stylish, allusive, disturbing. It disturbs us–as criticism often should–because it jogs a set of beliefs and forces us to reexamine them.” – pg. 201
Humor
“Finally, don’t strain for laughs; humor is built on surprise, and you can surprise the reader only so often.” – pg. 213
Part IV: Attitudes
The Sound of Your Voice
“My commodity as a writer, whatever I’m writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don’t alter your voice to fit your subject.” – pg. 232
Enjoyment, Fear, and Confidence
“Living is the trick. Writers who write interestingly tend to be men and women who keep themselves interested.” – pg. 245
“Remember this when you enter new territory and need a shot of confidence. Your best credential is yourself.” – pg. 245
“If you want your writing to convey enjoyment, write about people you respect. Writing to destroy and to scandalize can be as destructive to the writer as it is to the subject.” – pg. 246
“Push the boundaries of your subject and see where it takes you. Bring some part of your own life to it; it’s not your version of the story until you write it.” – pg. 247
The Tyranny of the Final Product
“I have no interest in teaching writers how to sell. I want to teach them how to write. If the process is sound, the product will take care of itself and sales are likely to follow.” – pg. 254
“Moral: any time you can tell a story in the form of a quest or a pilgrimage you’ll be ahead of the game. Readers bearing their own associations will do some of your work for you.” – pg. 260
A Writer’s Decision
“Banality is the enemy of good writing; the challenge is to not write like everybody else.” – pg. 266
“Readers should always feel that you know more about your subject than you’ve put in writing.” – pg. 269
“As a nonfiction writer you must get on the plane. If a subject interests you, go after it, even if it’s in the next county or the next state or the next country. It’s not going to come looking for you. Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.” – pg. 280
Writing Family History and Memoir
“Don’t try to be a ‘writer.’...Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere.” – pg. 283
“The strongest memoirs, I think are those that preserve the unity of a remembered time and place.” – pg. 285
“Look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you still remember them it’s because they contain a universal truth that your readers will recognize from their own life.” – pg. 291
Write as Well as You Can
“Yet to defend what you’ve written is a sign that you are alive.” – pg. 299
“Writing well means believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel. You will write only as well as you make yourself write.” – pg. 302
“A reporter once asked him how he managed to play so well so consistently, and he said: ‘I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn't want to let him down.” – pg. 303
