Book Notes: On Writing Well by William Zinsser

I read On Writing Well earlier this year which made a huge impact on my thoughts about writing. I am revisiting my book notes and highlights in the last weeks of the year and thought I should post a summary of key takeaways from each book.

Zinsser stresses on these points when writing non-fiction.

Thinking
Passion
Structure
Editing
Confidence

Clear thinking leads to clear writing.

Don't do a brain dump and publish. Organize your thoughts and present them in a cohesive manner.
Your sentences should be simple and contain only one idea. Readers can't process more than one idea at a time.
People care about your writing if you have something interesting to say.
Ask the following questions before you start, to frame how your article is going to converse with the readers.
- In what capacity am I going to address the reader?
- What pronouns and tense am I going to use?
- What one point I want to make?
- How much should I cover?

Confidence

You're writing for yourself. Writing is an act of ego and your first audience is the you.
Believe in your identity and your own opinion. Don't be afraid to take firm stance in your writing.
You're an unique individual, try to show your uniqueness in your writing. Write about what you think and know.

Passion

If you follow your affection and write about it, readers will engage well with your writing.
Go after subjects that interests you, remember you're writing for yourself and if you write what interests you, readers will engage.

Structure

First sentence is important for an article.
Every paragraph should amplify the previous paragraph's message.
Always collect more materials than you will use.
Story telling is the compelling method to grab someone's attention. Look for ways to convey your writing as a narrative.
Ending is almost as important as the beginning. When you feel you have told everything you know about a subject, you should stop.
Don't overstate or misinform about anything in your writing. It'll undermine your credibility.
Don't hesitate to imitate other writers. It will help you in finding your own style.

Editing

Most first drafts can be edited and cut by 50% without losing any meaning.
Read your writing aloud, you can identify the words that are not fitting your style and usage.
Writing is just the first step of good writing. Rewriting is the important step.

Food for thought

The below two lines made me think a lot so I wanted to share them.

Careers rise and fall simply because people can't clearly state an idea or a fact.
(In writing) Quality is its own reward.

This is my first attempt in summarizing books. I have doubts about this format. Let me know what do you think.

If you enjoyed reading this consider

Book Notes: On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Comments (1)

More from this blog

Unblocking paste on some websites

Using My Phone in Tamil

Setting up a new Macbook at work

Life update, 2024 & 2025

Is blogging still worth it

Clear thinking leads to clear writing.

Confidence

Passion

Structure

Editing

Food for thought

Command Palette

Comments (1)

More from this blog

Clear thinking leads to clear writing.

Confidence

Passion

Structure

Editing

Food for thought