“There are many good reasons for writing that have nothing to do with being published. Writing is a powerful search mechanism, and one of its satisfactions is to come to terms with your life narrative. Another is to work through some of life’s hardest knocks—loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure—and to find understanding and solace.”
“Less is more.”
“The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.”
“Simplify, simplify.”
“The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds.”
– William Zinsser in On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Great quotes! I remember somewhere reading that a piece is complete when there are no more words to cut. 🙂
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Indeed, Michelle. William Zinsser used to edit his work several times…until there are no more words to cut:-)
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I had a great teacher who said, “Find the perfect word. It doesn’t have to be the longest word, and it doesn’t have to be the fanciest. It has to be the one that says exactly what you mean.” He also said never to use four words when one would do. I think he would have liked Zinsser! Thanks, Rosanna–another wonderful post!
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Thanks, Pam. But it’s hard to trim….sometimes. I think your teacher must have read a lot of Zinsser’s work too!
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I think that may be true!
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Less is more and simplify, it sounds too easy, yet my experience is it takes discipline and time to hack back the stream of conscious that comes from being in the flow. I’m still practising these skills.
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Same here, Linda. Sometimes it just feels good to use many words….
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Excellent advice, Rosanna. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
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