I never fancied myself as a writer. In fact, the reason why I joined the Marine Corps was to avoid reading and writing altogether. Yet, here I am, writing. So the thought crossed my mind, that if I want to continue writing, I may as well do it correctly. Enter “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. This book delves deep into the world of writing. Starting with grammar and punctuation, then to mood and feeling, and finally into different writing formats. This book is geared specifically to nonfiction writing, which is the type of writing I will be doing. The author describes writing as an art form. Each sentence is crafted out of a love for writing. The goal of any form of writing is to keep the reader engaged throughout- from the start all the way to the end. Having never taken an English writing class in college, I was a perfect candidate to read this book. I have formed no discernable bad habits, as far as I know. After reading this book, I now look more carefully at my written words and try to imagine how the reader will interpret them. My emotional state as I write will come across the pages as the reader interacts with my words. I have to be careful to put maximum care into my words, thoughts, and emotions. I would have never guessed any of this before I read this book. I definitely have a more passionate take on the art of writing and especially on the art of writing well. With that, let’s get into my 5 takeaways:
1) The product that the writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who the writer is. No matter what you are writing about, the reader is listening to you. The article is about your voice, words, excitement, and emotions. As a writer, you have to be very diligent in how you come across to the reader.
2) Holding the reader’s attention is a top priority. From the opening sentence to the last word, the writer must be fully aware of the reader’s short attention span. This book was written in the 1960s and the author already mentioned that attention spans are short. Now, in 2020, the attention span is probably a couple of seconds long. Sentences need to grab the readers. Use simple words and phrases. The more complex sentence structure you use, the more chance that you have to lose the reader.
3) The re-write is where the magic happens. The first draft is usually the easy part. Your thoughts go directly onto the paper. The re-write(s) is where you can craft a masterpiece. This is where your trim and prune your sentences and paragraphs. You can look at words that need to be changed or adjusted. You can create sentences that have a harmonic flow to them. Syllables play an important part in the flow of your writing. Writing should almost feel poetic.
4) Cut out everything this is not necessary. The author says that once his students complete their first draft, he tells them to cut the length in half. And then he usually tells them to cut another portion off in the third draft. That is how much natural fluff we add to our writing. Sometimes it is hard to cut sentences that we have worked so hard on, but in the end, it will create a more cohesive product. We have to know exactly where the reader is throughout our narrative. The more padding we have throughout, the more chance of the reader getting lost in our maze.
5) “The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components”. This is probably the main takeaway of the book. If you can write a nice, tight sentence then you can form a tight paragraph, then a tight chapter, and finally a tight book. The sentence is the base of the whole book or narrative. Writing complex sentences is the easiest way to lose the reader. The job of the writer is to keep the reader engaged, not to show how important or intelligent the writer is. Once we understand the most basic form of a sentence and keep that as clean as possible, the rest will fall in line.
Overall, this book is a must-read for any aspiring writer, blogger, or influencer. Creating engaging content is extremely difficult to do. This book will help with the writing portion of being an influencer. If we can learn to grab and maintain a reader’s attention, then the rest is easy. Always ask after each sentence, what am I trying to say? Remember that our uniqueness is why the reader is drawn to our work. If we decide to strip out our personality in favor of more “important” sounding words, then we lose our main selling point. Your personality should shine through the words. Someone should be able to pick up any of your work and know that you created it. If you have any inclination to write or create content (even videos) then this book is highly recommended. No matter the media format, the objective stays the same- to capture and hold the reader’s (or viewers’) attention.
This link is to a physical product. The link above is to the digital book. Sorry. I get no credit for digital product links.
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