The only writing book you need
If you want to improve your writing, there’s no shortage of great books to help you. Bird by Bird, Elements of Style, and Writing Down the Bones pop to mind.
But, I strongly recommend one writing book more than any other: On Writing Well by William Zinsser.
On Writing Well has made me a clearer thinker and writer. It’s the book that I most frequently give to friends.
Zinsser’s principles are simple and straightforward. He urges clarity, simplicity, and avoiding clutter.
These three rules are the fundamentals of good writing. As principles go, they’re nothing new. George Orwell gave the same advice. Not only does he provide timeless rules, Zinsser is a joy to read. With his biting wit and conversational tone, he’s like the stern but well-meaning dad who isn’t satisfied with the B+ you got on an essay.
I devoured On Writing Well on the plane back to Lagos. As I flipped through the pages, I immediately thought: Zinsser is a hacksaw. He slashes through the verbiage, the long-winded phrases, and the cliches. He forces you to put your writing on the chopping block and cut, cut, cut. Zinsser hates clutter. Anything that doesn’t help you express your main point, he implores you: get rid of it.
Clutter obscures what a writer is trying to say. We intuitively get that. How many of us have hidden behind words, lengthy phrases, and passive voice to pad out a piece and make word count? In university, I once pulled an all nighter to crank out an essay on Zionism’s origins in 19th century Europe. I wrote bloated sentences to mask that I really didn’t get the material. Of course, the professor saw through it.
When you whittle your writing down to the bones, you must know your sh*t. That speaks to the pen’s power: clear writing flows from clear thinking.
As Zinsser writes:
“Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can’t exist without the other. It’s impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English.”
Writing forces you to think clearly. You ask yourself: what am I trying to say? Does that sentence logically lead to the next one? Does that word convey the right meaning?
The grandmother test is the ultimate test for good writing. Can you simplify an abstract or complicated topic so any lay reader can understand, like your grandma? This approach will automatically help you get rid of clutter in your thinking and writing. John Collison, CEO/co-founder of Stripe, a payments company which has made clear writing a part of its DNA, compares good writing to chatting with your buddy in a bar.
Here’s some handy advice from Zinsser to eliminate clutter from your writing:
Use short words instead of long ones.
Avoid jargon and cliches.
Cut adverbs when the meaning is already expressed in the verb. For example, ‘smile happily’ is redundant. (Smile suggests that the person is happy.) Remember Stephen King’s famous warning: “the road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
Write in 1st person. When you’re forced to write “I”, you use action verbs which bring your writing to life. Readers want to read about people, not abstract concepts, like economic development, financial inclusion, blah blah blah.
Avoid passive voice.
I could go on and on about this 300-page book. There’s so much to love and learn from it. Even if you only read the first 25 pages, you’ll never look at your writing the same way again. You’ll approach your words with economy, precision and clarity.
Originally published on https://nofilter.substack.com/p/the-only-writing-book-you-need