Issue#12

Florian Heinrich

03 Apr 2023 — 1 min read

Hey all,

I am currently reading "On writing well" by William Zinsser. The book is widely read and recommended as a classic guide to writing non-fiction. It is said to be an essential read for writers, but I don’t agree. It goes far beyond.

Writing is thinking with pen and paper, clarifying, and stripping away the clutter until the point is clear. Crafting a sentence is working on a thought.

Therefore, anybody, not just writers can learn from the principles of simplicity, clarity, and brevity taught in the book.

What stood out to me was the principles of simplicity and fighting clutter.

People (including me) tend to inflate and thereby sound important. I learned the key to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every complicated word that could be a simpler word, every adverb that does not add more meaning than what’s already in the verb, every passive voice that confuses the reader about who is doing what, every unnecessary flowery word with intend to make up a sentence - weakens the strength of a sentence and blur a point.

Clear thinking becomes clear writing. Good writing is clear and carries beauty in its clean simplicity.

The book encouraged me to publish the recent article that I had in my backlog for some time hesitating to make it public because I wasn't satisfied.

I am trying to write well about the world I live in. Therefore, I will use that article as it is to rework, refine and incorporate the principles of writing well to improve my thinking and writing.

Some of my last week's highlihgts:

🎧 Podcast: Body Language Analyst on Showing Confidence & Spotting Lies

"Truthtellers tell, liers sell"
Bedros Akkelian, a mentalist and body language expert, reveals the truth about body languageand The difference between male and female communication.

✍🏻 Quote: