Subscribe to Blog via Email
Search the site
Recent Comments
- kjumai on “There is a notion that creative people are absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social customs and obligations.”
- bababhuvaneshus on “Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo . . .”
- Owen Landsverk on 10 Best Books for College Teachers Update
- Alex on “Judging by her publicity photos, the natural assumption would be that American novelist Edith Wharton wrote in a traditional manner, at the gold-tooled leather-topped desk in her extremely well-stocked library.”
- David Milbradt on “Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…”
Categories
-
Recent Posts
- “When I was 4 months pregnant and suffering from morning sickness, I was . . . thrown into a filthy, windowless, smelly horse stall.”
- “Think mystery, not mastery.”
- “I’ve sometimes wondered whether novelists like to be remembered for what they’ve said or because they’ve said it in their own particular way – in their own distinctive voice.”
- “You have to give yourself the space to write a lot without a destination.”
- “I don’t think you’re dying, ” I said. “I think you’ve just got a touch of cancer.”
Tags
- a favorite author
- a favorite novelist
- Anne Tyler
- Annie Dillard
- Ann Patchett
- Barbara Pym
- British humor
- Charles Dickens
- Courage to Teach
- depression
- Discussion in the College Classroom
- Elizabeth Strout
- Henry David Thoreau
- Henry Taylor
- iGen
- Jane Smiley
- Karl Ove Knausgaard
- Learner-Centered Teaching
- learning
- Margaret Atwood
- Mary Oliver
- Memoir
- metaphors
- My Struggle
- Nobel Prize
- Parker Palmer
- pedagogy
- poetry
- Pulitzer Prize
- Pulitzer Prize winner
- Rainer Maria Rilke
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- recommended
- Reflection
- Richard Russo
- Shakespeare
- Small Teaching
- Ted Kooser
- The Spark of Learning
- truth
- Virginia Woolf
- Walt Whitman
- William Stafford
- William Zinsser
- you-are-there reading
A Fine Line
Archives
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
Tag Archives: William Zinsser
“When I wrote my book ‘On Writing Well,’ I had a definite model in mind. . . it was Alec Wilder’s book about music.”
A veteran of WWII, William Zinsser was one of the first to give American writers advice that might be described as “touchy-feely.” In his classic On Writing Well, he says that he is most “interested in the intangibles that produce … Continue reading
“Remember: Your biggest stories will often have less to do with their subject than with their significance . . .”
William Zinsser continues, “. . .not what you did in a certain situation, but how that situation affected you and shaped the person you became.” Zinsser reminds us that readers don’t want to be impressed by your accomplishments. They don’t … Continue reading
Posted in memoir, non-fiction
Tagged humanity and warmth, On Writing Well, William Zinsser, write with integrity
Leave a comment
“I’m more interested in the intangibles that produce good writing – confidence, enjoyment, intention, integrity.”
In the 30th Anniversary Edition of this classic book on writing nonfiction, William Zinsser describes how his priorities have evolved over the decades. Known as an advocate for clear, “uncluttered” writing, in his later years, he grew to value “humanity … Continue reading
Posted in non-fiction
Tagged On Writing Well, Read every year, William Zinsser, Writing Mentor
Leave a comment
“Get your intention clear before you start and tell your story with integrity.”
“Why are you telling me this?” is the question that is front and center in my mind when reading memoirs, or, for that matter, English 1 essays written by my students. Zinsser says writers should aim high. When you look … Continue reading
Posted in memoir
Tagged William Zinsser, Writing About Your Life, writing with integrity, Zinsser is my hero
Leave a comment
“The first element is integrity of intention.”
Earlier this week, I attempted the impossible: at an evening writing class for adults, I addressed the topic of “telling the truth.” They wondered how much truth should be revealed. I wish now that I had brought along Inventing the … Continue reading
Posted in memoir
Tagged integrity of intention, Inventing the Truth, Memoir, William Zinsser
Leave a comment
“The problem is that an interesting life doesn’t make an interesting memoir.”
William Zinsser, author of Writing About Your Life, continues, “Only small pieces of a life make an interesting memoir.” Rather than attempting to write about important periods of history, “be content to tell your small portion of a larger story.” … Continue reading
Posted in memoir
Tagged Clear, memoirs, precise writing, small pieces of life, William Zinsser, Writing About Your Life
Leave a comment
“One of the saddest sentences I know is ‘I wish I had asked my mother about that.'”
William Zinsser, a writer’s writer if there ever was one, died this week. I wonder how many of the authors whose books are featured in this blog have read or taught from On Writing Well. I agree with the editors … Continue reading