A week or so ago I wrote a short post to announce the arrival of the book On Writing Well by William Zinsser. As I’ve said before many times, I’ve resolved to write here daily (except a couple of days ago when the site went off line – and even that day I wrote something) with the purpose of getting better at it, and in today’s reading I was encouraged because ZInsser said exactly what I’m getting at: “If you went to work for a newspaper that required you to write two or three articles every day, you would be a better writer after six months.”
But it was his next piece of wisdom that mattered more: “You wouldn’t necessarily be writing well; your style might still be full of clutter and clichés. But you would be exercising your powers of putting the English language on paper, gaining confidence and identifying the most common problems.”
And perhaps he’s right about identifying common problems. This was from Zinsser’s chapter on “Unity,” in which he reinforces something I’ve known since I started: I have an awfully hard time staying on track. Part of that is from starting out with one thing in mind, but drifting to another. I do it constantly, and at this point in my progress I believe it’s a symptom of simply trying to get something “on paper” as an exercise in discipline. But eventually I’m going to have to start cleaning it up.
While giving an example in the chapter, Zinsser pretty much describes one of my typical writings. But he also mentions one thing that I found very promising. He says, “Now it often happens that you’ll make these prior decisions and then discover that they weren’t the right ones. The material begins to lead you in an unexpected direction, where you are more comfortable writing in a different tone. That’s normal—the act of writing generates some cluster of thoughts or memories that you didn’t anticipate. Don’t fight such a current if it feels right. Trust your material if it’s taking you into terrain you didn’t intend to enter but where the vibrations are good. Adjust your style accordingly and proceed to whatever destination you reach.”
It’s what he says next that really caught my eye: “If this happens, the second part of your article will be badly out of joint with the first. But at least you know which part is truest to your instincts. Then it’s just a matter of making repairs. Go back to the beginning and rewrite it so that your mood and your style are consistent from start to finish.”
Yeah, it takes a bit more effort, but it’s something I really have to work out. I mean, I would hope I can keep unity throughout, but it’ll be those times the writing takes me down another path that I’ll have to have the discipline to go back and clean it up. It might be a hard fight though. I’m the kind of guy who, if I realize I’ve forgotten something upon leaving the apartment, won’t turn around to get it once I’m in the elevator. I hate retracing my steps. I tell myself it’s inefficient, but if I’m being honest, perhaps I’m just being lazy.
More importantly though, it’s something I’ll have to learn to overcome if I want to get any better. A good lesson out of this book, and ironically one I should be able to remember every time my mind wanders on the page.
