Alvah's Books

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
By William Zinsser
Collins Reference, 2001
308 pages
$14.00

About four years ago, I took a fabulous writing class to break into magazines and newspapers at the New School in Manhattan taught by Sue Shapiro. Sue is a prolific writer: She’s written five memoirs, a novel, hundreds of book reviews, and thousands of essays.If you take her class, she’ll give you realistic assignments that possibly can lead to publication in major newspapers or magazines like The New York Times or Newsweek in the sections that publish essays. Most of the reading assignments are in those sections, Sue’s published articles, in addition to what I consider an important book–On Writing Well by William Zinsser.

When we were told this was required reading because it would answer all our questions of how to write nonfiction, I was skeptical. However, good student that I was, I ordered it on Amazon. As soon as the book arrived in the post, and I started reading, I was hooked.

Zinsser offers clear and to the point advice on sharpening your writing style. Divided into four parts, Zinsser kicks it off with writing principles. Chapters include: how to simplify your prose, develop a style, get to know your audience etc. Part two concentrates on writing methods: How to construct a lede and conclude your piece, how to make your story cohesive. Part three is about the different forms of nonfiction: intervews, travel, book reviews, sports, humor, science and technology and so forth. The last part is about attitudes and these chapters include the sound of your voice, decisions you make as a writer, writing as well as you can, and the emotions and phases all writers experience–enjoyment, fear, and confidence.

After On Writing Well, Zinsser published Writing to Learn and this book has also been invaluable to me. Once again, he teaches you how to write clearly about any subject and how to use writing as a means of learning.

For anyone who wants to write non-fiction, On Writing Well is a must have. Buy it, read it, and refer to it often. You won’t regret it

I have shamefully been remiss with reviews and I apologize to all of my readers. Why the long break? Well, I got a full-time freelance writing job with a brand new publication called HAND/EYE Magazine. Check it out and read my articles too while you at  it.

What does this mean for Alvah’s Books? It means I am back to requesting and receiving new books, reading and reviewing them. I can’t make any promises of how often I’ll post during the week because I do have an enormous backlog of books that were sent, and I did promise to review every single one, and I have a job. So…what’s in line for review?

Meg Tilly’s Gemma and Adam Haslett’s Union Atlantic. Two very different books that kept me turning the pages in one fell swoop. I usually can’t pull off reading one book in a single session, but obviously these kept me riveted to my seat.

A few changes are also in the mix. I’ll restart the bestseller list this coming Sunday, but I’ve gone through the cookbooks I like and now it’s time to look at some of my favorite books on writing. Come Sunday, I’ll post a review I did a while back for my previous blog on William Zissner’s On Writing Well.