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annashiv 's review for:
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
by William Zinsser
For the first half of the book, there are some interesting ideas and advices that are good for writers. However, I found it all rather outdated and self-centered. The kinds of writing he talks about aren't as prevalent anymore. He comes across as downright pretentious towards the end when he's talking of taste, as though only some writing is actually good and the rest is trash. Different people like different things. Value is different between everyone, and he is rather narrow minded. His humor section convinced me he has no real sense of humor or understanding of it, only further confirmed by any other mentions in the rest of it. If you're looking for writing advice, this might be okay for certain things, but I would suggest looking elsewhere. It's just too dated and narrow to be applied to all the types of writers. Writing is an incredibly hard to pin down artform. There isn't any one way to do it, and anyone who tells you there is, is lying. Sometimes you have to throw out the previously stated rules and go with your gut, and there is no mention of anything like that in these pages.