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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Writing Well, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Human Element
Simplicity vs. Clutter
Process and Organization
The Gift of Writing
Summary
Analysis
Growing up, Zinsser dreamed of writing for the New York Herald Tribune, and after World War II, he was lucky enough to get a job there. He loved its writers’ enthusiasm: they always seemed to be enjoying their work. In fact, Zinsser’s guiding credo as a writer is to enjoy himself. As S.J. Perelman once told Zinsser’s Yale class, in order to enjoy a piece of writing, “the reader has to feel that the writer is feeling good […] even if he isn’t.”
The Tribune journalists’ enthusiasm inspired Zinsser to become a writer. There’s no better proof that a writer who is “feeling good” helps the reader feel good, too. This kind of enthusiasm is a powerful tool in nonfiction writing: it enriches the personal transaction between the writer and the reader. It motivates writers to do their best possible work, helps them find their voice, and adds energy and warmth to their prose.
Themes
Like any other kind of artist, writers have to work hard to motivate themselves to work every day. In the process, they have to conquer their fears: of the blank page, of betraying the facts, and of losing the reader. The best way for a writer to beat these fears and stoke the reader’s enthusiasm is by writing about subjects that interest them. As the sportswriter Red Smith once put it, “living is the trick.” People generally become writers because they want to spend their lives learning about interesting topics. So, to write well, they should stick to what interests them.
Zinsser returns to the principle that good writing depends on habit, not inherent talent or genius. Enthusiasm is energizing, while fear is paralyzing, so writers are likely to develop better habits if they get to focus on topics that interest them. Just like interviewing people with a personal connection to a story is often the best way to add detail to it, writers with some personal interest in a story tend to better communicate why it’s so compelling.
Themes
Still, even interesting work can terrify writers. For instance, nonfiction writers might worry that they’re not prepared enough to write about specialized fields (like Zinsser when he wrote his book about baseball). One solution is that they can connect their work to things they already do know about. For instance, when Audubon magazine offered Zinsser the chance to profile the influential birdwatcher Roger Tory Peterson, Zinsser initially refused because he wasn’t interested in birds. But then, Zinsser watched a documentary about Peterson and learned two interesting facts: Peterson is a painter, and he’s still working in his 80s. Intrigued, Zinsser decided to take on the assignment and base his article around these two interesting facts.
Since enthusiasm is the best antidote to fear, writers should find interesting angles on difficult or unfamiliar projects. As always, they should also look for the human element. Since good writers specialize in identifying this, they will never need technical knowledge to write effectively about specialists. In fact, writers can even benefit from their lack of specialist knowledge, since their job is to understand and lead inexperienced readers through complicated new material. In this case, Zinsser finds a compelling new angle on Peterson’s story precisely because he’s not interested in birdwatching. This is similar to how he uses his knack for interviewing and understanding people to turn boring projects about institutions into vibrant stories about the people who run them.
Themes
Writers have to be creative in order to connect their subjects to their own interests. But they can get confident with any topic by mastering the basics, learning interview skills, and accepting that they’ll always know less than the experts. For instance, in order to show his readers Roger Tory Peterson’s attention to detail, Zinsser had to clarify basic photography concepts in their interview. And the interview’s most unexpected moments gave Zinsser his best material. For instance, Peterson offhandedly commented that birds are getting more comfortable with people, and he showed Zinsser his collection of taxidermized birds. Zinsser is glad that he took the Peterson assignment just because it was so interesting.
Since the human element is the basis of any good story, curiosity and interview skills are writers’ most effective and versatile tools for finding a compelling angle on any topic. Zinsser’s interview with Peterson again shows why over-researching is an excellent way to find the interesting, vibrant details that bring a story to life. And he also repeats why he’s so grateful to be a writer: it lets him pursue interesting stories and interview extraordinary people all day long.
Themes
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