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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
Whereas the previous chapter focused on writers’ “big decisions” about the scope and direction of their work, this chapter focuses on the hundreds of “little decisions” that make an article logical and compelling. To illustrate how these decisions work, Zinsser will walk the reader through his article “The News From Timbuktu.”
Writers have to make the “big decisions” about voice, unity, and intention before they sit down to write. However, they face the “little decisions” during the actual writing process. For instance, they have to choose the right words, present details in the right order, and pick the right lead and conclusion. Since these decisions are so varied, writers have to make them by instinct, not by any hard-and-fast rules. Still, by using his own writing as a model, Zinsser shows the reader what kinds of concerns should go into these decisions.
Themes
An article’s lead has to grab and hold the reader’s attention while giving context about the story. Zinsser opens his article by explaining that Timbuktu’s streets are made of sand, which represents the city’s defeat by the desert—and by history. He uses simple, linear sentences to convey a single, powerful idea. In his second paragraph, Zinsser addresses his readers’ expectations by explaining how Timbuktu represents an unreachable, mystical place in Western culture. To keep the reader’s attention, he characterizes Timbuktu as an “edge” city at the end of the first paragraph and then again at the beginning of the second.
Zinsser’s lead combines an interesting fact, which grabs the reader’s attention, with a metaphor, which represents his main provocative idea about Timbuktu. The fact is that Timbuktu’s streets are made of sand, and the metaphor is that these sand streets represent Timbuktu’s place at the edge between humanity and nature and the frontier of the Western imagination. But he prefers to let his material speak for itself. Instead of directly explaining this metaphor, he sets it up implicitly and lets the reader draw their own conclusions.
Themes
In his next two paragraphs, Zinsser quickly summarizes Timbuktu’s history, then explains how he ended up going there after seeing a travel agency’s ad. He sprinkles in some humor to show his personality. In his fifth paragraph, Zinsser quotes the travel agency’s brochure, which promises travelers a chance to see the famous Azalai Salt Caravan. The funny brochure shows how quotes are usually more interesting than paraphrase.
Leads serve two purposes: grabbing the reader’s attention and easing them into the rest of the piece. But the balance between these purposes has to shift over time. Namely, while attracting the reader is more important at the very beginning of an article, introducing the piece’s style and main ideas becomes more important as the article progresses. This is why Zinsser starts making jokes and introducing his writerly persona halfway through the lead. If people are still reading, then they clearly find Timbuktu interesting enough to read about. The natural next step is to establish who will be leading them there.
Themes
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Finally, in his sixth paragraph, Zinsser introduces the other travelers. He chooses his words carefully to make his prose more entertaining. For example, instead of saying, “we were in our fifties and sixties,” he says, “we ranged from late middle age to Medicare.” Some sentences took him upwards of an hour, but the time investment was worth it. Zinsser ends his six-paragraph lead with an asterisk, which shows the reader that he’s starting a new section.
Zinsser shows how the right word choice can make even dry facts, like his travel companions’ ages, vibrant and entertaining to read. His meticulous effort reflects his belief that rewriting never ends: writers can always further improve their work, no matter how much they’ve already tried. Their main responsibility is to give their readers a quality product.
Themes
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In the next four paragraphs, Zinsser covers his group’s route to Timbuktu. He briefly introduces Mali’s geography and describes its colorful capital of Bamako. He also mentions the group’s long van ride to the town of Djenné and two-day excursion in Dogon country. These experiences were very interesting, but Zinsser had to cover them as briefly as possible, because he didn’t want to distract his readers—his article is really about Timbuktu.
In this section, Zinsser has to give necessary background information without losing the reader’s attention. He does this by returning to two of his main principles: brevity and humanity. He keeps the description of his other trips as short as possible, and he focuses on interesting specific details from those trips. Since he figured out his unities beforehand, he knows that his article’s single provocative idea is really about Timbuktu. Therefore, he cuts anything that doesn’t contribute to this main idea and saves it for another time.
Themes
Zinsser uses humor to describe his group flying to Timbuktu as the salt caravan marches there from the opposite direction. To build rapport with his readers, he references the classic Hollywood movies that shaped Western perceptions of this part of North Africa, like Beau Geste and The Four Feathers. His group takes a brief tour through the city, and then he uses an asterisk to mark another section break.
Zinsser’s humor and movie references strengthen his distinctive voice and add humanity to his writing. He references movies to show how a specific cultural tradition has enriched his writing, including by giving his readers certain expectations for his piece. Zinsser embodies these expectations in his journey into the desert, but he also makes fun of them by consciously playing the part of a lost, confused American tourist.
Themes
In the next section of his Timbuktu article, Zinsser quotes his tour guide, who explains that the specific salt caravan they’re looking for doesn’t exist anymore. Instead, they’re just going out into the desert to look for any caravan they can find. Zinsser chooses to let these facts speak for themselves, instead of commenting on them too much. He also explains that he tries to use words that are “vivid and precise, but not long or fancy,” and he tries to keep the reader going by ending every paragraph with either a joke or a tie-in to the next paragraph.
Zinsser constantly thinks about how the reader will approach his writing and bases his “little decisions” on what will most enrich their experience. In particular, he applies his rules for good writing—simplicity, brevity, and precision. After several paragraphs of general explanation about his travels, he recounts his conversation with the tour guide in order to surprise the reader and shift into the main portion of his story—the part about Timbuktu. Still, he carefully maintains the same tone and persona when he presents this conversation: he emphasizes his own ignorance and powerlessness as a bumbling American tourist.
Themes
The rest of Zinsser’s article focuses on his group’s trip into the Sahara. He remembers the British explorers who inspired him to dream about the desert and thinks about its total emptiness. The group runs into a beautiful camel caravan, and then they go into the desert and spend the night with some local Bedouin nomads, who offer to share their meager dinner. At the very end of the article, Zinsser goes to sleep and dreams about being Lawrence of Arabia.
At the end of his article, Zinsser ties together a number of key threads: the Western view of Timbuktu, the draw of adventure, the relationship between humans and the environment, and the beauty of connection across cultures. However, he doesn’t waste time explaining this—or even pointing it out to the reader. Instead, he takes a literary approach to the truth: he lets his readers make the connections and draw their own conclusions.
Themes
Zinsser explains that this isn’t how he originally planned to end his article, but it turned out to be the right place to stop. The story’s climax wasn’t seeing the caravan, but rather meeting the nomads and learning about “the nobility of living on the edge.” By ending here, Zinsser stayed loyal to his material.
As Zinsser explained in his chapter on leads and endings, nonfiction writers shouldn’t try to end their articles by summarizing their main arguments. Instead, they should close with compelling details that will engage the reader while also gesturing back to the main idea of their article.
Themes
Zinsser has one last piece of advice for writers: “Get on the plane.” In his own experience, the uncertain and unexpected stories are often the best ones, so writers should make a habit of pursuing them.
Zinsser’s advice isn’t practical for everyone—most writers can’t afford to just fly out and pursue any story they wish. But his principle still applies: writing is a process, and the unexpected twists and turns in that process often lead to the most interesting work. Therefore, writers should pursue stories and contacts wherever they lead, rather than waiting for the perfect story to write itself. Of course, Zinsser is also pointing out how pursuing interesting leads and going on adventures is one of the most rewarding part of a writer’s career.
Themes
