On Writing Well

Three of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of On Writing Well pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.

1. Clutter is the disease of American writing. We inflate simple ideas with pompous padding, "at the present time" for now, "in the event that" for if, "experiencing" for feeling, and the writer's job is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
2. The secret of good writing is to be yourself. The two qualities readers respond to most are humanity and warmth, so writing that hides behind a stiff, impersonal voice fails no matter how correct it is.
3. Rewriting is the essence of writing well. Almost nobody produces good prose on the first try; the professional's real work is revision, pruning, tightening, and reordering until the meaning is unmistakable.

The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 8 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

1. Simplicity: The Case Against Clutter
2. The Warm-Blooded Reader and the Human Voice
3. Words, Verbs, and the War on Modifiers
4. Rewriting: Where Writing Actually Happens
5. Unity, the Lead, and the Ending
6. Bits, Pieces, and the Mechanics of Momentum
7. The Forms: Interviews, Memoir, and Beyond
8. Humor, Confidence, and the Sound of Your Voice