Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things that people do
Interpretation
Writing requires effort, persistence, and practice to achieve clarity and quality.
This quote emphasizes the difficulty and laborious nature of writing. It suggests that creating clear and effective sentences is not a simple task and often demands multiple revisions and persistent effort. Zinsser encourages writers to acknowledge the challenges of the craft, and to not be disheartened by the struggle, reminding them that hard work is a natural part of the writing process.
In practice
In a writing workshop, you might say this quote to encourage fellow writers who are struggling with their drafts.
Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso; they needed models. This is especially true of writing.
Good writing is lean and confident.
My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
I have no interest in teaching writers how to sell. I want to teach them how to write. If the process is sound, the product will take care of itself, and sales are likely to follow.
Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader's trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying. Don't diminish that belief. Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Before and after emancipation, the Negro, in self-defense, was propelled toward the white employer. The endowments of wealthy white men have developed great institutions of learning for the Negro, but the freedom of action on the part of these same universities has been curtailed in proportion as they are indebted to white philanthropies.
When I was born in 1942, World War II was still going. And I began to realize when I became a young adult that if we don't teach our kids a better way of relating to their fellow human beings, the very future of humanity on the planet is in jeopardy.
Readers, after all, are making the world with you. You give them the materials, but it's the readers who build that world in their own minds.
I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange.
If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday.
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