Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
The surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definitive, and concrete. The greatest writers - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare - are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being specific and detailed captures a reader's attention effectively.
This quote emphasizes the importance of specificity in writing. Great writers like Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare engage their audiences through vivid details and concrete examples, which create mental images and evoke emotions, making their narratives compelling and memorable.
Themes
WritingSpecificityAttentionDetailsLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
A writing workshop could use this quote to emphasize the importance of detail in storytelling.
More from William Strunk, Jr.
All quotes →Instead of announcing what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
Avoid fancy words....If you admire fancy words, if every sky is beauteous, every blonde curvaceous, every intelligent child prodigious, if you are tickled by discombobulate, you will have bad time Reminder 14.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
Rather, very, little, pretty - these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one, and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
Similar quotes
I don't care who writes a nation's laws - or crafts its advanced treaties - if I can write its economics textbooks.
Paul SamuelsonRead
The Eeyore Educational System sees childhood as a waste of time, a luxury that society cannot afford . . . Put children in school at the earliest age possible; load them down with homework; take away their time, their creativity, their play, their power; then plug them into machines.
Benjamin HoffRead
Do not ask if a man has been through college; ask if a college has been through him; if he is a walking university.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
PlatoRead
The real safeguard of democracy is education.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
Often the grind of book promotion wearies you of your own book - though at the same time this frees you from its clutches.
Julian BarnesRead