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One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.

One of underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.
– William Zinsser

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  1. We are narrative creatures, and we need narrative nourishment-”narrative catechisms. – ND Wilson
  2. Even a poor translator couldn’t kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity. – William Zinsser
  3. I am not to be underestimated. Overestimated, maybe, but underestimated? No. – Saumya Sharman
  4. Good writing is good writing, whatever form it takes and whatever we call it. – William Zinsser
  5. The truth of the matter is, the soul is a monstrous beast. The heart a most unwieldy and a fair weather friend. Why else woud ribs be cages – Anonymous
  6. Writing is such a lonely work that I try to keep myself cheered up. – William Zinsser
  7. I’m often dismayed by the sludge I see appearing on my screen if I approach writing as a task–the day’s work–and not with some enjoyment. – William Zinsser
  8. But on the question of who you’re writing for, don’t be eager to please. – William Zinsser
  9. We’re interested in the mass-merchandising of anything. If there was a market in mass-produced portable nuclear weapons, we’d market them too – Alan Sugar
  10. Mass amateurization of publishing makes mass amateurization of filtering a forced move. – Clay Shirky
  11. And now submarines are armed with mass murder, our silly, only way of deterring mass murder. – John Steinbeck
  12. Writing nonfiction means I tell people’s stories for them, not because they’re special but because we all are. – Jo Deurbrouck
  13. God doesn’t NEED raw material. He MAKES material. – Matt Chandler
  14. Vulnerability has a strength of its own. – William Zinsser
  15. Write like you speak with the ‘rhythms of human speech,’ as William Zinsser said, and in as few words as possible. Use action verbs to carry water. – Sandra E Lamb
  16. The writer, his eye on the finish line, never gave enough thought to how to run the race. – William Zinsser
  17. Mind in language are inseparable. If we violate our language we violate ourselves. – William Zinsser
  18. Mind in language are inseparable. If we violate our language we violate ourselves. – William Zinsser
  19. Probably every subject is interesting if an avenue into it can be found that has humanity and that an ordinary person can follow. – William Zinsser
  20. It’s no fun to think about infinity and no cinche to write about it. Again, it helps to look for some human link. – William Zinsser
  21. I never think of him as a scholar assaulting me with how much he knows, but as a teacher eager to share a lifelong passion for the subject. – William Zinsser
  22. Editors are licensed to be curious. – William Zinsser
  23. Writing involves many [acts] tasks, not just generating text – Paul J Silvia
  24. I learned about women — how we are made into the women we’ve become, how we shape ourselves, how we shape each other. – Aminatta Forna
  25. I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music. – Joan Mir
  26. We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us. – Marshall McLuhan
  27. You don’t blame your shadow for the shape of your body, just the same, don’t blame others for the shape of your experience. – Gillian Duce
  28. As water changes its shape according to the shape of the vessel, I change myself by changing my thoughts. – Debasish Mridha
  29. Often it’s not we who shape words, but the words we use that shape us. – Nina George
  30. We don’t blame your shadow for the shape of your body. Don’t blame others for the shape of your experience. – Gillian Duce
  31. Shape? Does a fog have shape? Does the twilight? Does the onset of darkness? – AP
  32. The God you worship will shape the values you hold, and the values you hold will shape the lifestyle that you choose. – Colin S Smith
  33. The great ideas you met on your path are the genius sculptors which shape the shape your mind! – Mehmet Murat ildan
  34. My ideas are a shapeless mass that my writing molds into beauty. – Rob Bignell
  35. it is very tempting, when you talk about the events of the past, to impose clarity and order upon what had neither one nor the other. – Ren Daumal
  36. I was wrong to try and impose something of my humanity on you, when being human never did me any good – Sara Baume
  37. Don’t ever let others impose their self-limiting beliefs on to you. They don’t have the courage and spirit that you do. – Miya Yamanouchi
  38. We may propose many plans, let’s but remember that God can dispose our plans, propose a new and better ones and impose them on us! – Israelmore Ayivor
  39. Is is as if life or reality itself has had it in mind all along to unravel the very design i have been trying all along to impose on it. – Jerome A Miller
  40. The witness of solid moral character to a righteous way of life must never be underestimated. – Arthur F Holmes

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