We all know that everyone has their own hobbies and passions they want to pursue in the future. Writing is a popular career that lots of people get into. I’m certainly one of those many people, and I must say, it’s a great thing to do. I’ve been a sports content article writer for a couple of years now, and even before then, when I was writing news stories during my undergraduate studies. Writing may be fun, but there are definitely some deeper aspects of it that I personally may or may not have followed during my writing journey. 

I recently began reading “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. So far, I’ve gotten quite a good amount of profound insight on the subject of writing. It starts with some terminology. One of them is simplicity, the foundation of good writing, as Zinsser acknowledges. Clutter is another, defined as the use of unnecessary words and inflated language. 

As an experienced writer, I can’t help but admit I’ve had my struggles with these terms here and there. Although, for the most part, I’ve been good, there are times when an editor could tell me to revise some sentences or use the active voice. Now, here’s an interesting relative concept: Zinsser refers to his teaching experience at Yale University, and students asked him what made writing good. His response was clarity, simplicity, and humanity. Plus, he said there is no right way to write and each writer needs to find their own voice. So, I’m honestly beginning to wonder if I haven’t followed this logic this entire time, because of some of the feedback I’ve gotten on certain occasions. 

As I began to think about the logic from Zinsser, it dawned on me that maybe I didn’t quite follow some of the rules from the 16 Blog Rules by Sue Dunlevie. Most of what’s mentioned I’ve known for a while, but there are other parts that I just thought about as we speak. Rules 14 and 15 — be consistent and tell a story — are two areas I could improve. 

Writing has been something I can certainly see myself doing as a career, whether it’s in sports, music, or education. I’m relatively confident that if I can go by what Zinsser and Dunlevie said, I should be more successful.