When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
William ZinsserWrite about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.
William ZinsserUltimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.
William ZinsserWriting is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.
William ZinsserWriting is such lonely work that I try to keep myself cheered up. If something strikes me as funny in the act of writing, I throw it in just to amuse myself. If I think it's funny I assume a few other people will find it funny, and that seems to me to be a good day's work.
William ZinsserGet people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does - in his own words. His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land.
William Zinsser