Blind man swears my writing looks wrong

On Writing Well turns 50 this year. It's sold more than a million copies since it first came out in 1976.

And it didn’t even start out as a book.

It started as an upper-level writing seminar at Yale, taught by a man named William Zinsser, from 1971 to 1979.

The first piece of advice he gave to his students was:

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"Use plain English."

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If you've ever heard copywriters say "be clear, not clever," this is probably where that idea originally comes from.

The book has been revised many times since, but it’s still one of the most recommended books on writing out there. And inside, Zinsser talks about one of the more important parts of writing. Especially these days, with the internet, where everyone's scrolling and flipping and deciding what deserves their attention.

A lot of it happens before anyone reads a single word.

Your reader may decide, in a split second, without ever noticing they did, whether or not what you’ve written is worth their precious time to read.

Sadly, later in life, William Zinsser lost his sight due to glaucoma. But he kept on teaching writing anyway, right up until he died in his Manhattan home in 2015, at the age of 92.

A man who could no longer see the page still knew exactly how good writing should look.

Find out what he had to say about it in Legendary Writing Secret #3, on the Standard tier of the Coyote Copy Club:

https://www.skool.com/kevin/classroom/546ddd0f?md=3764a5d3c80447398df0fa492dafeec8

Talk soon,

Kevin Hood