Begin Where You Are

One of the first chapters of Zinsser's On Writing Well I make my students read at the beginning of the semester is "Writing About Places," where he gives tips on travel writing. I won't rehash what he says there, which is excellent. Rather, my intention is to convince the beginning writer of the importance of setting, whether you are writing about traveling or some other kind of nonfiction, or a story, novel, poem, play—whatever.



I remember how, when I was very young, I would skip over...