The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

by Steven Pinker

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Good writing starts strong. Not with a cliché (“Since the dawn of time”), not with a banality

A writer, like a cinematographer, manipulates the viewer’s perspective on an ongoing story, with the verbal equivalent of camera angles and quick cuts.

a varied vocabulary and the use of unusual words are two of the features that distinguish sprightly prose from mush.

Fresh wording and concrete images force us to keep updating the virtual reality display in our minds.