Writing like the greats: Ernest Hemingway

"Many of his works are considered classics of American literature."

Ernest Hemingway was an American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and noted sportsman who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction writers and his adventurous reckless lifestyle brought him admiration from later generations because, besides being a writer, Hemingway was a man of action. He worked a few months for The Kansas City Star, then enlisted as an ambulance driver in World War I, he was a journalist in the Spanish Civil War, participated in World War II, he went on Safaris, and all of these experiences were the main ingredients to his true passion: literature.

Ernest Hemingway never wrote a book about writing. Actually, he intended not to do it because he believed it was bad luck. But in his novels and stories, in letters to editors, friends, and interviews, he wrote often about writing. In 2004 Larry W. Phillips and Charles Scribner Jr. took the job to assembled Hemingway's reflections on the nature of writing and the writer. The resulting book Ernest Hemingway on Writing contains Ernest's reflections on the nature of the writer and on elements of the writer’s life, including specific and helpful advices to writers on the craft of writing, work habits, and discipline. Among the many advices the book contains, I'm just gonna talk about the main three.

The iceberg theory

It might be the most famous contribution of Hemingay's work to the later writers. In his book Death in the Afternoon, which is about the ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting, Hemingway says:

"If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water."

It's an art to hide something to the reader and do it in such a way that the omitted part strengthens the story. Flaubert did this in Madame Bovary, but Hemingway really knew hot get the most from the least. I remember one of his stories "Hills Like White Elephants"; it's a clear example of how effective can it be not to tell some things in the story. Because it's not only that he doesn't say things, it's the abbility to hide exactly what you know even when he doesn't tells you in the first place. He had a minimalistic style and he believed the deeper meaning of a story shouldn't be evident on the surface. It should shine through implicitly. Ready to give it a try?

Stop when you're going good

In a 1935 article for Esquire magazine, Hemingway shared what he thought it was the most valuable advice:

"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck."

The first time I heard of this was through Haruki Murakami and my reaction was: are you kidding me? Many writers are terrified from suffering that blank page blocking in which you can't find anything to write. So, normally, a man who starts writing, writes until he has nothing left in his mind (that's what I believed). But then comes Hemingway and tells me that when I'm going good and I know what will happen next I sould stop? right in the midle of the writing? I found it almost absurd. But it was Hemingway, some of his novels and short-stories blew me away; and it was Murakami who showed me that Ernest's technique, so one day I decided to give it a try. And it was amazing! I know it might be hard to stop the first time 'cause you're there in the middle of a chapter, you know what's going to happen, you wanna keep it going but you say "it's all for now"; it's hard to control the exciment when you're writing good but in your next session, when you catch up the storyline it just flows. Goodbye blank page blocking. Thank you, Papa.

What to write about

This is another conflict for new writers. They sit there in front of his laptop and ask themselves what am I going to write about? Hemingway lived an adventurous life: he fought in two or three wars, he hunted, went to bullfighings, met movie stars, he had an interesting life. But what about us? Many people think the have nothing to write about. So Hemingway says to them: "Write about what you know and write truly". We all know things. I might not be a soldier or a hunter, but I might have known a former officer, or maybe I'm a fan of travelling guides, or maybe I'm very good with animals and know how to treat them. We all have skills and we all know things. And of course, the more things we know, the more we can write about. So we gotta start writing what we know, and then we gotta find the way to know more things, because that way we'll have more things to write about.

Another advices

Of course there are many more tips in the book. It's just that some of them have been told in our previous Writing like the greats entries, such as:

  • Be brief.
  • Never think about the story when you're not working
  • Read. A lot. Because "[A writer] should have read everything so that he knows what he has to beat".
  • "Watch what happens today" in order to sharpen your observational skills. They are crucial.

About correcting your writing, Hemingway says:

"The best way is to read it all every day from the start, correcting as you go along, then go on from where you stopped the day before [...] That's how you make it all of one piece"

I don't know how other people does it, but I've always corrected my works like that, even before reading that advice. I believe every writer should read Hemingway. There's a lot you can learn from him, no matter if you're a novelist or a short-stories writer, he can be a great mentor to you.
So what do you think about these advices? are you willing to use them? have you tried any of them? So far we've talked about Stephen King, Haruki Murakami. Gabriel García Márquez and Ernest Heminway, who will be next? see you later on our next Writing like the greats post to find out.

Reviewed by @cristiancaicedo


Other posts that may interest you:

Writing like the greats: Gabriel García Márquez
Edgar Allan Poe y las condiciones para la felicidad
Writing like the greats: Haruki Murakami
Writing like the greats: Stephen King
#DebateLiterario: ¿Rebelión en la granja o 1984?
Esta mañana (Libro): los primeros cuentos de Mario Benedetti
Sort:  

This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here

Interesante

Posted using Partiko Android

Whether you are writing a high school, college or professional essay, it is important ( article source ) to take the time to craft a unique essay. It is important to do a thorough research on the topic and to write an essay that is meaningful and well-written.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.37
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70162.45
ETH 3540.43
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.79