Inoticed that one. Interestingly, in Spanish the title was shifted to "Por quién doblan las campanas" (For Whom the Bells Toll). Not that I would read Hemingway in Spanish (or any Spanish-language writer in English, for that matter).
In a college English class, best thing I ever learned was, when writing, go ahead and write your paper, and then go back and cross out any words that are not necessary. Seems simple and kind of silly. I used that for years, in anything I wrote and MAN what a help. Best thing I ever learned in college (and.I was a math major). FYI: Hemingway would not have approved of my first sentence in this comment.
I'd say you have made an important comment, Don. Hemingway broke the stodgy 19th century writing rules, and it helped him achieve fame and fortune in the 20th century. We should all be learning from the greats like Hemingway, but we should not be afraid to break rules when we must. In my experience, immature writers break the rules just because they can. They think they are so radical. Sadly, they end up as poor communicators. On the other hand, mature writers know when to break the rules and why they are doing it. We should all be breaking the rules when we must.
I don't know how I stumbled upon this. I do know however that this was made with care and expertise in order to instruct and encourage writers everywhere. Thank you
Ha! We can all add our own rules. One of my personal rules is to fact-check. For example, "the write drunk, edit sober" thing is part of lore and not accurate. Ernest Hemingway put to rest rumors about the role of alcohol in his writing. He said, "My training was never to drink after dinner nor before I wrote nor while I was writing." Of course, we all probably know from experience we can't edit when we are under the influence of anything. Cognitive brain function is severely diminished. A spouse of friend correcting your work? Hmm. I discuss that in this video: th-cam.com/video/0khZSkKcIPI/w-d-xo.html
What Hemingway is doing is giving the tips to create a punchy, impactful style of writing, like his own. It is just one style though. His 'rules' create a particular texture and ethos to a story which matched his themes and content. Other writers may wish to create a different texture and ethos to match their own content and preoccupations.
'The Boy in the Bubble' by Paul Simon is strikingly Hemingway in the opening lyric: "It was a slow day And the sun was beating On the soldiers by the side of the road There was a bright light A shattering of shop windows The bomb in the baby carriage Was wired to the radio." Echoes of Hemingway dispatches from In Our Time. One paragraph tells the entire story. Only two adjectives.
I greatly admire Hemingway but also Wilde and many other prose stylists who used long sentences, full of dependent clauses, which mimic both in form and content the variety of subtle and contradictory impulses of the human condition while at the same time induct the reader into the broad and majestic river of language that draws one forward into a mellifluous immersion in the music of language which differs only in kind, not in quality, to the mountain brook clarity of Earnest Hemingway.
I'm a visual artist writing a work statement at the moment. For me, Hemigway's style is akin to minimalist contemporary art. The key words here are -- "laconic" and "impact". Wilde is decorative arts, William Morris tapestry, Renaissance motifs. Both are hugely important for building good taste in all sorts of abstract thinking. But Hemingway is another level of modernity and relevance
I absolutely love Hemingway. But... Wilde's novel is brilliant, too. I think it is a bit short-sighted to call his style tedious. It just requires a different mind-set to appreciate it.
The late great crime writer Elmore Leonard stated that Hemingway’s work had a profound influence on his writing style. The splendid economy of his writing over a span of over 60 years confirm the lessons he learned by appreciating Hemingway’s approach to effective writing.
Charles Dickens was my earliest realization of differing and personal writing styles, but now is the time to find, adapt, readapt, or merely ontinue to sharpen that individual writing style by any & virtually every human alive, The written word has never been as strong, so the Internet has been sculpting far greater communications for humanity.
JUST THE NAME HEMINGWAY MADE ME WANT TO VISIT KEY WEST FLORIDA FOR YEARS. NOW AT 75, I DID SO A FEW MONTHS AGO. THE TOUR OF HEMINGWAY'S HOME WAS UNIQUE AS WAS THE TOUR GUIDE FROM GERMANY, A STUDIED IN FRANCE. THE WALLS OF EVERY ROOM DESCRIBED SOME PART OF HEMINGWAY'S LIFE. FOR SOME REASON I RELATED MY LIFE TO HIM AND I DON'T KNOW WHY. PERHAPS MY LOVE OF CATS, AS HIS FELINE PALS REMAIN IN ANCESTRAL DNA, AND ARE BURIED ON SITE. HE WROTE FROM 6 AM TO 1230 THEN WENT DEEP SEA FISHING ONE OF HIS LOVES. HE WOULD VISIT IDAHO TO HUNT IN WINTER, AND NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY BEING BORN IN KANSAS. I WALKED THE STREETS AND VISITED OPEN AIR RESTAURANTS JUST IMAGINING HIS PRESENTS. THAN YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS.
A friend of mine had his wedding at the Hemingway House in Key West. When I went to Paris a few years ago, my favorite part was walking the streets and finding the places Hemingway wrote about in A Moveable Feast. I'm also a big fan of Ken Burns' documentaries so I've been waiting to watch this for years, since whenever they first announced it. 2021 felt so far away.
Yes. I enjoyed many of his short stories, and I liked "The Old Man and the Sea". I also liked his nonfiction "Death in the Afternoon". I never finished anything else he wrote because his sparse language lacked flair, and got boring.
@@peterpuleo2904 this is the risk. It's frustrating when writing courses suggest we write like Hemingway. His style is not appropriate for all writers, or writing, by any means, and is based in its own metaphysics and world view. Still, good to have in your toolkit 👍
Yep. But literature isn’t really journalism, is it? They kinda serve different purposes. Journalism is to inform. Literature should entertain and inspire, at least in my view.
@@tacktful this. Hemingway wrote at a time when reading was a pursuit for high faluting educated types....so he broke from convention and wrote like a layman which made his books an easy read for even the most barely literate person....
Rule #5: Know when to stop editing. In my quest for lean prose, I once starved a story by gradually removing salient details with each pass. The problem was I knew the characters and situations so well after multiple drafts that I unconsciously assumed the reader would be similarly familiar. It was like putting a fresh pencil in a sharpener and grinding until just a nub, thereby missing the point.
I must add, as child living in Cuba, I met the original Old Man Of The Sea. All school children visited his , Finca De Hemingway. I did not know what impact meeting this man would make later on. Thank you for your Channel..
Yes, but that may be the main reason (along with his subject matter) why Locke does not sell many books. For example, his Oxford collection has average sales of $67 per month on Amazon. Meanwhile, just one Hemingway book, "A Farewell to Arms" is still selling at the rate of $ 10,240 per month. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is doing $8,275 per month on Amazon. Those are the only two Hemingway titles I checked. So, short sentences win! :-) Of course, I hope you see I'm just playing. My facts are correct, but you need to consider the subject matter. That said, someone could probably make a load of money today if they re-wrote Locke so his circumlocutious sentences were more accessible to today's readers.
The writing positive rule really makes sense. Positive language is much more precise. If you say, "I did not feel good." that could mean you were feeling bad, or neutral. Negative language always bothers me for this reason. Inversely I think the rule can be broken for dialogue. Since realistic characters won't follow the rule, and also people use ambiguity to fool others. It might actually harm a story to have all the characters speaking, or thinking in positive language.
Can I add another great piece of advice? George Orwell told us to go over our work and cut out as many adjectives as possible. When we think we are done, cut out one more.
@@estebanb7166 being torn is compound interest for writing. if you like both, obey the 80/20 rule to have constraint. if constraint is a creative blocker, put on paper how you would best sum up your topic orally. if none of this helps, put up a corpus of 3 texts coming from your Praise list, observe yourself resonating with some parts of the text. try to get into that state of mind and scream write it. another one that helped greatly for me was "write drunk, edit sober" good luck
Beg to differ. Adjectives tell the story. Yes, they must be crisp, and apropos; but they are essential to a description. Without adjectives, every story would just be "Boy Meets Girl." But when you have, say, "Homely Boy Meets Beautiful Girl", now you have a story.
@@estebanb7166 Agreed. I was taught: "If you come across an adjective: Kill it." (Can't remember who said that.) I applied it on all my texts and stories, only to end up with precise, on-point albeit clinical, dead prose. I now use adjectives again, but only very specific ones, mostly weird, unexpected ones that help define characters in subtle, almost subtextual ways. I think this is the way. Mostly, when people tell you: "Don't do this or that AT ALL" or "always do this" they're not right. There's always middle ground. Which is where your personal truth lies.
@@Ekkobelli You don’t need adjectives to provide descriptions. Turn “It was a rainy or cloudy or windy or stormy day” to “The clouds had hidden the sun. “As the wind showed no mercy. Trees danced in solidarity, shaking off their leaves. And water had dominated the streets.” No adjectives but still vividly written.
Speaking of long sentences... Melville had em in spades... Moby dick's opening pages blew my mind... Fourteen commas, three colons, half a dozen semi colons before the first period shows up...
Hemingway is Hemingway. Style should depend on the subject matter and the author's voice; another author might prefer longer sentences and have a very good reason, too. And then you have the issue of different rhythm, syntax, etc. of various languages. It seems to me that "short" rules are arbitrary. Hemingway liked it that way, good for him. Years ago, Stephen King proposed eradicating adverbs altogether. Nonsense. There are very few rock-solid advice for writing and they are mostly not about style, but story, for example: to have some kind of conflict.
exactly! this video is advice on how to write like Hemingway, not how to write in general (or 'in specific'!). create your own style, but certainly writing is rewriting and rewriting and rewriting...
Couldn't agree more! My first rule for writing is that it is good to have something actually interesting to write about. Second rule, write the first chapter or paragraph last. Third rule, rewrite and rewrite until the rhythm is right.
agreed - i have read a couple writers on writing - and watched his video - and will watch others in the future - but not to let their style wholly supplant mine - but instead to gain some perspective on the art - and adopt what fits me - and ignore what doesn't
I understand why "good" is generally preferable to "not bad". Yet, "The movie was not bad" has a subtly different meaning than "The movie was good." An example like this may be exception worth considering.
One that really bothers me, people will write about an experience , a meal for example and will say or write - "I was not disappointed" I hate that double negative.
Another excellent resource for writers interested in honing their skills and ‘voice’ is George Orwell’s WHY I WRITE - a collection of four essays including POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Orwell clearly examines the power of writing exactly and the lazy mistakes writers often make.
Thanks for suggesting this resource. These days I'm wearing a t-shirt that says, "Let's Make Orwell Fiction Again." Orwell, above all, knew how political speech could be perverted by all political parties. Today, corporations are also engaged in the twisting of truth by the manipulation of words to change behavior.
VelocityWriting - LMOFA! LMFAO! “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
English has no grammatical case endings; hence, it is very easy to "get lost" in a complex English sentence, as the function of a word in the sentence is not obvious from word endings the way it is in German, Russian, or other inflected languages. A typical German or Dutch sentence may need to be split into 2-3 sentences in English.
Thanks for your comment, Dion. Yes, Wilde's florid aspect has its charm. But many today find it tedious, especially when compared to Hemingway's lean style. Some might say that Wilde reached the epitome of 19th century floridness. Hemingway was the pioneer of the sparse, modern 20th century style which has become common in our own century.
Wilde’s writing was neither decadent nor florid, rather, it was simply what some might call a pastoral sojourn amongst the lillies of the field, as they stretch out like waves upon the seas of prairies that dot our fair lands, but not stark and desiccated, rather, warm and pluvial as a newborn’s pate, filling the pages and chapters like running water fills the ruts and potholes of the roads that spiderweb through Yorkshire, guiding and sending their teeming merchants to and fro, like ants on their busy journeys, always industrious, always determined.
Yes, this was often true. However, Hemingway built his career on his sparse prose. He constantly cut his words to the bare minimum. Hemingway was once challenged to write a short story in six words. His response: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Unfortunately, we still are. That's why most of the stuff on the internet is rambling drivel (fluff). I'm just as guilty as I'm often told to "add more words."
thank you.... the Hemingway personification in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" comes to mind..... well done. short clips from a small town or city neighborhood..... punch writing...... works.
Thanks for your helpful video! I'm embarking on my own writing project that seems a bit daunting with my very modest writing skills, and so these Hemmingway Rules can only help.:-) I also appreciate that you left distracting background music out which has resulted with me Subscribing! Again, thanks much!
Ha! I agree. Mentors like myself don't use background music when they teach,. Do I ever use background music? Yes, and you'll know for sure it is a short promotional advertisement. :)
These are great tips. Especially about the need for rewriting.. The story is created in the first draft. Rewriting transforms it into something readable. A third and maybe a fourth rewrite turn it into something others might actually want to read.
Thanks for this videos, I am a writer myself so this is pretty helpful. I tried reading Hemmingway's short stories and they are awkward to read (If I can remember correctly.) but I find Hemmingway's life fascinating.
Good reminder, Dave. I've been to the Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West. Writers will have a positive experience visiting the place where he lived and worked from 1931 to 1939. I've also visited a few of his hangouts in Paris.
I'm going to start writing this year. Short stories and poems for the next twelve months. My life experiences can influence your free will. This is your one and only warning 🙂
Oscar Wilde used a sentence 127 words long. So the idea of using short sentences is shot down immediately by an equally successful writer. I think the trick to be good at writing is simply, write a lot.
I've started writing in short sentences. Can you tell? I wrote some long sentences to see if I could do it. The longest was 250 words. I see it as an exercise in grammar.
The short sentence school vs long sentence school debate rages on. I'm inclined to think that the preference for short(er) sentences is related to the laziness of many readers as much as to the streamlining tendencies of the journalistic style in general. You can certainly sell a lot of mediocre writing with a style that substitutes a succinct and bare "descriptivism" for the complexities and difficulties of actual thought. Then again, is good writing supposed to be about the clutter and noise of the mind, or something closer to an accessible truth, an obvious, clear conviction about something? You cannot compare a Faulkner or a Nabokov with Hemingway, at any rate. Personally, I prefer a good dose of difficulty in my fiction, something that irritates and unsettles my rock-solid view of the world, my alpha male, patriarchal penis-centered picture of tabulated, registered "things". If succinct, concise, positive, descriptions are the order of the day -- good enough. These formulations are valid -- maybe ten percent of the time; but they tend towards statistical presumption, too, and are often just so many instances of prevarication and bluster. A reader who does not "read" well, is going to find the going rough anyway. The schools teach us that reading anything at all with full comprehension, with a studied appreciation, is an almost instinctive activity, and then they go on to suggest that our writing should likewise be just as natural, or unadorned. No writing is natural or unadorned. Nature is not natural or unadorned. Because of language, one suspects. I have one complaint, but with myself rather than Hemingway: I do not re-read him as I do other "great" authors. It is too much like reading the same newspaper story twice.
You make a lot of assumptions, Walt. And I do applaud your idealism. But in the real world, the role of effective writers is to inform or entertain readers, not define their literary tastes. Educators should be doing that in classrooms, but by-and-large, they have been failing students in horrible ways in that regard in recent decades. Your most questionable assumption is the link between a difficult reading level and a person being jolted out of their existing world view. There is no meaningful connection. As you are aware, people tend to change their views (if they change them at all) based on simplistic propaganda, not complex reasoned arguments. Again, I blame educators for that. Today, they teach students what to think, not how to think. Yes, I agree with you that, "You cannot compare a Faulkner or a Nabokov with Hemingway...." Nor should anyone try to do that. Each had their own time, place, sensibilities, and style. Each is a separate diamond on the golden chain of literature. Maintain your idealism. But remember we are writing for people as we find them. We are not writing for writing's sake.
@VelocityWriting I'm quickly bored with short sentences. I read in french, sometimes you can only understand the meaning of a sentence by the way words are spelled (lots of rules in french). I appreciate the musicality of a writer, as long as it's understandable (Nietzsche is sometimes difficut). Anyway, an artist should follow his path without trying to seduce his audience. That's how you end up writing the same shitty songs with four chords everyone composes. If you are Kipling or Joyce, you write like you have to. If you have no talent, rules won't give you any.
I agree with you about the importance of musicality of writing. Good writing flows like a symphony. Tempo is important, and in writing the notes (so to speak) are simple, complex and compound sentences. And the turn of a phrase is always important, and that's in the writer's or conductor's hand, isn't it? Less legato, and slower crescendo and all that. Unfortunately, I agree less with you when it comes to 3-4 chord songs. The world still gets a thrill when they hear songs like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Surfin' U.S.A." And you say, "Without seducing his audience"? Oh no! The point of all art is to seduce your audience. If you are not trying to do that, you're doing your art wrong.
@@VelocityWriting I disagree. Great artists follow an inner necessity. That's why Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was booed. Bach wrote masses for God. I want to hold your hand ? Bad example, it's a silly song, while Paul McCartney wrote absolute jewels, Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby, For no one and many others which are really interesting on the paper. People listen more and more to crap. They watch crap, as the cinema industry has become a disgrace with franchises for retarded. And when they read, they read fast food books with short sentences and no sense. Artists have to make a living. But real artists, geniusses, don't let this decide what they paint, write or compose. Jung expressed some interesting ideas about genius. He thought personal elements were a flaw in art. That's why we say "Mozart is a man talking to God, Bach is God talking to men". Bach's music is cosmic. I don't know Hemingway enough, I read several books but I was not astonished by his style. You know Proust, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Camus, Aragon, Dos Passos, Garcia Marquez, Durrell, Yourcenar, Joyce and hundreds of great talents lived partially or totally during the XXth century so I'm not sure there is a "greatest" author.
You have strong points and some weak ones too. Too many points to discuss in a forum like this. But I'm pleased you have been willing to think through the process with me and other viewers. Thank you.
To Have and Have Not. Probably my favorite book of all time. In my opinion an awesome story. Incredible cast of characters. Terrific story about boaters.
Writing a personal memoir has taught many a scribe how memory actually does fade with age. Four shoe boxes of notes to the rescue. It all started with a 12th grade English assignment to write a detailed recollection of the important events and people in our lives up to that moment in time. "Since this class is reported to be the brightest with the highest IQ scores, there is a reasonable possibility that one two or three of you might write your memoir someday," we all laughed at the complimentary humour, "and the one two three or four of you will want to thank me far, far, far in the future, but I'm retiring at the end of this school year. Most of your ages are around 18 and I'm 67, so I'll be long, long gone by the time you stop joking about writing your memoir and start writing one." (Rest assured during your next rest cycle, knowing that Ms. Collins did not then ask us to do the math. It was an English class. Digression complete! ) My 43 page type written, double spaced second draft has moved with me to at least 15 addresses. Over the years, Ms. Collins ingenious suggestions dictated an invaluable collection of memory jogging data which included every address I ever lived at, every phone number, names and phone numbers of every building manager, boss, work friends, staff lists, car salesmen, high school teachers, mentors, room mates, best friends, aunts, uncles, cousins and my bully list. Fifty-five years in four shoe boxes. So why is my up to the moment spillage turning into a Sci-Fi mystery reveal that has movie script potential? Nope. It's not about orifice-probing aliens from outer space. [ EDITED FOR YOU-TUBE AUDIENCE MEMBERS WITH SHORT TO NORMAL ATTENTION SPANS ]
I'm glad you are writing a personal memoir. It will be your legacy to your family and others. Also, it gives me the opportunity to plug my upcoming online course about how to write biographies for fun and profit. I have ghostwritten dozens of "autobiographies" for others and it is one of the most lucrative kinds of writing I have ever done. The course has not been released as of this date, but when it is, you can find it here: learn.velocitywriting.com/
Be confident when you write, don't be afraid to be unconventional. I've used the word "But" to start a sentence when I felt it was needed. And yes the best work will indeed have 3 maybe 4 draft's.
I went back a few months ago to reread one of Hemingway's novels. It's quite a thing to read an artist's work when you are young and to bring all that extra baggage back to their work over the years. The rhythms of the work felt awkward and it was hard for me to get into it. Is it possible for literary tastes to change so much over the years? I'm certainly more critical of what I read now, but Hemingway was one of the authors that got me interested in literature. Also the advice about an good opening paragraph is simply cliche. It's the easiest thing to tell a novice and it's a great way to make them crazy. Is this opening interesting enough? Has it been overdone? Is there a better way to tell it? Shouldn't someone die in the first paragraph? What about starting it with a mystery? Maybe it should be like a Michael Bay movie and have a slow motion explosion in the opening paragraph.
Thank you for the thoughtful observations. Yes, both literature and literary tastes change for individuals and society. Remember, Hemingway is heralded as the greatest 20th century novelist and we have moved on. He broke new ground, but others are doing that now. For example, you point out that saying a good opening sentence is "simply cliche." That advice was new and fresh with Hemingway. He broke new ground that seems ordinary today. Oscar Wilde was considered the greatest 19th century popular writer in English by many people. He started "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with about a 125 word opening sentence. Some 18th and 19th century fiction had opening sentences that ran several pages. So, you have to keep these things in context. Hemingway was an exceptional writer. We call all learn from his approach and his sensibilities.
remember even the Nobel committee has subjective views; bob Dylan won for his songs--he was so surprised, for 6 months he refused to believe the award was nothing more than a hoax; Alice Munro won the Nobel. have you read her short stories? absolute nonsense.
Rule (5): Call the unamazing amazing. That's how mediocrity advertises itself in the business of writing. Rule (6): Strain for effect in your opening paragraph. That's how to grab the attention of readers who have no business reading in the first place (see Rule 5 above).
Sorry, you're a little too cynical for me. You are entitled to your opinion, but I'd say you are going 100 mph/kph down a dead-end street. Our job as communicators is to encode data (write) in a way so readers can easily decode our word symbols (read) them so that an exchange of consciousness takes place. A superficial elitism like yours will not change hearts and minds.
Henry James probably epitomizes the long sentence. His late work had a distinctly ornate beauty, but this advice cuts to what strikes an impression most effectively and is a world more useful.
Please take this as an observation, not a criticism. Following one's own advice is difficult, even for the great Hemingway. In the quote at the 5 minute mark, he says, "No man [...] can fail to write well if he abides with them." Given your interpretation of his fourth piece of advice, "be positive, not negative," I submit this sentence should be written, "Any man [...] will write well if he abides with them."
I re-read it a few months ago. It is so haunting, so human. We all need to have more strength of spirit like the old man. It's a worthwhile read for the COVID-19 era or anytime.
Most people want to set up Faulkner in opposition to Hemingway, but, like you, I always think of Proust. I find these “rules” as too rigid. I find beauty in both approaches. The short jabs of Hemingway and the detailed and lush, long-winding sentences of Proust both illustrate the many avenues of the art.
"...vigorous language..." is the key. Short sentences help. But in any medium: fiction, journalism, song lyrics (think Bob Dylan), it is searing, indelible images that carry the moment.
A lot of sage advice, but I would like to focus on the single point I think requires clarification. Using short sentences - what does that mean exactly? In high school, "For sale: baby shoes never worn." was held up as an example of great, compact writing. However, for me, as a teacher of writing and a daily practitioner, I have always preached variety in sentence structure. A short sentence carries impact, but I don't always want impact. Hemingway was indeed one of the best in terms of putting one word after another, but my vote for the greatest writer of the 20th century PG Wodehouse. A writer second only to Shakespeare in my mind. Thanks for the video. TTFN
The short sentences part was amusing. It's a good rule. It's also a rule that can be broken to incredible effect, as Stephen King does in the second opening sentence of The Regulators, a line that goes on for an incredible 150 words! His first line, however, is: "Summer's here." (The second line paints a vivid mental picture using breathless prose, capturing the excitement and high-energy of that season.)
I agree completely. Why don't grammar/english teachers use Tolkien, or Lewis, or any number of other such examples of highly acclaimed writers, to teach kids? Why is the work of Clemens (or, "Twain", if you prefer), who (most excellently, I admit) writes of times no average student can relate to, still mandatory reading for elementary students? My dad got me interested in reading by introducing me to "The Hobbit"... he read the first few chapters to me then told me I'd have to read the rest myself. I started reading then, and never stopped. I have always found Hemmingway to be rather pedantic and depressing. Long ago, I read "Crime and Punishment"... once I got used to the stylistic eccentricities of the work, and was able to somewhat place myself mentally in the times and circumstances of the story, I found that book to be far more captivating than anything I ever read by Hemmingway. Far too much of what passes for education is left to the devices of automatons and bureaucrats. Programmed courses planned by committees far removed from life, or even from the typical classroom.
@@SamlovesLulu Yes! I got hooked on reading after "the hobbit". I believe it was 8th or 9th grade reading requirement. I remember enjoying tscarlet letter requirement in 10th grade. 12th grade was Shakespeare's verse memorization. I disliked senior year English literature.
In my writing, I extend Hemingway's advice about short opening paragraphs to most paragraphs. Unless there is a reason to do otherwise, I keep most paragraphs in the 3-5 sentence range. I use what I call the "pee" rule: If someone suddenly has the urge to pee just as they start the paragraph, they should be able to get to the end of the paragraph (a good stopping point) before they have to "go". This rule not only makes it more convenient for modern readers to start and stop reading as real life insists, but it also keeps things moving and helps turn the book into a page-turner with its own sustained momentum.
'In my writing, I extend Hemmingway's advice...' - If you are planning to be a writer it's a good idea to get the small details right - like spelling Hemingway Hemingway.
Do you know where you are, Foggy? This is the internet. Almost everything is a first draft---young people trying to learn, fast typers (or spell-checkers) creating typos. or people trying to express themselves in English as a second language. Be kind. Writers know the best writing begins to appear in the second or third draft, and we don't have opportunity for that kind of revision in this ephemeral medium.
That is interesting. David Farland in his wonderful course on enchanting prose recalls his female reader who loved his book so much that she stayed up all night to finish reading it AND didn't even go to the toilet AND landed in hospital with urinal infection. So... yeah...good that you care for your readers. The danger is real.
I love the Hemingway rules... (I've written for radio, and the short sentence is a must, with striking images/similes, etc...), they keep one on the straight and narrow ("be positive.... then he shot himself...) On the other hand, being beholden to a generation of cursory readers is bad for your own expression... The writer has a voice. If everyone sounds like Hemingway, you'll get the kind of standardization that pop music and Hollywood films suffer from.
I love the minimalist. It's hard to study in the French language. This style reminds me of comic books and cinema. Dominance of Actions and Dialogues, Attention to Small Details and Focus on Present (Scenes) [Biography and Flash-Back belongs to Past, Vision, Question (What he is going to do?) and Condition (If... Else) to Future] You have to use before and even after elements to understand what is behind the lines. For amusement, I took extracts from book and rewrite them in minimalist style. With or without the redundant, we have the same story. "He can't resist to blush" becomes "He blushes". One need an emotional investment, the other already did it. Ernest Hemingway teaches to treats words as tool of description, not as a tool of word play. One thing is important: story focuses on the plot. Don't distract the reader.
You say, "For amusement, I took extracts from book and rewrite them in minimalist style." Let me say, that is more than amusement. It is a commonly overlooked way to enhance their writing skills. In the old classic schools of art, students were encouraged to copy great paintings. That is how they developed their eye and improved their techniques, which they later applied to their own unique paintings. Sadly, writers do not do the same thing. They are fearful of the fake monster called "plagiarism." That fear has a chilling effect on creativity. However, I want to encourage you to rewrite the work of great writers and learn from the experience. You have been doing that with your minimalist approach and I urge you to continue. Apply what you learn to your own unique work.
Great artists steal? If so, it's how they do it. And if they do it correctly, it's not stealing. I wrote this a year or more ago. velocitywriting.com/plagiarism-in-creative-context/
Thank you for reading my article linked above. I'm repurposing it into a YT video that will be available soon. Yes, as you see, both "stealing ideas" and "self-plagiarism" are completely absurd concepts. Academics are being manipulative by connecting the evolution of thought to "honesty." Of course, such notions have a chilling effect on creative writing, and that is unconscionable.
When I was English 102, the English Department Head had us, first day of class, write an extemporaneous paper. We did. We turned in our papers and when the class next met the professor returned our papers, graded. I was the only one who received a passing grade--B+ with the comment "Good style." He later said, Mr. Pruett you have a good style but you tend to be wordy. However, your wordiness is critical to your style. If there's any way you can cut down on your words without ruining your style, do it." I've struggled with this ever since. It's taken me 40 years to maintain a style that is--perhaps--interesting BECAUSE of my 'wordiness.'
Your professor gave you good advice. But I understand your dilemma. Wordiness is usually a bad habit except in those cases when it comes across as a stroke of genius. It is often hard to know when to write with precision, and when to let it flow. Personally, I have spent my entire writing life "tightening it up." :-)
A first draft gets you 80% there. A rewrite gets you 90% there. An edit gets you 95% there, and that's where you stop. Beyond that, it's diminished returns. If you go for perfection, you will never finish. You may not even start. In sailing, being 80% undersail is optimal. The same is true with life and baseball.
Yes, there is wisdom in what you say about the writing/revision/editing process. Perfectionism is a curse, not a virtue. My favorite quote on this comes from football coach Vince Lombardi. He said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."
Get the title right. One bell. Ernest took the title from a John Donne quote: “.....any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. “ If memory serves, this quote is printed on the opening page, opposite the first page of the text.
Input always appreciated, Socrate. If you look at the very top post, which I added a year ago at this writing, I apologized for my verbal typo. You must have overlooked my apology, but it's there and it's sincere. Maybe we could take the "s" from my misspoken "bells" and add it to your name. It's Socrates to most of the world, not Socrate. :-)
I'm glad you received value from the video. Thank you for your comment. Back when I taught hour-long classes on the university level, I summarized points for students. You know, "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." Should I do that for a 6-minute video? I think I would get complaints for being redundant. That's why I seldom do it in videos. People would leave because they would say, "You just said that" and not watch to the end. I offer expanded content for almost all of my videos and normally include a "round-up" in them. I appreciate what you're saying, but it is hard enough to retain eyes, and repeating myself will kill viewing time.
@@VelocityWriting Hi & thanks for the answer. I see the conundrum, but I thought of just listing the four rules on a single page, without any further comment, at the end, as a summary, so that the interested listener can take one screenshot instead of four. - The rules are indeed worth gold!
Thanks Jan. You are not wrong. I agree with you. Others have too. A few have even listed the four rules in the comments. I always delete them because I think all "spoilers" (books, movies, etc.) do not deserve to be heard. I strongly believe in free speech, but am equally strong in my beliefs about bad manners. I invest a lot of time in my videos and spoilers are unwelcome. However, know that I've been rethinking the need for summaries in my videos, so your comment was valuable to me.
True story. I was forced to write a number of term papers in college. One professor objected to my use of short sentences. He wrote that my paper was "too journalistic" and gave it a "B." I took it as a compliment -- his comment, not the grade.
Hemingway's famous 1940 novel is, "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Please excuse the slip of the lip in this video.
You're forgiven.
It's a reference to a John Donne poem.
An innocent parapraxis. I survived.
You scared me!
Inoticed that one. Interestingly, in Spanish the title was shifted to "Por quién doblan las campanas" (For Whom the Bells Toll). Not that I would read Hemingway in Spanish (or any Spanish-language writer in English, for that matter).
My favourite literary joke:
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"To die. Alone. In the rain."
- Ernest Hemingway
Was that on a dark and stormy night? lol
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? A: Because the road had made the chicken cross first. Getting even y'see.
This is hilarious. I feel like it sums up all his work.
On a dark. Stormy. Night.
This is a great challenge! Like a koan, I'll cling to it until I'm weary, unsure that the answer will...Papa you fox!
"The highest form of architecture is the building of a sentence." ~ CHARLES F. HAANEL
King Master Supreme - Damn!
that\s s really good saying. Thank you for it...
Lol any architect will tell you that’s a lie
@@Cherem777 cute saying, yes. My rule of thumb: don’t read poetry written by engineers and don’t walk across bridges designed by poets.
In a college English class, best thing I ever learned was, when writing, go ahead and write your paper, and then go back and cross out any words that are not necessary. Seems simple and kind of silly. I used that for years, in anything I wrote and MAN what a help. Best thing I ever learned in college (and.I was a math major). FYI: Hemingway would not have approved of my first sentence in this comment.
Great tip!
Should have applied it to this comment lol.
Thanks for the tip.
@@maskednil #Truth!
"I learned, write your paper, then cross out unnecessary words." There ya go! It is true.
@@tropicaldoodad somehow this feels clinical and dry compared to his version
Don't forget to break every one of these rules when you must.
I'd say you have made an important comment, Don. Hemingway broke the stodgy 19th century writing rules, and it helped him achieve fame and fortune in the 20th century. We should all be learning from the greats like Hemingway, but we should not be afraid to break rules when we must.
In my experience, immature writers break the rules just because they can. They think they are so radical. Sadly, they end up as poor communicators. On the other hand, mature writers know when to break the rules and why they are doing it. We should all be breaking the rules when we must.
Hemingway deserves to be read along with many other writers with different styles. Not every writer needs to conform to Hemingway.
@@VelocityWriting You are a kind and gracious soul.
"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." Though said by Pablo Picasso it applies to all art forms.
@@happylittletrees5668 I think this has been said by every major figure of any art form lol
I don't know how I stumbled upon this. I do know however that this was made with care and expertise in order to instruct and encourage writers everywhere. Thank you
Rule 5: write drunk, edit sober.
Rule 6: marry a wife who can correct your bad spelling and poor punctuation.
Ha! We can all add our own rules. One of my personal rules is to fact-check. For example, "the write drunk, edit sober" thing is part of lore and not accurate. Ernest Hemingway put to rest rumors about the role of alcohol in his writing. He said, "My training was never to drink after dinner nor before I wrote nor while I was writing."
Of course, we all probably know from experience we can't edit when we are under the influence of anything. Cognitive brain function is severely diminished.
A spouse of friend correcting your work? Hmm. I discuss that in this video: th-cam.com/video/0khZSkKcIPI/w-d-xo.html
I'm married to a girl named Grammarly.
@@subscribe_to_bimble damn
What Hemingway is doing is giving the tips to create a punchy, impactful style of writing, like his own. It is just one style though. His 'rules' create a particular texture and ethos to a story which matched his themes and content. Other writers may wish to create a different texture and ethos to match their own content and preoccupations.
Thank you for your intelligent analysis and application. I have said this many times. You said it better.
In my opinion "A farewell to arms" is his best
Yep.
The same rules easily apply to navigating Marriage, Career and your horrific new neighbors.
'The Boy in the Bubble' by Paul Simon is strikingly Hemingway in the opening lyric:
"It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio."
Echoes of Hemingway dispatches from In Our Time. One paragraph tells the entire story. Only two adjectives.
I'm an English Language and Literature student and I've just found your channel and I love it! Your speech is very clear and understandable!
Thank you! Much appreciated. Please spread the word about this channel.
@@VelocityWriting you are the most humble 'tone" that I ever heard, requesting so softly to subscribe. No wonder I became a fan.
I greatly admire Hemingway but also Wilde and many other prose stylists who used long sentences, full of dependent clauses, which mimic both in form and content the variety of subtle and contradictory impulses of the human condition while at the same time induct the reader into the broad and majestic river of language that draws one forward into a mellifluous immersion in the music of language which differs only in kind, not in quality, to the mountain brook clarity of Earnest Hemingway.
That was such a beautiful paragraph
Well put. ;v)
I'm a visual artist writing a work statement at the moment. For me, Hemigway's style is akin to minimalist contemporary art. The key words here are -- "laconic" and "impact". Wilde is decorative arts, William Morris tapestry, Renaissance motifs. Both are hugely important for building good taste in all sorts of abstract thinking. But Hemingway is another level of modernity and relevance
so beautiful words
I absolutely love Hemingway. But... Wilde's novel is brilliant, too. I think it is a bit short-sighted to call his style tedious. It just requires a different mind-set to appreciate it.
I concur.
Hemingway is like baking soda biscuits.
Wilde is like a complicated braided cinnamon bread.
Different, but both are good.
The late great crime writer Elmore Leonard stated that Hemingway’s work had a profound influence on his writing style. The splendid economy of his writing over a span of over 60 years confirm the lessons he learned by appreciating Hemingway’s approach to effective writing.
Absolutely!
Charles Dickens was my earliest realization of differing and personal writing styles, but now is the time to find, adapt, readapt, or merely ontinue to sharpen that individual writing style by any & virtually every human alive, The written word has never been as strong, so the Internet has been sculpting far greater communications for humanity.
JUST THE NAME HEMINGWAY MADE ME WANT TO VISIT KEY WEST FLORIDA FOR YEARS. NOW AT 75, I DID SO A FEW MONTHS AGO. THE TOUR OF HEMINGWAY'S HOME WAS UNIQUE AS WAS THE TOUR GUIDE FROM GERMANY, A STUDIED IN FRANCE. THE WALLS OF EVERY ROOM DESCRIBED SOME PART OF HEMINGWAY'S LIFE. FOR SOME REASON I RELATED MY LIFE TO HIM AND I DON'T KNOW WHY. PERHAPS MY LOVE OF CATS, AS HIS FELINE PALS REMAIN IN ANCESTRAL DNA, AND ARE BURIED ON SITE. HE WROTE FROM 6 AM TO 1230 THEN WENT DEEP SEA FISHING ONE OF HIS LOVES. HE WOULD VISIT IDAHO TO HUNT IN WINTER, AND NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY BEING BORN IN KANSAS. I WALKED THE STREETS AND VISITED OPEN AIR RESTAURANTS JUST IMAGINING HIS PRESENTS. THAN YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS.
A friend of mine had his wedding at the Hemingway House in Key West. When I went to Paris a few years ago, my favorite part was walking the streets and finding the places Hemingway wrote about in A Moveable Feast. I'm also a big fan of Ken Burns' documentaries so I've been waiting to watch this for years, since whenever they first announced it. 2021 felt so far away.
Stop shouting at us!
Most of his style is almost identical to what is taught in journalism courses.
Yes. I enjoyed many of his short stories, and I liked "The Old Man and the Sea". I also liked his nonfiction "Death in the Afternoon". I never finished anything else he wrote because his sparse language lacked flair, and got boring.
@@peterpuleo2904 this is the risk. It's frustrating when writing courses suggest we write like Hemingway. His style is not appropriate for all writers, or writing, by any means, and is based in its own metaphysics and world view. Still, good to have in your toolkit 👍
Yep. But literature isn’t really journalism, is it? They kinda serve different purposes. Journalism is to inform. Literature should entertain and inspire, at least in my view.
@@tacktful this. Hemingway wrote at a time when reading was a pursuit for high faluting educated types....so he broke from convention and wrote like a layman which made his books an easy read for even the most barely literate person....
@@peterpuleo2904 I never understood why Hemingway is supposed to be the best. Luckily Im not alone.
Thank you Sir. I'll be pleased to watch another video about Jack London's Style of writing. keep up your work.
Rule #5: Know when to stop editing. In my quest for lean prose, I once starved a story by gradually removing salient details with each pass. The problem was I knew the characters and situations so well after multiple drafts that I unconsciously assumed the reader would be similarly familiar. It was like putting a fresh pencil in a sharpener and grinding until just a nub, thereby missing the point.
You make a good point which is often overlooked.
Great point. I totally agree.
I must add, as child living in Cuba, I met the original Old Man Of The Sea. All school children visited his , Finca De Hemingway. I did not know what impact meeting this man would make later on. Thank you for your Channel..
Thanks for sharing!
Short sentences, long sentences. It's about pacing and variation.
Thanks for creating this tutorial featuring the skills of Ernest Hemingway. Cheers!
And now we have novels that read like they're written by copywriters - because they are written by copywriters.
I really liked the positive versus negative point, as I've never heard it before.
When you mentioned extended sentences, I immediately remembered reading John Locke who sometimes seems to fill more than a page with one sentence
Yes, but that may be the main reason (along with his subject matter) why Locke does not sell many books. For example, his Oxford collection has average sales of $67 per month on Amazon.
Meanwhile, just one Hemingway book, "A Farewell to Arms" is still selling at the rate of $ 10,240 per month. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is doing $8,275 per month on Amazon. Those are the only two Hemingway titles I checked.
So, short sentences win! :-)
Of course, I hope you see I'm just playing. My facts are correct, but you need to consider the subject matter. That said, someone could probably make a load of money today if they re-wrote Locke so his circumlocutious sentences were more accessible to today's readers.
Love Hemingway. There‘s before Hemingway and after Hemingway.
The writing positive rule really makes sense. Positive language is much more precise. If you say, "I did not feel good." that could mean you were feeling bad, or neutral. Negative language always bothers me for this reason. Inversely I think the rule can be broken for dialogue. Since realistic characters won't follow the rule, and also people use ambiguity to fool others. It might actually harm a story to have all the characters speaking, or thinking in positive language.
Thanks for explaining. I never understood what was wrong with it
Can I add another great piece of advice? George Orwell told us to go over our work and cut out as many adjectives as possible. When we think we are done, cut out one more.
I love Orwell's writing, but I'm also a fan of judiciously deployed adjectives. I'm torn.
@@estebanb7166 being torn is compound interest for writing.
if you like both, obey the 80/20 rule to have constraint.
if constraint is a creative blocker, put on paper how you would best sum up your topic orally.
if none of this helps, put up a corpus of 3 texts coming from your Praise list, observe yourself resonating with some parts of the text. try to get into that state of mind and scream write it.
another one that helped greatly for me was "write drunk, edit sober"
good luck
Beg to differ.
Adjectives tell the story.
Yes, they must be crisp, and apropos; but they are essential to a description.
Without adjectives, every story would just be "Boy Meets Girl."
But when you have, say, "Homely Boy Meets Beautiful Girl", now you have a story.
@@estebanb7166 Agreed. I was taught: "If you come across an adjective: Kill it." (Can't remember who said that.) I applied it on all my texts and stories, only to end up with precise, on-point albeit clinical, dead prose. I now use adjectives again, but only very specific ones, mostly weird, unexpected ones that help define characters in subtle, almost subtextual ways. I think this is the way. Mostly, when people tell you: "Don't do this or that AT ALL" or "always do this" they're not right. There's always middle ground. Which is where your personal truth lies.
@@Ekkobelli You don’t need adjectives to provide descriptions. Turn “It was a rainy or cloudy or windy or stormy day” to “The clouds had hidden the sun. “As the wind showed no mercy. Trees danced in solidarity, shaking off their leaves. And water had dominated the streets.” No adjectives but still vividly written.
Speaking of long sentences... Melville had em in spades... Moby dick's opening pages blew my mind... Fourteen commas, three colons, half a dozen semi colons before the first period shows up...
Melville > Hemingway
Hemingway is Hemingway. Style should depend on the subject matter and the author's voice; another author might prefer longer sentences and have a very good reason, too. And then you have the issue of different rhythm, syntax, etc. of various languages. It seems to me that "short" rules are arbitrary. Hemingway liked it that way, good for him. Years ago, Stephen King proposed eradicating adverbs altogether. Nonsense. There are very few rock-solid advice for writing and they are mostly not about style, but story, for example: to have some kind of conflict.
exactly! this video is advice on how to write like Hemingway, not how to write in general (or 'in specific'!). create your own style, but certainly writing is rewriting and rewriting and rewriting...
Couldn't agree more! My first rule for writing is that it is good to have something actually interesting to write about. Second rule, write the first chapter or paragraph last. Third rule, rewrite and rewrite until the rhythm is right.
agreed - i have read a couple writers on writing - and watched his video - and will watch others in the future - but not to let their style wholly supplant mine - but instead to gain some perspective on the art - and adopt what fits me - and ignore what doesn't
I understand why "good" is generally preferable to "not bad". Yet, "The movie was not bad" has a subtly different meaning than "The movie was good." An example like this may be exception worth considering.
Thank you for these enlightening tips.
Glad it was helpful!
One that really bothers me, people will write about an experience , a meal for example and will say or write - "I was not disappointed" I hate that double negative.
I wonder what Hemingway would think of James Ellroy's recent work. OutHemingways the man himself. Arguably.
I have subscribed.
Hemingway is great. No doubts about that. But his rules are about dealing whith bad readers more than about what good writing is.
Another excellent resource for writers interested in honing their skills and ‘voice’ is George Orwell’s WHY I WRITE - a collection of four essays including POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Orwell clearly examines the power of writing exactly and the lazy mistakes writers often make.
Thanks for suggesting this resource. These days I'm wearing a t-shirt that says, "Let's Make Orwell Fiction Again." Orwell, above all, knew how political speech could be perverted by all political parties.
Today, corporations are also engaged in the twisting of truth by the manipulation of words to change behavior.
VelocityWriting - LMOFA! LMFAO!
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
English has no grammatical case endings; hence, it is very easy to "get lost" in a complex English sentence, as the function of a word in the sentence is not obvious from word endings the way it is in German, Russian, or other inflected languages. A typical German or Dutch sentence may need to be split into 2-3 sentences in English.
I wouldn't say The Picture of Dorian Gray had a 'tedious' writing style, though Wilde's writing was decadent and florid...
Thanks for your comment, Dion. Yes, Wilde's florid aspect has its charm. But many today find it tedious, especially when compared to Hemingway's lean style. Some might say that Wilde reached the epitome of 19th century floridness. Hemingway was the pioneer of the sparse, modern 20th century style which has become common in our own century.
@Mark Jones yes, precisely.
Of course...
But most people are not Oscar Wilde.
Wilde’s writing was neither decadent nor florid, rather, it was simply what some might call a pastoral sojourn amongst the lillies of the field, as they stretch out like waves upon the seas of prairies that dot our fair lands, but not stark and desiccated, rather, warm and pluvial as a newborn’s pate, filling the pages and chapters like running water fills the ruts and potholes of the roads that spiderweb through Yorkshire, guiding and sending their teeming merchants to and fro, like ants on their busy journeys, always industrious, always determined.
Nothing what I never heard before, but a very good explanation video. TY
Those old guys were wordy because they were getting paid by the word
Yes, this was often true. However, Hemingway built his career on his sparse prose. He constantly cut his words to the bare minimum. Hemingway was once challenged to write a short story in six words. His response: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Unfortunately, we still are. That's why most of the stuff on the internet is rambling drivel (fluff). I'm just as guilty as I'm often told to "add more words."
I don't want to arrest their attention, I want to vault them into the story, to experience it from the first word.
thank you.... the Hemingway personification in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" comes to mind..... well done.
short clips from a small town or city neighborhood..... punch writing...... works.
Awesome video. Clear and concise, like Hemingway himself
Just say 'cheap', not 'economical'.
They aren't always the same.
Thanks for your helpful video! I'm embarking on my own writing project that seems a bit daunting with my very modest writing skills, and so these Hemmingway Rules can only help.:-)
I also appreciate that you left distracting background music out which has resulted with me Subscribing! Again, thanks much!
Ha! I agree. Mentors like myself don't use background music when they teach,. Do I ever use background music? Yes, and you'll know for sure it is a short promotional advertisement. :)
These are great tips. Especially about the need for rewriting.. The story is created in the first draft. Rewriting transforms it into something readable. A third and maybe a fourth rewrite turn it into something others might actually want to read.
LOVE THIS! Thank you! I've watched it 4 times, and I'm subscribing now.
I didn't know he was a KC Gentleman
Thanks for this videos, I am a writer myself so this is pretty helpful. I tried reading Hemmingway's short stories and they are awkward to read (If I can remember correctly.) but I find Hemmingway's life fascinating.
You will enjoy visiting the Hemingway Home and Museum someday. You will get a lot out of it.
Good reminder, Dave. I've been to the Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West. Writers will have a positive experience visiting the place where he lived and worked from 1931 to 1939. I've also visited a few of his hangouts in Paris.
I'm going to start writing this year. Short stories and poems for the next twelve months. My life experiences can influence your free will. This is your one and only warning 🙂
Thank you! Greetings from Brazil!
Welcome! Thanks for visiting. Did you subscribe and click the bell? More good stuff coming. :-)
@@VelocityWriting Yeah, I did
A Farewell to Arms is probably his most beloved and most enduring novel.
Oscar Wilde used a sentence 127 words long. So the idea of using short sentences is shot down immediately by an equally successful writer. I think the trick to be good at writing is simply, write a lot.
Powerful video. Thanks for the writing tips.
I've started writing in short sentences. Can you tell? I wrote some long sentences to see if I could do it. The longest was 250 words. I see it as an exercise in grammar.
The short sentence school vs long sentence school debate rages on. I'm inclined to think that the preference for short(er) sentences is related to the laziness of many readers as much as to the streamlining tendencies of the journalistic style in general. You can certainly sell a lot of mediocre writing with a style that substitutes a succinct and bare "descriptivism" for the complexities and difficulties of actual thought. Then again, is good writing supposed to be about the clutter and noise of the mind, or something closer to an accessible truth, an obvious, clear conviction about something? You cannot compare a Faulkner or a Nabokov with Hemingway, at any rate. Personally, I prefer a good dose of difficulty in my fiction, something that irritates and unsettles my rock-solid view of the world, my alpha male, patriarchal penis-centered picture of tabulated, registered "things". If succinct, concise, positive, descriptions are the order of the day -- good enough. These formulations are valid -- maybe ten percent of the time; but they tend towards statistical presumption, too, and are often just so many instances of prevarication and bluster. A reader who does not "read" well, is going to find the going rough anyway. The schools teach us that reading anything at all with full comprehension, with a studied appreciation, is an almost instinctive activity, and then they go on to suggest that our writing should likewise be just as natural, or unadorned. No writing is natural or unadorned. Nature is not natural or unadorned. Because of language, one suspects. I have one complaint, but with myself rather than Hemingway: I do not re-read him as I do other "great" authors. It is too much like reading the same newspaper story twice.
You make a lot of assumptions, Walt. And I do applaud your idealism. But in the real world, the role of effective writers is to inform or entertain readers, not define their literary tastes. Educators should be doing that in classrooms, but by-and-large, they have been failing students in horrible ways in that regard in recent decades.
Your most questionable assumption is the link between a difficult reading level and a person being jolted out of their existing world view. There is no meaningful connection. As you are aware, people tend to change their views (if they change them at all) based on simplistic propaganda, not complex reasoned arguments. Again, I blame educators for that. Today, they teach students what to think, not how to think.
Yes, I agree with you that, "You cannot compare a Faulkner or a Nabokov with Hemingway...." Nor should anyone try to do that. Each had their own time, place, sensibilities, and style. Each is a separate diamond on the golden chain of literature.
Maintain your idealism. But remember we are writing for people as we find them. We are not writing for writing's sake.
@VelocityWriting I'm quickly bored with short sentences. I read in french, sometimes you can only understand the meaning of a sentence by the way words are spelled (lots of rules in french). I appreciate the musicality of a writer, as long as it's understandable (Nietzsche is sometimes difficut).
Anyway, an artist should follow his path without trying to seduce his audience. That's how you end up writing the same shitty songs with four chords everyone composes. If you are Kipling or Joyce, you write like you have to. If you have no talent, rules won't give you any.
I agree with you about the importance of musicality of writing. Good writing flows like a symphony. Tempo is important, and in writing the notes (so to speak) are simple, complex and compound sentences. And the turn of a phrase is always important, and that's in the writer's or conductor's hand, isn't it? Less legato, and slower crescendo and all that.
Unfortunately, I agree less with you when it comes to 3-4 chord songs. The world still gets a thrill when they hear songs like "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Surfin' U.S.A."
And you say, "Without seducing his audience"? Oh no! The point of all art is to seduce your audience. If you are not trying to do that, you're doing your art wrong.
@@VelocityWriting I disagree. Great artists follow an inner necessity. That's why Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was booed. Bach wrote masses for God.
I want to hold your hand ? Bad example, it's a silly song, while Paul McCartney wrote absolute jewels, Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby, For no one and many others which are really interesting on the paper.
People listen more and more to crap. They watch crap, as the cinema industry has become a disgrace with franchises for retarded. And when they read, they read fast food books with short sentences and no sense.
Artists have to make a living. But real artists, geniusses, don't let this decide what they paint, write or compose. Jung expressed some interesting ideas about genius. He thought personal elements were a flaw in art. That's why we say "Mozart is a man talking to God, Bach is God talking to men". Bach's music is cosmic.
I don't know Hemingway enough, I read several books but I was not astonished by his style. You know Proust, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Camus, Aragon, Dos Passos, Garcia Marquez, Durrell, Yourcenar, Joyce and hundreds of great talents lived partially or totally during the XXth century so I'm not sure there is a "greatest" author.
You have strong points and some weak ones too. Too many points to discuss in a forum like this. But I'm pleased you have been willing to think through the process with me and other viewers. Thank you.
To Have and Have Not. Probably my favorite book of all time. In my opinion an awesome story. Incredible cast of characters. Terrific story about boaters.
Writing a personal memoir has taught many a scribe how memory actually does fade with age. Four shoe boxes of notes to the rescue. It all started with a 12th grade English assignment to write a detailed recollection of the important events and people in our lives up to that moment in time. "Since this class is reported to be the brightest with the highest IQ scores, there is a reasonable possibility that one two or three of you might write your memoir someday," we all laughed at the complimentary humour, "and the one two three or four of you will want to thank me far, far, far in the future, but I'm retiring at the end of this school year. Most of your ages are around 18 and I'm 67, so I'll be long, long gone by the time you stop joking about writing your memoir and start writing one." (Rest assured during your next rest cycle, knowing that Ms. Collins did not then ask us to do the math. It was an English class. Digression complete! )
My 43 page type written, double spaced second draft has moved with me to at least 15 addresses. Over the years, Ms. Collins ingenious suggestions dictated an invaluable collection of memory jogging data which included every address I ever lived at, every phone number, names and phone numbers of every building manager, boss, work friends, staff lists, car salesmen, high school teachers, mentors, room mates, best friends, aunts, uncles, cousins and my bully list. Fifty-five years in four shoe boxes. So why is my up to the moment spillage turning into a Sci-Fi mystery reveal that has movie script potential? Nope. It's not about orifice-probing aliens from outer space.
[ EDITED FOR YOU-TUBE AUDIENCE MEMBERS WITH SHORT TO NORMAL ATTENTION SPANS ]
I'm glad you are writing a personal memoir. It will be your legacy to your family and others. Also, it gives me the opportunity to plug my upcoming online course about how to write biographies for fun and profit. I have ghostwritten dozens of "autobiographies" for others and it is one of the most lucrative kinds of writing I have ever done. The course has not been released as of this date, but when it is, you can find it here: learn.velocitywriting.com/
Short sentences: Neitzche! You listening?
Be positive: "John died" becomes "John found himself without a care in the world".
or you can say: john is no more
Be confident when you write, don't be afraid to be unconventional. I've used the word "But" to start a sentence when I felt it was needed. And yes the best work will indeed have 3 maybe 4 draft's.
I went back a few months ago to reread one of Hemingway's novels. It's quite a thing to read an artist's work when you are young and to bring all that extra baggage back to their work over the years. The rhythms of the work felt awkward and it was hard for me to get into it. Is it possible for literary tastes to change so much over the years? I'm certainly more critical of what I read now, but Hemingway was one of the authors that got me interested in literature.
Also the advice about an good opening paragraph is simply cliche. It's the easiest thing to tell a novice and it's a great way to make them crazy. Is this opening interesting enough? Has it been overdone? Is there a better way to tell it? Shouldn't someone die in the first paragraph? What about starting it with a mystery? Maybe it should be like a Michael Bay movie and have a slow motion explosion in the opening paragraph.
Thank you for the thoughtful observations. Yes, both literature and literary tastes change for individuals and society. Remember, Hemingway is heralded as the greatest 20th century novelist and we have moved on. He broke new ground, but others are doing that now.
For example, you point out that saying a good opening sentence is "simply cliche." That advice was new and fresh with Hemingway. He broke new ground that seems ordinary today. Oscar Wilde was considered the greatest 19th century popular writer in English by many people. He started "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with about a 125 word opening sentence. Some 18th and 19th century fiction had opening sentences that ran several pages. So, you have to keep these things in context.
Hemingway was an exceptional writer. We call all learn from his approach and his sensibilities.
remember even the Nobel committee has subjective views; bob Dylan won for his songs--he was so surprised, for 6 months he refused to believe the award was nothing more than a hoax; Alice Munro won the Nobel. have you read her short stories? absolute nonsense.
Yes, definitely...tastes in reading do change. We change as we mature so i suppose it's natural...
Rule (5): Call the unamazing amazing. That's how mediocrity advertises itself in the business of writing.
Rule (6): Strain for effect in your opening paragraph. That's how to grab the attention of readers who have no business reading in the first place (see Rule 5 above).
Sorry, you're a little too cynical for me. You are entitled to your opinion, but I'd say you are going 100 mph/kph down a dead-end street. Our job as communicators is to encode data (write) in a way so readers can easily decode our word symbols (read) them so that an exchange of consciousness takes place. A superficial elitism like yours will not change hearts and minds.
It's certainly preferble to Joyce Carol Oates' page-long paragraph dirges. But be your own writer.
" For whom the bell tolls", "The old man n the sea" I love his style
Thank you. This is helpful.
I came across a sentence in William Faulkner's "The Bear" that was a page and a half long.
i found Faulkner impenitaterable at times altho , despite this, i did appreciate the quality.
Henry James probably epitomizes the long sentence. His late work had a distinctly ornate beauty, but this advice cuts to what strikes an impression most effectively and is a world more useful.
So Informative .thank you
Very informative. You MAY have intentionally misquoted Hemingway when you said, "No person..." rather than his words of "No man..."
Please take this as an observation, not a criticism. Following one's own advice is difficult, even for the great Hemingway. In the quote at the 5 minute mark, he says, "No man [...] can fail to write well if he abides with them." Given your interpretation of his fourth piece of advice, "be positive, not negative," I submit this sentence should be written, "Any man [...] will write well if he abides with them."
I loved "The Old Man and the Sea." The story is simple and powerful. I keep thinking about it.
I re-read it a few months ago. It is so haunting, so human. We all need to have more strength of spirit like the old man. It's a worthwhile read for the COVID-19 era or anytime.
AWildBard me too I read it in my own language. It was simple short and strong
@@jamesaritchie1 love the movie and especially Spencer Tracy but we have to admit he didn’t look like a starving fisherman.
I wonder If Hemingway liked Proust and what he thought of his long sentences.
Most people want to set up Faulkner in opposition to Hemingway, but, like you, I always think of Proust.
I find these “rules” as too rigid. I find beauty in both approaches. The short jabs of Hemingway and the detailed and lush, long-winding sentences of Proust both illustrate the many avenues of the art.
A wonderful review of Hemingway's style. Thank you. Dale E. Manolakas, Legal Thriller writer
What’s a legal thriller?
Regardless of the length of his sentences, Oscar Wilde is not a tedious writer. Otherwise, a very enjoyable video.
"...vigorous language..." is the key. Short sentences help. But in any medium: fiction, journalism, song lyrics (think Bob Dylan), it is searing, indelible images that carry the moment.
The text was concise. The four rules were good advice.
I subbed because you look like my 6th grade science teacher.The difference is you have a personality.
A lot of sage advice, but I would like to focus on the single point I think requires clarification. Using short sentences - what does that mean exactly? In high school, "For sale: baby shoes never worn." was held up as an example of great, compact writing. However, for me, as a teacher of writing and a daily practitioner, I have always preached variety in sentence structure. A short sentence carries impact, but I don't always want impact. Hemingway was indeed one of the best in terms of putting one word after another, but my vote for the greatest writer of the 20th century PG Wodehouse. A writer second only to Shakespeare in my mind. Thanks for the video. TTFN
Shall check him out, thanks
Hemingway’s 4 rules to writing like Hemingway.
Thank you for the tips!
Thanks. This helped a lot.
You should cover V.S. Naipaul's list of rules. Very similar to Hemingway, but more about the individual words and straightforward language.
V.S. Naipaul looks interesting. I'll be checking him out in more detail. Thanks for raising my consciousness about his work!
The short sentences part was amusing. It's a good rule. It's also a rule that can be broken to incredible effect, as Stephen King does in the second opening sentence of The Regulators, a line that goes on for an incredible 150 words! His first line, however, is: "Summer's here." (The second line paints a vivid mental picture using breathless prose, capturing the excitement and high-energy of that season.)
From one extreme to the other. It's these types of books that made reading tedious in school, think about that.
I agree completely. Why don't grammar/english teachers use Tolkien, or Lewis, or any number of other such examples of highly acclaimed writers, to teach kids? Why is the work of Clemens (or, "Twain", if you prefer), who (most excellently, I admit) writes of times no average student can relate to, still mandatory reading for elementary students? My dad got me interested in reading by introducing me to "The Hobbit"... he read the first few chapters to me then told me I'd have to read the rest myself. I started reading then, and never stopped.
I have always found Hemmingway to be rather pedantic and depressing. Long ago, I read "Crime and Punishment"... once I got used to the stylistic eccentricities of the work, and was able to somewhat place myself mentally in the times and circumstances of the story, I found that book to be far more captivating than anything I ever read by Hemmingway.
Far too much of what passes for education is left to the devices of automatons and bureaucrats. Programmed courses planned by committees far removed from life, or even from the typical classroom.
@@SamlovesLulu Yes! I got hooked on reading after "the hobbit". I believe it was 8th or 9th grade reading requirement. I remember enjoying tscarlet letter requirement in 10th grade. 12th grade was Shakespeare's verse memorization. I disliked senior year English literature.
In my writing, I extend Hemingway's advice about short opening paragraphs to most paragraphs. Unless there is a reason to do otherwise, I keep most paragraphs in the 3-5 sentence range. I use what I call the "pee" rule: If someone suddenly has the urge to pee just as they start the paragraph, they should be able to get to the end of the paragraph (a good stopping point) before they have to "go". This rule not only makes it more convenient for modern readers to start and stop reading as real life insists, but it also keeps things moving and helps turn the book into a page-turner with its own sustained momentum.
'In my writing, I extend Hemmingway's advice...' - If you are planning to be a writer it's a good idea to get the small details right - like spelling Hemingway Hemingway.
Do you know where you are, Foggy? This is the internet. Almost everything is a first draft---young people trying to learn, fast typers (or spell-checkers) creating typos. or people trying to express themselves in English as a second language. Be kind. Writers know the best writing begins to appear in the second or third draft, and we don't have opportunity for that kind of revision in this ephemeral medium.
@@channelfogg6629 And yet, his comment was infinitely richer than yours. Who'd have thunk it?
@@VelocityWriting how refreshing it is to read such thing
That is interesting. David Farland in his wonderful course on enchanting prose recalls his female reader who loved his book so much that she stayed up all night to finish reading it AND didn't even go to the toilet AND landed in hospital with urinal infection. So... yeah...good that you care for your readers. The danger is real.
I love the Hemingway rules... (I've written for radio, and the short sentence is a must, with striking images/similes, etc...), they keep one on the straight and narrow ("be positive.... then he shot himself...) On the other hand, being beholden to a generation of cursory readers is bad for your own expression... The writer has a voice. If everyone sounds like Hemingway, you'll get the kind of standardization that pop music and Hollywood films suffer from.
Great video. Thank you.
I will use these tips thanks
I love the minimalist. It's hard to study in the French language.
This style reminds me of comic books and cinema. Dominance of Actions and Dialogues, Attention to Small Details and Focus on Present (Scenes) [Biography and Flash-Back belongs to Past, Vision, Question (What he is going to do?) and Condition (If... Else) to Future]
You have to use before and even after elements to understand what is behind the lines.
For amusement, I took extracts from book and rewrite them in minimalist style. With or without the redundant, we have the same story.
"He can't resist to blush" becomes "He blushes". One need an emotional investment, the other already did it.
Ernest Hemingway teaches to treats words as tool of description, not as a tool of word play.
One thing is important: story focuses on the plot. Don't distract the reader.
You say, "For amusement, I took extracts from book and rewrite them in minimalist style." Let me say, that is more than amusement. It is a commonly overlooked way to enhance their writing skills.
In the old classic schools of art, students were encouraged to copy great paintings. That is how they developed their eye and improved their techniques, which they later applied to their own unique paintings.
Sadly, writers do not do the same thing. They are fearful of the fake monster called "plagiarism." That fear has a chilling effect on creativity. However, I want to encourage you to rewrite the work of great writers and learn from the experience. You have been doing that with your minimalist approach and I urge you to continue. Apply what you learn to your own unique work.
Great artists steal? If so, it's how they do it. And if they do it correctly, it's not stealing. I wrote this a year or more ago. velocitywriting.com/plagiarism-in-creative-context/
Thank you for reading my article linked above. I'm repurposing it into a YT video that will be available soon. Yes, as you see, both "stealing ideas" and "self-plagiarism" are completely absurd concepts. Academics are being manipulative by connecting the evolution of thought to "honesty." Of course, such notions have a chilling effect on creative writing, and that is unconscionable.
I like how simple and concise this video was. No carrion no waste.
Hemingway would approve.
Now, cross out Concise and Carrion.
When I was English 102, the English Department Head had us, first day of class, write an extemporaneous paper. We did. We turned in our papers and when the class next met the professor returned our papers, graded. I was the only one who received a passing grade--B+ with the comment "Good style." He later said, Mr. Pruett you have a good style but you tend to be wordy. However, your wordiness is critical to your style. If there's any way you can cut down on your words without ruining your style, do it." I've struggled with this ever since. It's taken me 40 years to maintain a style that is--perhaps--interesting BECAUSE of my 'wordiness.'
Your professor gave you good advice. But I understand your dilemma. Wordiness is usually a bad habit except in those cases when it comes across as a stroke of genius. It is often hard to know when to write with precision, and when to let it flow. Personally, I have spent my entire writing life "tightening it up." :-)
History or Gertrude Stein whom Hemingway met in his twenties told him about his writing to, “Pare down!” Thus the Hemingway style was born!
Compared to "pare down!", "use short sentences" is prolix.
A first draft gets you 80% there. A rewrite gets you 90% there. An edit gets you 95% there, and that's where you stop. Beyond that, it's diminished returns. If you go for perfection, you will never finish. You may not even start. In sailing, being 80% undersail is optimal. The same is true with life and baseball.
Yes, there is wisdom in what you say about the writing/revision/editing process. Perfectionism is a curse, not a virtue. My favorite quote on this comes from football coach Vince Lombardi. He said, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."
Excellent video. Worth watching.
Well said.
Get the title right. One bell. Ernest took the title from a John Donne quote:
“.....any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. “
If memory serves, this quote is printed on the opening page, opposite the first page of the text.
Input always appreciated, Socrate. If you look at the very top post, which I added a year ago at this writing, I apologized for my verbal typo. You must have overlooked my apology, but it's there and it's sincere. Maybe we could take the "s" from my misspoken "bells" and add it to your name. It's Socrates to most of the world, not Socrate. :-)
Thank you for this series of how the great ones write.
I love this.
Getting ready for NaNoWriMo and stumbled upon this. I love this!
I have to disagree. Some of Hemingway's passages are quite clunky. Oscar Wilde is a much better writer. "Shove it along," Ernest.
I'm never bored by Oscar Wilde and simply love 19th century literature, the elegance, the eloquence, the beauty of words ...
Hi Velocity and thanks for the four rules. What the video lacked was listing the four excellent rules again at the end:)
I'm glad you received value from the video. Thank you for your comment. Back when I taught hour-long classes on the university level, I summarized points for students. You know, "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." Should I do that for a 6-minute video? I think I would get complaints for being redundant. That's why I seldom do it in videos. People would leave because they would say, "You just said that" and not watch to the end. I offer expanded content for almost all of my videos and normally include a "round-up" in them. I appreciate what you're saying, but it is hard enough to retain eyes, and repeating myself will kill viewing time.
@@VelocityWriting Hi & thanks for the answer. I see the conundrum, but I thought of just listing the four rules on a single page, without any further comment, at the end, as a summary, so that the interested listener can take one screenshot instead of four. - The rules are indeed worth gold!
Thanks Jan. You are not wrong. I agree with you. Others have too. A few have even listed the four rules in the comments. I always delete them because I think all "spoilers" (books, movies, etc.) do not deserve to be heard. I strongly believe in free speech, but am equally strong in my beliefs about bad manners. I invest a lot of time in my videos and spoilers are unwelcome. However, know that I've been rethinking the need for summaries in my videos, so your comment was valuable to me.
True story. I was forced to write a number of term papers in college. One professor objected to my use of short sentences. He wrote that my paper was "too journalistic" and gave it a "B." I took it as a compliment -- his comment, not the grade.
Good story!
I also heard that Hemingway liked to get hammered before writing.
That's a myth. Please scroll down through these comments to get a link to the facts.
@@VelocityWriting - Thanks for the heads-up
I learned a lot with this concise video.