Hemingway over Faulkner

Photo by Lee, Flickr.com. 'Reader'

As a blogger, do you want to write more like William Faulkner, or more like Ernest Hemingway?

"[W]hat blogging taught me is to be more immediate and more direct in what I want to write. Maybe it's the difference between Faulkner and Hemingway, I don't know. 'The paper was white, the text was black.'

But, I'm more reminded what Kurt Vonnegut said, that he wrote books for people who are very busy and didn't have a lot of time to read. And he's being silly, but it's true. If you think about the way he writes, he telegraphs and it's short paragraphs - it's very intentional on his part. And that's what you have to do when you blog. If you have too long of a paragraph, boy it shows. When we're writing blog stuff, it's important to keep it nice and short, to get the point across."

- Excerpt from #MySciBlog interview

Hemingway has become a symbol for captivating writing in the digital age. Just check out this Hemingway writing app - it boasts the ability to 'makes your writing bold and clear.' (Thanks to Kirk Englehardt for pointing that one out!). Or how do you tell your brand's story like Hemingway? Tell a great story that creates emotion out of details - but always keep brevity in mind.

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way."

"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over."

"To F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.”

- Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea. Slaughterhouse-Five. Enough said.

An some good short story writing advice from the man Vonnegut himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyQ1wEBx1V0

According to the Hemingway App, this post has a 'good' readability at a Grade 6 level. Way to go me. :)