When The Fifth Column was last staged in London in 2016, critic Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard described it as ‘an interminably turgid drama about the Spanish Civil War, it illustrates in glorious Technicolor: he was not a very good playwright. Great writing doesn’t lay down incontrovertible facts but a trail of clues the reader follows to their own destination.Īs if to prove the point regarding dialogue, Hemingway wrote only one full-length play. We won’t forget what she has said, although we can assume she probably wants to stay. Hemingway didn’t write the way people talk, but created the effect through a form of emphasis and repetition that makes the reader remember what has been said. Hemingway is often described as a master of dialogue and critics have agreed that ‘this is the way people really talk.’ On closer examination, this is not true. Write the first few paragraphs of the next chapter so you have something too work on when you get up in the morning. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck.’ If you finish a chapter of a book at three in the morning, don’t stop. This is one more writing tip from Hemingway that I like: ‘The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. Between the lines of every book the writer reveals their own secrets. Hemingway wrote ‘Easy reading is hard writing’ about a century after the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne penned the words ‘Easy reading is damn hard writing.’ I am not sure if this is a touch of plagiarism, it is certainly more economic, and a reminder that writers learn from reading writers. Writers must carve their own path, find their own voice. What it subtly tells you is to follow the first four tips, then make your own rules. Tip No.5 is pure Hemingway, playful yet complex. This short, vigorous sentence tells us a lot more than the clumsy: The intruder was hit over the head by the woman with a frying pan. She hit the intruder over the head with a frying pan. What that says to me, is choose every word as if you are choosing tiles to lay a mosaic. Vigorous has multiple meanings: active, dynamic, intense, persuasive, potent, vital. We also have some useful information about the character: he is old, fishes alone and does not give up easy. We know immediately who the story’s about, where he is and the dilemma he faces. In Hemingway’s classic The Old Man and the Sea, this is the first paragraph: ‘He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.’ Like the first line of a song, the first paragraph must suck you in and hold your attention. Short sentences make the reading more compelling. Tip No.1: use short sentences says avoid sub-clauses bracketed in commas, go easy on the adverbs and adjectives. The 5 Key Writing Tips by Ernest Hemingway look straightforward enough, but then, nothing when it comes to writing is ever easy.
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