4 Styles Writers Can Learn From Hemingway

You may be a fan of a lot of contemporary writers. But as for me and a lot of writers out there, Ernest Hemingway’s writing style epitomizes the most effective writing style fit for blogging.

Truth be told, I won’t ever get anywhere near Ernest Hemingway. His technique has forgone the complex styling other writers of his generation chose to partake in. He, instead, went for the simple approach to make things easy to understand.

Now, don’t you think that applies rather effectively to blog writing?

Let’s get started with Mr. Hemingway’s top 4 writing tips, shall we?

1. Keep opening paragraphs short. The shorter your opening paragraphs are, the faster you get to your point. By doing so, you add value to your readers by showing them that you understand that they are busy people with other things to do.

2. Keep sentences short. Mr. Hemingway is known for being a literary minimalist. He ditched the flowery wordings used by his contemporaries and carved his own style as a straight-to-the-point writer. This applies so much to blogging as people are busy and would like to get to what you’d like to say as soon as possible.

3. Say what IS and not what ISN’T. In as much as Ernest Hemingway wasn’t a very cheerful man, he thought that concentrating on stating what isn’t is counterproductive because instead of swaying your readers to the direction you want to go to, you lead them towards the other way.

4. Let your passion speak for itself. Some would call it using vigorous English. Let your passion shine out from your posts by using forceful, strong words. Simply put, there are words that get people thinking, and there are words that actually move people. You choose what you want to use.

These are pretty much the writing rules by which Ernest Hemingway swore by during his writing career. But don’t let these 4 rules box you in. If you’ve found one that works rather well with your blog theme or niche, then by all means, keep to it. Just because Ernest Hemingway thought these tips were effective, doesn’t mean you should stick to it to the T. Find your own writing style if you must. The important thing is you get your message across without so much BS.

If you’ve got writing tips that you’d like to share, or any inspiration you got from your favorite author, please don’t hesitate to share them over at the comments section.

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Tagged as: Blogging, ernest hemingway, how to, Social Media Tips, writing

Rob Angeles

@mjces Ernest writes simple and observes brevity. I admire the way he writes and in my own little way, I try to follow his style. I'll definitely check Joseph Conrad.

@Mahalia - Glad you like it. That;s a good strategy, to try different writing styles and see where you're comfortable at.

Mahalia

I love learning different writing styles. I'm definitely going to experiment on these 4 points.

mjces

What I like most about Hemingway's style of writing is that he seldom used big words. His sentences are always short and easy to read. No need to have a dictionary by your side when you're reading him.

Try reading a novel of Joseph Conrad and you'll see the big difference between these two great writers. I still prefer Hemingway because he makes it easy for me to understand his stories.