ernest hemingway and simple writing

F4B4288DF00F4FCB907ECFF0B82C10ED2I am not a particularly good writer.  Making myself understood is not the problem.  Most of the time, I feel that my writing lacks focus and clarity.  Part of that is the unreasonable amount of distaste I take in editing and the fact that my writing experience lies almost completely in academia.  Writing papers for high school and college to the detriment of anything else tends to favor a certain style of writing.  I don’t think I ever had a teacher impart the idea of simplifying my writing. The focus was always on the content and clarity, obviously important aspects to an academic paper, but not necessarily the pinnacle of good writing. Ideally, I should be able to express myself simply without sacrificing any clarity or accuracy.

The reason I bring this up (see, it took me a whole paragraph to even get to my point!) is because I just finished listening to Ernest Hemingway’s, The Old Man and the Sea.  I like to buy audiobooks occasionally as they let me feel like I’m being productive while driving for long periods of time.  Anyway, what struck me about this book was how simply Hemingway wrote.  His sentences were not long.  The vocabulary he used was not complex or laced with jargon.  Everything about his style of writing is simple, and yet, he is a great American classic.  I think I would have picked up on this even if I had read the book, but listening to somebody else read it at a leisurely pace really drove the point home.

As I write more and more, I’m trying to keep the essence of Hemingway in my mind. The simpler word is usually better. Short sentences are not a problem. I am not writing an academic paper on this blog, I am trying to express simple ideas in a simple manner. There are not awards for using long words or complex sentence structure. The whole point of writing is to express ideas. I intend to do that as simply as possible.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under simplicity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://psedik.posterous.com/ Peter

    I don’t want to flatter you, but I tend to like your writing, and I also think it’s quite clear. As you said, “The simpler word is usually better,” but not always. I think a good writing also need to have some spark, or individuality. For example, Paul Carr’s (from Techcrunch) style is anything but simple, but I also tend to like it. I’d say, just be yourself, no need to imitate Hemingway. Good luck ;)

  • http://psedik.posterous.com Peter

    I don’t want to flatter you, but I tend to like your writing, and I also think it’s quite clear. As you said, “The simpler word is usually better,” but not always. I think a good writing also need to have some spark, or individuality. For example, Paul Carr’s (from Techcrunch) style is anything but simple, but I also tend to like it. I’d say, just be yourself, no need to imitate Hemingway. Good luck ;)

  • http://www.thesimplerlife.net/ Sam

    @Peter

    Thanks for the kind words. I agree that writing needs to have a certain spark, or individuality. Luckily, I do not think that simplifying writing necessarily removes that certain je ne sais quoi. The more I write, the more I will uncover my own individuality and style.

  • http://www.thesimplerlife.net Sam

    @Peter

    Thanks for the kind words. I agree that writing needs to have a certain spark, or individuality. Luckily, I do not think that simplifying writing necessarily removes that certain je ne sais quoi. The more I write, the more I will uncover my own individuality and style.

  • http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ rhonda jean

    I think you’re a good writer too. You’re writing to your audience and as you don’t know who they are, your plain style suits.

    I remember a lecturer saying that Hemingway was pedantic about his writing. When asked by a friend what he’d done all day, he said something like: I inserted a comma in a paragraph before lunch and after lunch I took it out again.

    There’s nothing simple about that, but I agree, his stories are simple and elegant.

  • http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ rhonda jean

    I think you’re a good writer too. You’re writing to your audience and as you don’t know who they are, your plain style suits.

    I remember a lecturer saying that Hemingway was pedantic about his writing. When asked by a friend what he’d done all day, he said something like: I inserted a comma in a paragraph before lunch and after lunch I took it out again.

    There’s nothing simple about that, but I agree, his stories are simple and elegant.

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