There are a million reasons to love Hemingway, not the least of which include his plot lines involving war and pre-globalization safaris, his characters’ stoic heroicism (which mirrors his own tragic life and death), and the fact that all his characters seem to die awesomely, of things like gangrene or being gored by bulls. On top of all this, he also happened to look like Santa Claus and (occasionally) Bill Murray.
More wonderful than his aesthetic/literary sensibilities and exciting personal life, though, is Hemingway’s insane writing talent. His style is simple and elegant, and he lets the details of a characters’ lives and situations draw in his readers. Consider the following excerpt from one of my favorite of his stories, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” in which the main character has failed to shoot a lion while on safari:
“But that night after dinner and a whiskey and soda by the fire before going to bed, as Francis Macomber lay on his cot with the mosquito bar over him and listened to the night noises it was not all over. It was neither all over nor was it beginning. It was there exactly as it happened with some parts of it indelibly emphasized and he was miserably ashamed at it. But more than shame he felt cold, hollow fear in him. The fear was still there like a cold slimy hollow in all the emptiness where once his confidence had been and it made him feel sick. It was still there with him now.”
I mean, dang. Notice his economy, interspersing of short sentences and paragraphs with medium-sized ones, and vigorous, plain English. This combination allows him to capture a complex emotional state, without flowery language or complicated syntax.
I know that safaris and death in Africa are not typical fodder for web writing, but Hemingway’s work is a great go-to if you’re needing guidance on style and grammar. As I said in an earlier post, I think that finding and reading authors you love can help improve your writing, regardless of the medium.
(If you like Hemingway’s writing, his short stories are a great place to start.)
Also, a note: “For Sale: Baby shoes, Never worn” is a famous flash fiction piece that Hemingway wrote in response to a challenge—to write a full short story in six words or less.
Just wondering if you’d like to make a stab at beefing out Mr. ‘way’s short story “for sale, baby shoes, never worn” I know of it and me and a friend of mine done so and I’m just wondering if you’d like to….
I’ve searched the interweb for places that deal in “beefing out” this story but they seem to have either eluded me or simply don’t exist.
Richie,
Interesting! So you mean you fleshed out Hemingway’s super short story and made it into a regular short story? Or that you’re interested in doing that?
I’d love to know more.