When Hemingway first came to the attention of critics and the reading public, it was his technique, his method of writing that fascinated. His prose was described as “stripped” and “stark”. The adverbs and adjectives were missing. The prose verged on simplistic. The sentences were relatively short and declarative. The writing was visual, full of concrete sense details.
He spent very little time telling the reader what his characters were feeling or thinking. And yet the reader knew what his characters were feeling and thinking.
How?
Ernest Hemingway 1923 Passport Photograph, 1923 (Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives)
Because he used description as exposition. By presenting what his characters said, did, their mannerisms, their reactions and the physical world they lived in, Hemingway was able to project the inner world of his characters on to the movie screen of his readers’ imaginations.
Description is exposition.
*****
It’s 7:30 a.m. and the Old Soldier is on duty.
How’s everyone doing? It will be mostly sunny today in Pittsburgh with a high around 76 degrees. This is just the first post of the day. I’m sure there will be others.
*****
Keep reading and keep writing that flash fiction. Click the follow button so that you don’t miss a single issue of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the most exciting flash fiction publication on the Internet.
*****
Read. Study. Write. Submit.
Related articles
- Hemingway on “The Lady Poets” (theparisreview.org)
- A Nude Woman And The Secret To Writing Great Flash Fiction (pittsburghflashfictiongazette.com)
Filed under: Commentaries | Tagged: adverbs and adjectives, concrete sense details, description is exposition, exciting flash fiction, Hemingway, Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, submit, Writing Flash Fiction | Leave a Comment »
Experience The Gazette: Serious Writing And Brazen Sexuality
Do you know of anyone who would be interested in an online magazine like that?
*****
It’s nearly 1:00 in the afternoon. The Old Soldier has just come back from a lovely walk around the neighborhood. I ended up walking through Schenley Park. Schenley Park runs between the campuses of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. I walked out of the park into South Oakland.
English: Andy Warhol’s childhood home located at 3252 Dawson Street in the South Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 30, 2010. “Andy lived on Dawson Street from 1934 until he left for New York City in 1949. These fifteen years were the most formative years of his life.”http://www.warhola.com/warholahouse.html (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So, there I was walking along, enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather, singing rock and roll to myself in a low-whisper and sipping from my plastic bottle of melting ice. I was a happy camper.
I passed Dawson Street.
Dawson Street? Dawson Street? Dawson Street?
Why that was the street that Andy Warhol grew up on when he lived in Pittsburgh.
*****
Read. Study. Write. Submit.
*****
Click the follow button so that you don’t miss a single issue of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.
Related articles
Rate this:
Filed under: Commentaries | Tagged: brazen sexuality, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, Schenley Park, serious writing, sex, South Oakland, University of Pittsburgh, writer | 2 Comments »