Hemingway's Rules for Writing

Perhaps because he was only 18 years old, or perhaps because journalism will do this to you, the style sheet of the Kansas City Star made quite an impression on Ernest Hemingway.  He was only there for six months, but later in life he would say that “Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing. I’ve never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if he abides with them.”

Although it contained 110 rules about how Star reporters were to write, Hemingway singled out the following above the rest:

Use short sentences.

Use short first paragraphs.

Use vigorous English.

Be positive, not negative.