Ernest Hemingway’s 5 secrets to good blogging

Though applicable to most writing, Papa’s guidelines are essential for bloggers. (Please pay special attention to No. 5.)

Ernest Hemingway would have kicked butt as a blogger.

No, really. I’ve been on a major Hemingway kick for the last several weeks, reading his short stories, his books and ideas on writing, and even a collection of stories he wrote when he was a cub reporter with the Kansas City Star, and I’m convinced he would become an A-List blogger within a matter of weeks.

Hemingway’s writing habits would have made him an ideal blogger. Here’s what I think his five secrets to good blogging would be.

1. Write and speak with authority. Hemingway knew he was a great writer. He was not humble about it. While I’m not suggesting you act cocky and arrogant, you do need to write with authority. Don’t waffle around with qualifying statements, such as, “I think it may be possible,” or, “If I had to make a choice, but only if I really had to make one.” It makes you sound like a ninny. Hemingway once said of his criticism of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Tender is the Night,” “Jesus, it’s marvelous to tell other people how to write, live, die, etc.” In other words, have the confidence to tell people how to do the thing you’re writing about without being an insufferable jerk about it.

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