undefined | Better HN

0 pointskayodelycaon3y ago0 comments

I happen to agree. For example, the sections on grammar are directly applicable.

However, if you’re going to write fiction, you’ll need to unlearn a good half of it because you learned tools and techniques designed for a different medium.

It’s like skis vs snowshoes. Sure, there’s common stuff to them (like dressing in layers) but snowshoes don’t slide very well. :)

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

cookie_monsta3y ago· 2 in thread

I think there's are a lot more crossover than that. The thing that needs to be almost universally unlearnt when switching mediums is academic writing. Writing fiction and non-fiction for a general audience, most of the same rules apply.

Of course it all depends on what you call good writing. For me the best writing to come out of the 20th century were journalists like Hemingway (and about 1% of his imitators/peers) who applied the rules of journalism to fiction and the "new journalists" who applied the techniques of novel writing to journalism (and then in Wolfe's case went back the other way).

kayodelycaonOP3y ago

I’m specially referring genre fiction, which isn’t quite up to the academic standards of Hemingway. :)

cookie_monsta3y ago

Dunno what genre fiction is really, but a quick search tells me it's popular or bestsellers? Which is kind of funny because that's what Hemmingway would have been back in the day - really to me the opposite of academic style. Short sentences, no fancy words, no extraneous waffle just to show you how clever he is. It's kind of ironic that he's seen as this inaccessible literary giant when pretty much the hallmark of his style is its accessibility.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse