: Re: How do I apply Hemingway's dialogue techniques to my own writing? I open Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises at random (chapter 9). 'I haven't seen you since I've been back,' Brett said.

@Kevin153

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This style of dialog works for Hemingway specifically because he's a master of minimalism. As he detailed in his Iceberg Theory, he was always very aware of everything he left out. For that reason the things in his work have a three dimensionality that less fully realized minimalist work can lack. If you really want to try to write in this style, I would first write out the full story with all the tone and gestures and descriptions included, and only then, when finished, go back and edit them all out.

Once you get on a great artist's wavelength, they can break all kinds of rules. I recently read a classic Ursula LeGuin novel (The Disposessed) and was struck by how abstract and intellectual it was --how little sensual detail, or even dialogue it included. That doesn't mean it will work for you. That's not to say you can't become a great artist, it means you can't be one while imitating someone else. The rules your soul tells you to break won't be the same ones Hemingway breaks.

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