Most know Hemingway worked as a journalist, so no surprise that his fiction echoes the tight style Steve endorses. Another of Hemingway's influences was a movement in poetry called Imagism. Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" is often cited as the prototype, or maybe the founding Imagist poem.
The story is Pound was in a metro station in Paris and saw a succession of faces that struck him as beautiful. He ended up writing a 30-line poem to try to convey what he saw and experienced. But he decided the 30-line poem was a clunker. So he did some editing and six months later (must be nice not to have a deadline) he came back with a two-line rewrite:
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
The "Imagists" published a statement of their philosophy in 1913, sort of a how-to for writing Imagist poems (paraphrased slightly):
1. Direct treatment of the thing [your subject, whatever you're writing about]
2. Use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation
3. Regarding rhythm, compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.
Pound and H.D. probably would have approved of Steve's poetry activity -- they drew on haiku as an influence in establishing Imagism.
I think this stuff belongs in any class that involves writing, so even if I don't end up teaching journalism next year, I'll still end up teaching journalism next year.
Cut unnecessary words until you have the sturdy part, the image. In other words, write tight.
David Strom
North-Grand High School
Chicago, Illinois
Dave,
ReplyDeleteYou make a great connection to Pound's work. It's cool. I loved the presentation today about writing tight - something that I will really have to work at myself. I feel like Steve's presentation will be great to show to students. It's inspiring. So often, students write just to fill up space, and this really makes them make every word count.
I am thinking of giving an assignment (an article, essay, story - I am not sure yet) and then having students decrease word count by 50 percent.
Tracy Anderson
Dave:
ReplyDeleteI'm going to echo Tracy here and say that this post really resonated with me. (I adore poetry myself and teach a lot of it to my students.) It was fun to look at editing, concision as a game instead of a chore. I hope to use a lot of this in my class next year.
David Tow
Terra Linda High School
San Rafael, Calif.
I just wanted to write this here blog post to say that I, a person who often does tend to write clauses that make points that are unnecessary, most indubitably agree with you regarding the information contained forthwith in the paragraphs which you have posted above because I, too, will use the information conveyed by Steve in his presentation from the prior day in all of the classes in which I teach the skills of writing composition.
ReplyDeleteWait. Let me try that again.
I also plan to use Steve’s lesson in my writing classes.
Ahh… Much better.
Kari Koshiol
Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Minneapolis, Minnesota