What can Earnest Hemingway teach us about PR? While the two subjects hardly seem related, there are five important lessons PR practitioners of any level can take from Hemingway and his work (from Copyblogger):
- Use short sentences– follow Hemingway’s lead and learn to write with simple genius.
- Use short paragraphs– see tip #1. This tip is especially relevant in today’s PR environment, where pitches are often sent via e-mail and briefly scanned (if viewed at all). It is important that a brief scan of your pitch yield its most important information.
- Use vigorous English-“Vigorous English comes from passion, focus and intention.”
- Be positive, not negative- rather, say what is, as opposed to what is not. Also, pay attention to the connotation of your word choices. For example, choose a synonym for “painless” that does not contain the word “pain.”
- Scrap the crap- Hemingway once joked that he wrote one masterpiece for every 90 pieces of crap. He confided to Fitzgerald in 1934 that he was always careful to make sure the crap made it to the wastebasket.
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