Use Hemingway to Improve Your Travel Writing

Awesome tips for your next adventure travel blog from Matador Blog.

Hemingway’s Iceberg Model

In Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingway states good writing is like an iceberg, only 1/8ths visible, the remaining 7/8ths underwater. In other words, a well crafted story lets the reader’s imagination take over.

One of the goals of travel writing is to put readers in the places we describe and have them come away feeling as if they were really there. In a time when many travel writing markets are online and attention spans are short, Hemingway’s Iceberg model still works better than ever.

Here are eight ways to avoid exposing the entire iceberg, global warming be damned:

1 – The universe likes action. It also likes speed. Use a variety of verbs, keeping “is” in any tense to a minimum.

Editing exercise: Try going through your manuscript and cutting or rephrasing every to-be verb. Example: Whole iceberg: He is an old man. 7/8ths: He bent over the cane, and shuffled forward, a step at a time.


2 – Easy on the articles and personal pronouns.


Editing exercise:
Go through your manuscript and cut out every the, an, a, that you can.

3 – Use the first person narrative like salt. It should enhance the story’s flavor without overwhelming it.

Editing exercise: Pick out anywhere in your story where the first-person narrative runs wild, then question: “Does all of this really belong here, or is it part of a different story?”

4 – Pick your adjectives carefully. One brilliant descriptor equals three mediocre ones.


5 – The perfect noun
will help with adjective selection. Same goes for verbs and adverbs.

Editing exercise: Research the subject of your story until you fully understand the precise nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Is it a sailboat or a sloop? And when it capsized, were you tacking or jibing? Are the waves mushy or hollow? Go back through your manuscript and replace general words with the perfect ones.

6 – Use photos, music, and other sensory tools to help communicate the essence of what you’re writing about.

7 – Remember you are telling a story. Read it out loud.
If it feels awkward, bring out the editorial scissors. Probably 75% of the original draft can be cut without losing the narrative flow.

8- Use description to convey emotions. This is also known as the object correlative. Check here for more details.

Examples from Real Life

In a book review I recently wrote on The Soul of the Rhino by Hemanta Mishra, my original draft came in at exactly 1000 words. Although interested, the environmental magazine’s editors wanted something “short and snappy”. I did not hesitate, cutting what I considered brilliant passages and segues to my own life. Four fifth’s (80%) of the text succumbed to the “Delete” key. The final version, at little over 200 words, will be in print this summer.

Conclusion

Let your knowledge and passion resonate cleanly in the sentences you create. And remember that the beauty of a story is what lies beneath, its fluid movement connected to the small part that shows.

A Great Learning Tool for Photographers with an iPhone

In one of my favourite photography blogs written by Scott Kelby I came across this awesome, free iPhone App for photographers:


This new App, called Strobox, lets you create sketches of lighting layouts and even share them with other people. You can drag and drop in a background, a strobe, a softbox—you name it. Now, you might be thinking, “When would I ever use that?” I can tell you where I’ve used a computer-based version of the same thing (except it was a layered Photoshop file). I use it when I go to workshops, or spend time working with another photographer. I can totally map out the lightning set-up they used right there on my phone in just seconds—it’s a great tool for doing just that, and best of all—it’s free!!! Here’s the link.

Gorillacam App for iPhone by Joby

Free iPhone camera app from Joby (makers of the excellent Gorillapods), adds things like a level indicator, time-lapse, and a self-timer. Worth downloading from App Store just for those all features:


Self-timer takes timed photos. Perfect for group shots and self-portraits. Works best with the help of the Gorillamobile for 3G/3GS.
Time-lapse takes multiple photos spaced at an interval. Take photos as fast as 1 second apart, or up to 2 minutes apart.
Unlimited rapid-fire takes up to 1.6 photos per second. Just press and hold the shutter to take as many photos as you want at super high speed.
Auto-save lets you keep shooting while your photos save in the background. No more waiting between shots. Snap away, uninterrupted.
3-Shot burst takes three quick photographs with one tap. Never miss a second of the action. Plus, no more photos ruined when someone blinks!
Press anywhere turns the whole screen into the shutter button. Photograph yourself with ease!
Grid overlay takes your photography to the next level. Create more interesting photographs using the rule of thirds in your composition. Also great for lining up horizons or buildings.
Bubble level takes steady, level shots every time. Works both vertically and horizontally. Great for shots of horizons, landscapes and more.
Share photos without ever leaving the app.
The awesome folks at AppTight built this app. Be sure to check out their other apps!
(via joby.com)

Record or Stream Video with iPhone 3G

You can now record video for streaming live or to save on your iPhone 3G locally with the new Ustream App.

The App allows you to share it / upload it to YouTube as well. Plus there is also Twitter and Facebook integration! Pretty neat for those of us who did not bother upgrading to the iPhone 3GS

Streaming apparently works not only over Wi-Fi but also 3G connection.

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Sent from my iPhone

Wink iPhone App

This is a neat iPhone App but... unless you are planning on getting the print of these photos mailed to your or your friends it is kind of useless. I would like to be able to e-mail the photos digitally only as well. From time to time I may consider ordering a hard copy but not all the time! I understand that Shutterfly makes money by printing photos only but still they could include the feature in this App for those who just want to have fun with it.

Here is a short article about it from TechCrunch...

Just a few months after Shutterfly bought Tiny Pictures, they’re already busy pumping out new products. The first is Wink, an iPhone app and web app that allows you to easily turn your pictures into photobooth-esque strips of pictures.

They key to this app is that beyond your regular camera phone pictures, it gives you easy access to both your Facebook pictures (via Facebook Connect), and your Flickr pictures. Once you have those, it takes just seconds to tweak them and send them off to Shutterfly to be printed and delivered to you (or friends) in a special photostrip case. And before that arrives, they send you an email preview of what the photostrips will look like. These strips can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter immediately.

The best thing about these photostrips may be the price. For just $2.50, Shutterfly will print and send these things anywhere in the work. It’s ‘definitely in the micropurchase category,’ the company notes. They are also using PayPal’s new in-app micropayments to allow for you to buy these photostrips (though regular credit card payments are welcome as well). The company is also giving away three free photostrips to the first 50,000 users who download the iPhone app.

The company says it’s working to bring this service to other devices to allow for the same type of easy photostrip making on the go. It also plans to add other effects to the application.

You can find Wink in the App Store here as a free download.

Sent from my iPhone