Hemingway App

Hemingway App

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Hemingway App

What it is

Ernst Hemingway is an American writer famous for, among others, "A Farewell to Arms". He also wrote a choice quote on emotional scars . Hemingway is famous for a short prose style which leaves key emotions unspoken.

Hemingway App is a text editor that enforces this writing style. It marks complex sentences, adverbs, and passive voice. In bright colors, it suggest that you get rid of these. Otherwise, it has moderate editing functionality: headers, links and bold/italics.

The regular app is online only. You can buy a Windows or Mac version for $9.99. There are no iOS or Android Apps yet.

What it means to me

Hi! I am Leonard, I write a blog, and I use too many abverbs. I also drop obscure words in my writing. This is a misguided attempt at 'precision' which just makes me sound pretentious.

A funny thing happens when you type into an editor which you know filters your text. You start being much more conscious beforehand, to try and beat the filter. In my case, I stop using colons and semi-colons, and end sentences instead. It gives my text a different, shorter rhythm.

If the difference with my usual style isn't clear yet: I wrote this entire blog post on Hemingway app. I rewrote until I didn't see a single color marker anymore. I am surprised that 'makes me sound pretentious' got through the filter, actually! As an added benefit, this blog post is a lot shorter than the average ones.

Hemingway's style doesnt work for every subject. I would never use it for writing a manual, or for technical writing. In literature, flowery prose can be beautiful. It's good to train different styles, though.

When you want to go back to basics, type or copy/paste your text into Hemingway App, and start cutting!


Leonard