As someone who likes books, has an English degree and makes
a living from writing, I get asked who my favourite authors are a lot. There
are too many to mention them all. But here are four, along with some
thoughts on what they have taught me about writing for brands.
Hemingway – tight
prose and the power of implication
At his best, in short stories such as Indian Camp, Big, Two-hearted
River and The Snows of Kilimanjaro,
Hemingway’s economic, repetitive style suggests the emotions of the characters
without making them explicit. Because so much is left unsaid, the reader senses
the epiphany as if the significant moment was happening to them. You are being
given the information: you are not told how to feel. A great lesson. If you
provide the evidence for a claim, sometimes, if it’s powerful enough, you don’t
need to make the claim itself. The audience will discover it for themselves.
