As a writer, I'm always looking for new ways to approach narrative structures. I'm constantly trying to figure out how I can get my story across to most people in the simplest way. That's why I was so excited to stumble upon Hemingway's Iceberg Theory and even more excited to explain it to you, here.It's a technique coined by American writer Ernest Hemingway that will be at the forefront of my thoughts when I sit down to write my next spec screenplay. Let's dive into the theory. Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory DefinitionHemingway's Iceberg Theory is a writing technique where the deeper meaning of a story is not explicitly stated but is implied through what you see on the surface of the narrative.It's also called "the theory of omission."Hemingway’s Iceberg TheorySo, where did this iceberg idea come from? The actual theory is taken from Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon and reads: If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.The theory here uses the analogy of an iceberg, where only a small portion is visible above water while the...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday