diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b067edd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/Manifest.toml
diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index cf9be6b..7317e1d 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 name = "YAML"
 uuid = "ddb6d928-2868-570f-bddf-ab3f9cf99eb6"
-version = "0.4.3"
+version = "0.4.4"
 
 [deps]
 Base64 = "2a0f44e3-6c83-55bd-87e4-b1978d98bd5f"
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ Printf = "de0858da-6303-5e67-8744-51eddeeeb8d7"
 julia = "1"
 
 [extras]
-Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
-OrderedCollections = "bac558e1-5e72-5ebc-8fee-abe8a469f55d"
 DataStructures = "864edb3b-99cc-5e75-8d2d-829cb0a9cfe8"
+OrderedCollections = "bac558e1-5e72-5ebc-8fee-abe8a469f55d"
+Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
 
 [targets]
 test = ["Test", "OrderedCollections", "DataStructures"]
diff --git a/src/writer.jl b/src/writer.jl
index f323be4..9284900 100644
--- a/src/writer.jl
+++ b/src/writer.jl
@@ -79,7 +79,22 @@ end
 
 # _print a single string
 _print(io::IO, str::AbstractString, level::Int=0, ignore_level::Bool=false) =
-    println(io, repr(MIME("text/plain"), str)) # quote and escape
+    if occursin('\n', strip(str)) || occursin('"', str)
+        if endswith(str, "\n\n")   # multiple trailing newlines: keep
+            println(io, "|+")
+            str = str[1:end-1]     # otherwise, we have one too many
+        elseif endswith(str, "\n") # one trailing newline: clip
+            println(io, "|")
+        else                       # no trailing newlines: strip
+            println(io, "|-")
+        end
+        indent = repeat("  ", max(level, 1))
+        for line in split(str, "\n")
+            println(io, indent, line)
+        end
+    else
+        println(io, repr(MIME("text/plain"), str)) # quote and escape
+    end
 
 # handle NaNs and Infs
 _print(io::IO, val::Float64, level::Int=0, ignore_level::Bool=false) =
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 64a6a18..ebc2471 100755
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -224,4 +224,11 @@ order_two = OrderedDict(dict_content[[2,1]]...) # reverse order
 @test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => """a "quoted" string""")))["a"] == """a "quoted" string"""
 @test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => """a \\"quoted\\" string""")))["a"] == """a \\"quoted\\" string"""
 
+@test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => "")))["a"] == ""
+@test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => "nl at end\n")))["a"] == "nl at end\n"
+@test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => "one\nnl\n")))["a"] == "one\nnl\n"
+@test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => "many\nnls\n\n\n")))["a"] == "many\nnls\n\n\n"
+@test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => "no\ntrailing\nnls")))["a"] == "no\ntrailing\nnls"
+@test YAML.load(YAML.yaml(Dict("a" => "foo\n\"bar\\'")))["a"] == "foo\n\"bar\\'"
+
 end  # module