Ernest Hemingway On Writing

Summary:

This is a collection of quotes from Ernest Hemingway about writing that were either recorded in interviews or pulled from direct correspondence he had with others, broken into ten broad topics.

Review:

Ernest Hemingway, one of the giants of American Literature, never formally wrote a book teaching others how to write. Early in this book, the editor quotes Hemingway as saying that he never would do so and had no wish for his work to be turned into a volume with that purpose.

For a person who did not want to write a book about the art and craft of writing, he did an awful lot of writing on the topic - just in personal correspondences with friends and fellow writers instead. Many of the quotes found within the book are written to F. Scott Fitzgerald, for instance.

In it’s simplest form, his writing advice can be summed up as:

• Write daily.

• Use personal experience to create stories.

• Your first draft will suck and that’s okay.

• Be sure to exercise daily, read widely, and enjoy life - as these things refill the well you write from.

• Always end the day of writing when you have hit your minimum word count and still know what’s going to happen next in the story, as this will be sure you never face writer’s block.

• Don’t listen to critics after you’ve been published, as their job is to either be the one to discover you or be the one to tear you down.

Interestingly, I’ve heard it attributed to Hemingway that our job during the first draft is to just write forward and get the words out, but he didn’t say that in this book. Instead, he said that his personal practice is to begin each writing session by reading the entire story as written prior to putting any new words down on the page, “as this is how you make the whole thing cohesive.” He said once you get to a large enough manuscript that it’s impossible to read the whole thing every day prior to writing, read the prior 3 chapters that you’ve written for the same purpose.

He also said that he tries to write so lean and tight in his first draft that his edits are minimal and can be done in 4-6 weeks once the full manuscript is finished and has had some time to cool off in his mind (usually a month). I also found this interesting, as most advice given is that you’ll need to cut tens of thousands of words during editing, so don’t worry about that during drafting.

In other places he was quoted as saying that he had to cut upwards of 100,000 words from a novel, so perhaps earlier in his life and career he was less lean and tight in his first draft.

All in all, I’d say this is an interesting collection of quotes from one of the godfathers of American Literature. Hemingway lived an interesting life and wrote some prolific novels, so if you’re a fan of his work, you’d likely enjoy this short book.

The most important lesson I learned from this read (and my previous one Bird by Bird) is that writing daily is the most important thing you can do as a writer, because it’s the thing that brings us the most joy and allows us to fulfill our purpose. If we just make it a non-negotiable as much as possible, along with exercise, sleep, and reading (plus good food and sex according to Hemingway) we will eventually put brilliance on the page. That doesn’t mean we’ll be famous or even get published traditionally. It simply means we will hone our craft and become the best version of our truest self.

And that, my friends, is a goal worth pursuing.