Fiction writing is certainly the hardest form of writing; you cannot rely on any references, you are entirely dependable on your own imagination and experience. Most of the time, you drain yourself out. So eventually every writer gets stuck with writer’s block and difficulty to pick up a daily routine. It happened to all of us and you shouldn’t worry if it is happening to you, now. Most writers are friendly and like to help each other out. There are plenty of writing tips out there but for some reason, I found Hemingway’s the most helpful of all.
On Writer’s Block
…sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut the scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.
A Movable Feast
On Observing
Writing isn’t just words and beautiful sentences; it’s rather about facts, feelings, people, environment, conflicts… the list is endless and I dare to say that the truest writing and the best of all is about life itself, and we all know that life cannot be defined. But, we can always get close to it; get close to perfection to core of life and writing itself, and the easiest way to get there is by observing; not just by simply watching, but giving your entire being to soak everything that’s going on around you, like a sponge dipped into shallow pond. This thought is probably the best described by Hemingway himself.
Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you are going to say. Most people never listen. Nor they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice. When you’re in town stand outside the theatre and see how the people differ in the way they get out of taxis or motor cars. There are thousands ways to practice. And always think of other people.
On Writing
On Working Habits
Finishing a novel requires discipline. Probably every writer starts its novel when he/she is inspired mostly. But, writing a novel requires a serious amount of time, dedication and discipline and no one, believe me, no one can hold the inspiration for that long; you must make yourself to finish the bloody novel. You have to be your own boss, your own angry commanding boss that is going to put your buttocks in a chair and make you write every single day. It seems hard and stressful; and it is, but there are some tricks that we can learn from the best, from Papa.
The best way is to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.
Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start. Once you are into the novel it is as cowardly to worry about whether you can go on the next day as to worry about having to go into inevitable action. You have to go on. So there is no sense to worry. You have to learn that to write a novel. The hard part about a novel is to finish it.
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