Ernest Miller Hemingway was an
American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and
understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his
life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations.
1. Stay on your toes.
“Never sit a table when you
can stand at the bar.”
Standing keeps you in a state
of readiness—to make connections, observations, or even a hasty retreat, should
one be necessary.
2. Be
selective.
“Never to go on trips with
anyone you do not love.”
Whether choosing travel
companions or colleagues, surround yourself with people who bring out the best
in you. Nothing impedes productivity like forced conversation.
3. Always
start in pencil.
“Wearing down seven
number-two pencils is a good day’s work.”
Papa often waxed poetic about
the importance of writing in pencil, even measuring his productivity in
worn-down implements versus the words on the page. The practice is at least as important as
the product—so whether you’re sketching or scrawling, consider the eraser your
creative liberator.
4. Stick to
the facts.
“If I started to write
elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that
I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with
the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.”
Feigning knowledge or
needlessly elaborating upon the facts only creates extra work for everyone
involved. In communications both personal and professional, just stick to the
simple truth—it’ll set you free.
5. Never stop working.
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a
master.”
Any work worth doing is never truly finished. There’s always
room for
improvement, so stop focusing on the destination and start
enjoying the
journey.
6. Be honest with yourself.
“You shouldn’t write if you can’t write.”
Life’s too short for denial. Find your natural talent, and run
with it.
7. Write what you know.
“Up in that room I decided that I would write one story about
each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was
writing, and it was good and severe discipline.”
Or say what you know. Or do what you know. Whether you’re
penning a novel or trying to build a process from the ground up, brilliant
ideas don’t come out of thin air; they’re inspired by real experience.
8. Don’t be paralyzed by fear.
“The first draft of anything is shit.”
Pardon Hemingway's candor, but he’s right: It’s better start
something poorly than to not start it at all. Rather than procrastinate until
you have a “plan,” try tackling your next project immediately—even if you have
no idea where it’s going yet.
9. Pay attention.
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
You’d be amazed how much time you can waste by circling back to
things—conversations, processes, projects—that were crystal clear from the
beginning. Approach new challenges with open eyes, ears, and mind, and you’ll
already be ahead of the game.
10. Believe it or not, write sober.
“My training was never to drink after dinner nor before I wrote
nor while I was writing.”
This is a convincing counter to the “write drunk, edit sober”
edict often attributed to Hemingway, the validity of which is murky at best. No
man known for such syntactical precision could possibly have been toasted at
the typewriter. The man enjoyed a drink, but only in the right time and place.
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