Guidelines for using Writing with Hemingway
- This is not a diary. Your responses are truth or fiction which only you will know for sure.
- Think through even the short and silly questions for your best creative response.
- Writers sometimes need to “get it out” meaning work creatively overlooking grammar, punctuation and spelling. Use the method that works best for you. A writer writes, rewrites and reviews multiple times. Through the process you will capture errors. Write the first time for you. Rewrite for others.
- The answers to the questions are for your eyes only, unless you choose to share. Part of learning the writing process is to read out loud to others in a critique environment. It is up to you to engage in this process by sharing your work. Writers write to be read.
- Most professional writers will eventually use an editor for assistance with rewrites. This exercise book is provided to help any writer get started in a process. Once you have written many things in many ways you will feel comfortable building on topics, styles that you have found to work for you.
- Be disciplined with your writing. Set aside time every day to write. Start small and build from there.
- Writers most often have stories, beginnings, endings, characters and other words rattling in their heads. Carry a notebook or workbook with you and get those words written down. Get into a habit of reviewing them periodically. Find a way to organize them.
- Bounce your ideas off of others. It is important to see a response to your ideas. Feedback is helpful. Use a filter and sift through comments that you are not comfortable with.
- Start thinking of yourself as a writer. Talk about your stories and projects that you are working on. People will be interested.
- Respond to the exercise from the point of view which it is stated. You may need to think like a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a child or even like Hemingway.
- You will find yourself writing more as your progress through the writing exercises.
- Finish the book. Complete all the exercises. You will be pleasantly surprised later when you re-read your responses.
- Get a copy of one of Hemingway’s books, A Moveable Feast or the Complete Collection of Short Stories, Finca Vigía edition. Read one chapter or one short story out loud and dissect it each day. Many of his stories are very short. Figure out how he builds structure and symbolism into his stories. You will have many “ah-ha” moments as you figure them out. Use it as a tool. Hemingway is undeniably a great American author whose work remains relevant. It is not necessary to know all of his work, but it is helpful to know some of his work.
