For a new slant in the new year right, I’ve decided to mix author guest posts with advice from other writers on how a writer might … do whatever it is we do. This week, the advice comes from Ernest Hemingway on Writing, edited by Larry W. Phillips, and the quote is drawn originally from By-Line: Ernest Hemingway:
How can a writer train himself? … Watch what happens today. If we get into a fish see exactly what it is that everyone does. If you get a kick out of it while he is jumping remember back until you see exactly what the action was that gave you the emotion. Whether it was the rising of the line from the water and the way it tightened like a fiddle string until it drops started from it, or the way he smashed and threw water when he jumped. Remember what the noises were and what was said. Find what gave you the emotion; what the action was that gave you the excitement. Then write it down making it clear so the reader will see it too and have the same feeling that you had.
I’d also like to recommend the post Growth Mindset and Writing: A Celebration of Risk and Failure on author Elizabeth Stark’s wonderful blog, Write Angles: The Art of Craft.
