Advice from Hemingway

by Jean Henry Mead

I recently came across a forgotten book in my library, titled On Being a Writer by Will Blythe. Thumbing through, I noticed a chapter about Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway is a favorite author, not only because he changed the face of literature, but because I was born on his birthday, July 21. Leather bound copies of his work are among my most prized possessions.

Elmore Leonard reveres Hemingway so much that a portrait of him hangs in his writing den, and he claims that rereading For Whom the Bell Tolls taught him to write western novels. Thousands of writers have followed “Papa” Hemingway‘s lead and learned to write succinctly rather than imitate writers of the past such as Washington Irving, whose flowery phrases give me a headache.

Hemingway was no saint but his candor and truth in writing are traits to be admired. Questioned about his drinking habits, he said the only writer he knew who drank while he wrote was Faulkner, and that he could tell from reading his work when his drinking began during the writing process.

He wrote from 7 a.m. until noon and stressed the fact that writers should write every day, no matter where they were. During the afternoons he would swim or go fishing, explaining that “the best way is always to stop when you are doing good. If you do that, you’ll never be stuck. And don’t think or worry about it until you start the next day. That way your subconscious will be working on it all the time. But if you worry about it, your brain will get tired before you start again. You have to work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite the nail.”

When writing about something monumental like a current war, he said at first it’s too fresh and you’re too close to what has happened. When you have sorted out your feelings about your subject, it’s time to write before the freshness wears off.

“When you write, your objective is to convey every sensation, sight, feeling, and emotion to the reader." He stressed rewriting and keeping your work fluid so that you can always improve upon it. Calling writing the hardest trade in the world when writing about fellow human beings, he said that wordsmiths can train themselves by recalling memories of walking into a room and experiencing the sights, smells and emotions present there.

“Then write it down, making it clear so the reader will see it too, and have the same feelings you had.” Hemingway also stressed watching people and attempting to insert yourself in someone else’s head, and above all, never take sides in an argument. See the problem from all sides and allow the reader to determine who’s right and wrong.

“As a writer you should not judge, you should understand.”

Hemingway encouraged writers to talk to one another about their craft, but not about the stories they were writing. If you tell it, you won’t write it. Writers should work alone, then talk about their work. He also discouraged writers from imitating what others have written unless they know they can do a better job. It’s important to keep a journal if you’re writing about actual historical events because you have to write "an exact, detailed and specific account" of the story. And above all, you have to be serious about your subject as well as your craft.

An Interview with Elmore Leonard

by Jean Henry Mead


Elmore “Dutch” Leonard has always been an avowed reader. “A bookworm, yes,” he said, “beginning with The Bobbsey Twins and The Book House volumes of abridged classics that included everything from Beowulf to Treasure Island. In the fifth grade I read most of All Quiet on the Western Front serialized in the Detroit Times, and I wrote a World War I play that was staged in the classroom, my first piece of writing.”

The first nine years of his life were spent south of the Mason-Dixon line. Born in New Orleans in 1925, the youngest of two children, he lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Memphis before moving to Detroit in 1934, during the World Series. Raised a Catholic, he graduated from Detroit High School and the University of Detroit, both Jesuit institutions where he majored in English and philosophy.

Leonard lusted for full-time writing, and remembered receiving a letter from his agent in 1951, trying to discourage him from quitting his advertising job to freelance. He had concentrated on truck advertising for Chevrolet and, by that time, had a tank full of writing catchy ads.

Getting out of bed each morning at five o’clock, he’d write two pages of fiction before going to work “with the rule that I couldn’t put the water on for coffee until I started writing. I’ve been a disciplined writer every since." While still working for the ad agency, he supplemented his early morning writings by placing a pad of paper in his desk drawer. With the drawer partially open, he’d write fiction on the job.

He first wrote western stories and novels because he liked western films. His novel, Hombre, evolved into a western film starring Paul Newman and earned him a modest $10,000. He then turned full attention to the other side of his genre coin and found that crime pays quite well. Stick and LaBrava made him an overnight sensation, earning him a lot of money, along with the film version of Stick, starring Burt Reynolds, a production he would rather not lay claim to.

“My humor is deadpan,” he said, “not slapstick.” The slightly-built, quiet-spoken novelist had written well all along, and his sudden popularity created some problems, the most serious of which was lack of time to write.

“It’s nice to get fan mail, a few letters a week, and being recognized on the street, but the interviews are wearing me out. I’m asked questions about writing, and about my purpose in the way I write that I’ve never thought of before. And I have to take time to think on the spot and come up with an answer. I’m learning quite a bit about what I do from recent interviews and getting answers too.”

When asked for advice to fledgling writers, he said, “The worst thing a novice can do is to try to sound like a writer. I guess the first thing you have to learn is how not to overwrite.” He also advised fledglings to “write. Don’t talk about it, do it. Read constantly, study the authors you like, pick one and imitate him the way a painter learns fine art by copying the masters. I studied Hemingway, as thousands of other writers have done. I feel that I learned to write westerns by rereading For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

A portrait of Hemingway hangs on the wall of his den, reminding him that he studied the revered novelist’s work for “construction, for what you leave out as well as what you put in.”

Excerpted from my book, MaverickWriters. The rest of the interview may be read at my website: http://jeanhenrymead.com/elmore_leonard_interview.htm.