Comments on: Hemingway’s Advice on When to Stop Writing http://thewritersbag.com/writing-techniques/hemingway%e2%80%99s-advice-on-when-to-stop-writing Writing tips for the real world. Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:12:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Emma Powers http://thewritersbag.com/writing-techniques/hemingway%e2%80%99s-advice-on-when-to-stop-writing/comment-page-1#comment-3250 Emma Powers Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:56:56 +0000 http://thewritersbag.com/?p=433#comment-3250 Oh man, I completely disagree! I alwaysalways write if I know where I'm going, until I hit a dead end (or until I have to stop, for whatever reason). I write in my head even when I'm not writing things down, and nothing's worse than not being able to a word a sentence the way you had it in your head, a few hours or the day before. Even if I know objectively that the sentence is fine, it's hard to move past it if I think it could've been *better*. If I'm in a situation where I can't write things out the way I want to then I jot detailed notes. A lot of times I'll even write down the adjectives I've thought of! Maybe Hemingway just had a better memory than I do... but it sounds like he struggled with transferring words from his headspace to the paper the same way I do... (And furthermore, that kind of approach seems like the approach of someone who's afraid of running out of things to say! It's easy to forget [especially when one's in the middle of a dry spell, writing-wise] that creativity is endless, and it only needs to be triggered by the right thing to start up again.) Oh man, I completely disagree! I alwaysalways write if I know where I’m going, until I hit a dead end (or until I have to stop, for whatever reason). I write in my head even when I’m not writing things down, and nothing’s worse than not being able to a word a sentence the way you had it in your head, a few hours or the day before. Even if I know objectively that the sentence is fine, it’s hard to move past it if I think it could’ve been *better*. If I’m in a situation where I can’t write things out the way I want to then I jot detailed notes. A lot of times I’ll even write down the adjectives I’ve thought of! Maybe Hemingway just had a better memory than I do… but it sounds like he struggled with transferring words from his headspace to the paper the same way I do…

(And furthermore, that kind of approach seems like the approach of someone who’s afraid of running out of things to say! It’s easy to forget [especially when one's in the middle of a dry spell, writing-wise] that creativity is endless, and it only needs to be triggered by the right thing to start up again.)

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