Ernest Hemingway on Writing Kindle Edition

When I got this book in the mail, I was disappointed at first. I thought I was going to be buying something akin to Stephen King's On Writing, but as soon as I read the introduction from the editor, I learned that Hemingway thought it was bad luck to talk about writing. So of course he would never create a manifesto like King did. I thought, "Great, these are going to be the same quotes you can find online." Nope. I was wrong.This is essentially a collection of his thoughts on writing gathered from interviews and letters. The editors obviously took a long, painstaking process of putting everything together, and it has quickly become something I am going to treasure.My reaction to John Gardner's On Writing was traumatizing fear that I wasn't good enough. Stephen King's On Writing is great, except it gave me an unrealistic expectation that if I can't write an award-winning novel like Carrie, then I may as well not try at all. However, this book just inspires me. Plain and simple. I also love the fact that since it's broken up into little quotes, I don't have to waste a lot of time reading it, and get back to actually writing.

I found very little actionable advise in this book.The interest, if there is any, is more in uncovering Hemingway's viewpoint.What I learned was that Hemingway was a blowhard, often overly opinionated about other equally good (if not better) writers, and overly self-promoting on how "hard" it is to write one "good sentence". He tends to imply that writers have the most difficult job in the world, which they certainly do not.While Hemingway, at his best - i.e. most of his short stories, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea (as long as it is read as an allegory) - is right up there with me; he also wrote a lot of blather (To Have and Have Not is a 'train wreck') in which he overly croons over uneducated "men of action" and lambasted "writers" who are not "sincere" like him. This opinionated self-importance readily comes through in his letters and such, which constitute what the present book alleges is "advice" on writing.I did find it interesting that Hemingway refutes that the "sharks" in The Old Man in the Sea are symbolic. He did not believe in symbolism. At least, that is what he implies and this would be consistent with how I view his worldview from reading his works. However, much of his writing is superficial (or simplistic) if not read symbolically. In fact, The Old Man and the Sea is tripe if not read symbolically since it defies reason to believe a fisherman who is starving to death from lack of catching fish is as happy-go-lucky and indifferent as the "old man" is portrayed in that story. It only works as an allegory, despite Hemingway's implication that nothing in that tale is meant to be symbolic.If you have interest in figuring out who Hemingway was as a man, then this book has some value. As "advice" on writing it has little, other than to tell you to write everyday and treat your writing as the most important thing, not only in your life, but in the world.Hemingway always writes marvelous sentences, even in letters to his publishers, so it is also worth reading just to hear his arrangement of words.

I wouldn't call myself a rabid Hemingway fan but like most writers, I have a deep respect for him. As Larry Phillips, the author says so well, "Throughout Earnest Hemingway's career as a writer, he maintained it was bad luck to talk about writing--that it takes off ‘whatever butterflies have on their wings and the arrangement of hawk's feathers if you show it or talk about it.’" (p. xi)I think this quote sums it up. Hemingway for all his foibles was and is a writer who understood writing at a level most of us only aspire to. In "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" Brooks does an excellent job assembling small snippets of Hemingway's thoughts on writing to help writers today understand the breadth of what it means to write beyond ourselves. I particularly liked the section on "Other Writers" where Hemingway says “you should always write your best against dead writers” and then he offers numerous names of famous dead writers who fall we should write against.An inspiring read! Much of what Brooks has captured about Hemingway’s views on writing is indirect but never the less exceptional advice on the craft of writing from one of the best writers who ever lived.

A Pretty Neat Book!Actually I bought this as a fill in item as i needed a couple more bucks on my earlier order to get free shipping?.But now I'm really glad I did as this book, An Hemingway's reminisces and his writing means an methods have helped immensely to hone an refine my own technique and craft as a Published Author!.PROS: A Very Helpful Book!. A Big Time Heads Up Both For New An Established Writers!. An Amazing Insight In The Trials, And Methods Of Americas Premier Writer!.CONS: Book Is Small But Well Written And Full Of Insights!. A Good Reminder To Buy Fill In Items That Count And This Does!.....Cannot Not Praise This Book Enough:If you are serious about writing buy this Book!.Nuff Said!.Indiana ED.....

Having read Stephen King's book, ON WRITING; Robert McKee's thick tome, STORY; and recently deceased William Zinsser's book ON WRITING WELL, among dozens of other books on the subject, I ordered the excellent compilation of Ernest Hemingway's quotes about the craft of writing, organized for the first time together in one volume by Larry Phillips. Hemingway was a man who spoke his mind in a straightforward way. He wasn't mincing words when he wrote (I'm paraphrasing his words), "When you are working well, leave some inspiration for the next day. That way you have some good work waiting for you when you return to it." This book of quotes is thoughtful, practical, and highly recommended.

As other reviewers have commented, this is not a text book on creative writing. Nor is it an analysis of Hemingway’s style. However, it does give you some insight into how the master approached the job (craft? Vocation?) of writing, what it means to make a living as a writer when you are dependent on opinions, the opinions of readers, critics, other writers. What it means to get up every day thinking today I have to write….how many words?Much of the material comes from Hemingway’s letters to writers, such as F Scott Fitzgerald, and publishers, and what becomes clear is that although it’s possible for writers to form some kind of fellowship with other writers, ultimately as a writer you are alone, with a blank sheet of paper and a legion of onlookers peering over your shoulder who desperately want you to succeed or fail. Other material is taken from his non-fiction, such as “The Green Hills of Africa” and “Death in the Afternoon”. I only read the former a few weeks ago and I struggled to recognise the extracts, so it was useful to see them again in a new context.A couple of things struck me:1. Hemingway’s thoughts on writers he considered great came as a bit of a surprise: Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, et al. (though it’s notable that there are no women in the list apart from a brief mention of Gertrude Stein). Surprising because Hemingway doesn’t write like any of them as far as I can see. I suppose he developed a unique style by avoiding what they do as in long, complicated novels with multiple plots and perspectives and zillions of characters.2. He was really sensitive about people delving into his private life, although by the standards of the time, I don’t think there’s anything exceptional there compared to other male celebrities, such as film stars etc: four wives, some heavy drinking and a passion for pastimes beyond the reach of ordinary mortals. However, you begin to get a sense of that paranoia that eventually led him to believe the FBI were tailing him, for which he was prescribed electro-convulsive therapy in the final months of his life. It turned out he was right! The FBI kept a file on him for twenty years.I’ve read a lot of Hemingway, so there wasn’t much here that surprised me. However, I’ve never read a decent biography, partly because I’m anxious I might learn something I don’t want to know. I’m already aware of the profound criticisms of his writing and his personality, much of which is probably fair, especially from a feminist perspective. And, of course, in the 21st century all that bull fighting and big game hunting is now deeply problematic.I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how and why Hemingway wrote and who believes that might help them in some way with their own writing. If it inspires you to read some Hemingway or to find a good biography or analysis of his writing, then great. You’ll find that extremely rewarding.

What if someone painstakingly went through the whole of Hemingway’s oeuvre (novels, interviews, articles, letters) to find everything he ever said on the subject of writing, then sorted the extracts into 13 categories and bound them together in a little 140-page volume...?Wow, thanks Larry W. Phillips – this is pure gold. Larry says: “As I brought them together... something unusual happened. Comments apparently made at random, at different times, often decades apart, and in different cities or countries, magically began to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.” Yes, absolutely, and Hemingway’s writing creed is a very marvellous thing. It has me looking back at my note on ‘For whom the bell tolls’ in 2011, unsurprised to find I said: “Wow. A huge book. Up there with War & Peace and Hamlet and a tense, gripping thriller into the bargain. Consummate craft, unwavering sincerity, profound, moving themes.”Here’s part of the last extract in ‘On Writing’, in the category ‘The writer’s life’: “You must be prepared to work always without applause. When you are excited about something is when the first draft is done. But no one can see it until you have gone over it again and again until you have communicated the emotion, the sights and the sounds to the reader, and by the time you have completed this the words, sometimes, will not make sense to you as you read them, so many times have you re-read them. By the time the book comes out... it is all behind you... but... you read it and you see all the places that now you can do nothing about... Finally, in some other place, some other time, when you can’t work and feel like hell you will pick up the book and look in it and start to read and go on and in a little while say... why this stuff is bloody marvellous.”

Just in case you are wondering Hemingway never wrote a book on writing. This is a really well thought out collection of quotes from his books and personal letters which I found really insightful.They don't say much to his method, but they speak very much to his motives and emotion on writing.My biggest takeaway was the feeling of solace as a writer, that even the great Hemingway himself felt at times a bit of a fraud, and not a very good writer.

I expected - justifiably so from the title - that this would be a book of advice from Ernest Hemingway on how to write, but it was merely an edited collection of extracts from his work, plus letters written by him to various people about his own problems with his own work in progress. Also his letters to other people of the day, criticising or praising other writers.Not all what I wanted, and rather boring after a while. But others may find it a good enough read.

' I am trying to make before I get through , a picture of the whole world ~ or as much of it asI have seen. Boiling it down always , rather than spreading it out thin '. So begins the finest book apart from Michael Legat's - Writing For Pleasure and Profit , thatI have ever had the pleasure to read. Yes this book , containing Ernest Hemingway's reflections,elements and specific helpful advice for writers is indespensable to any author. May they be juststarting out or have been writing for many a year! There is so much wisdom here from quote's , letters to publishers , wives and all , that I just thinkthat this book improves any ones ambitions to write. Ernest Hemingway was such a larger than life personality away from his writing desk and typewriterbut there was and never will be anyone better at creating a story about all the huge chunks of life hechewed from. Wether that be at a bull fight in Spain. Big game hunting through the plains of Africa ordeep sea fishing off the shores of the Florida Keys or his beloved Cuba. This book is fantastic and can really give aspiring and experienced writers such an invaluable lessonin being able to do their writing the right way just as Mr Ernest Miller Hemingway encouraged them to do.An Essential Amazon Buy !Thank YouCraig : }