Ernest Hemingway: Write the truest sentence that you know...

I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that you knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scroll-work or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.

—Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition (Scribner, 2009)

Re: Ernest Hemingway: Write the truest sentence that you know...

Gotta love Hemingway.

Re: Ernest Hemingway: Write the truest sentence that you know...

I love this quote. It speaks to me (well, to everybody who writes and looks for where to start, I suppose) and resonates strongly these days, preparing from inside for the NaNoWriMo time of madness. I feel guided thanks to “Write the truest sentence that you know.” That's not too hard to do.

Ruth, I have been looking for this quote all over the Harvest Moon Writing thread, I knew for sure you'd mentioned it there somewhere (and maybe it was another thread…).

Couldn't find it. Then had the brilliant idea to google Hemingway quotes 'one true sentence'… and landed here! God bless Google!

:)

Re: Ernest Hemingway: Write the truest sentence that you know...

'Nother Ernie said-
“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”
 
 

Re: Ernest Hemingway: Write the truest sentence that you know...

Another good quote, thanks, Phil. The quote rings as true as his writing does, and that's saying a lot, as far as I'm concerned. And this is how it seems to me too: that I try to write the best I can and sometimes what comes out is better than I thought I could write.

I'm learning a lot just from rereading his work. A LOT.