Stop when you’re still going

The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.

Whereas most people will advise you to continue writing when you get into the zone, Hemingway actually advises the opposite. His trick for avoiding the dreaded writer’s block is to stop writing when he is in a groove and already knows where the story will continue to go next. This way, when you sit down to write next, it’s not as hard to get back into the story.

Read, read, read

[A writer] should have read everything so that he knows what he has to beat… The only people for a serious writer to compete with are the dead that he knows are good. It is like a miler running against the clock rather than simply trying to beat whoever is in the race with him. Unless he runs against time he will never know what he is capable of attaining.

Though we would advise against the idea of feeling like you have to compare your work with others, we definitely agree with Hemingway here. Reading work from authors that emulate the type of writing you aspire to will help you learn different techniques on how to achieve those goals.

Be a professional observer

Watch what happens today. If we get into a fish see exact 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 that emotion. Whether it was the rising of the line from the water and the way it tightened like a fiddle string until drops started from it or the way he smashed and threw water when he jumped.

…Then write it down making it clear so the reader will see it too and have the same feeling you had.

Hemingway encourages writers to abide by the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule. Through this example, he is helping readers learn how to connect an action with a visible response in a way that shows clearly that the two are connected. You don’t have to say ‘catching a fish was exciting’ or ‘I found it funny watching the fish flip around’ in order for readers to connect the action with a character’s response- all you have to do is show them.

Be positive

Once you are into the novel it is as cowardly to worry about whether you can go on to the next day as to worry about having to go into inevitable action. You have to go on. So there is no sense to worry… As soon as you start to think about it stop it. Think about something else. You have to learn that to write a novel. The hard part about a novel is to finish it.

Here, Hemingway compares writing to being a soldier on a battlefield. He’s essentially saying there’s no point in worrying about if you’ll make it through because you’ll have to keep moving forward regardless. So don’t let yourself get in your own head about your worth as a writer or where your novel is going- just push through.

You need to have empathy

Then get in somebody elseʼs head for a change. If I bawl you out try to figure out what Iʼm thinking about as well as how you feel about it. If Carlos curses Juan think what both their sides of it are. Donʼt just think who is right… As a man you know who is right and who is wrong… As a writer, you should not judge. You should understand…Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Donʼt be thinking what youʼre going to say. Most people never listen.

Hemingway is stating that one of the most important parts of good writing is having empathy. Being able to understand people, their motivations, their strengths/weaknesses is key to writing people in a realistic way. If a conflict arises in your story, it’s not about who is right and who is wrong- that’s for your readers to decide. It’s about making sure there are good reasons behind both sides, reasons informed by who they are, what they’ve gone through, and how they think.

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If you’ve started writing your book, you may have noticed one thing: when it comes to writing (aside from grammar), there are no rules. You have to figure out what works best for you…and that may be a process you constantly have to tweak.  In 2010, Margaret Atwood, author of

1. Take a pencil to write with on airplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils. 
2. If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.
3. Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.
4. If you’re using a computer, always safeguard new text with a ­memory stick.
5. Do back exercises. Pain is distracting. 
6. Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What ­fascinates A will bore the pants off B. 
7. You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: there’s no free lunch. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.
8. You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a ­romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.
9. Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.
10. Prayer might work. Or reading ­something else. Or a constant visual­isation of the holy grail that is the finished, published version of your resplendent book.

These writing tips originally appeared in The Guardian (2010), inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing in the New York Times (2001).

What writing rules do you live by?

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