Richard is always telling me that I need to get on a schedule like Hemingway. Get up early, write, go fishing and then drink all night. The drinking part is now out, and drinking anything liquid after 6 pm is also out of the question ever since I passed the big 5- 0. Hemingway would pop out of bed every morning and do it all over again. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature with that kind of discipline. How did Richard, who never reads a book, know this about Hemingway? I have no clue, but according to this book, he's right. That's exactly what Hemingway did every day.
So in a moment of weakness, I had to buy this book when I spotted it in the bookstore. I'm glad I did. I'm not a big Hemingway fan as a reader, but he is certainly a master of the craft. The author explains in great detail how Hemingway as a minimalist pared down his sentences to the essentials. He could brilliantly set the scene and create strong, real characters within it. He was an expert at dialogue, often foregoing the tags that the rest of us cling to in our storytelling.
As a writer, this book is pure gold. I even got out the highlighter and noted passages that I want to remember when I'm working on my own pieces. And trust me, marking up a book goes against everything I know and feel when it comes to a book. Books need to be cherished and left in a pure and pristine condition by one reader for the next. Bent corners annoy me as do notes in the margin. Write Like Hemingway however, compelled me to go against the grain. It is a reference book I will treasure all of my writing life. I learned so much and I know there is so much more for me inside this gem of a book.
It's a five! It's a keeper! It's a treasure!
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