The Writing Process

Now that I’ve built some amazing characters and laid down a timeline for each act of my novel, I have a pretty good basis to get back to writing. As Ernest Hemingway plays a significant role in my novel (more on this in a later blog post), his was really the only writing process to use for this project.

Hemingway was very serious about his writing, but he was also very serious about his other hobbies: fishing, boating, hunting, etc. His writing process allowed for him to have the best of both of these worlds. Papa would write from 7:00 am to noon. This gave him his mornings for work and his afternoons off to enjoy his other interests. He could often be found out on his boat Pilar in the afternoons, enjoying some fishing in the Keys or off the coast of Cuba. If he was really on a roll with something, he might have extended his writing time, but it was rare for Papa to be found at work on those projects in the late afternoons.

With this process in mind, I get up each morning and write until noon. I wish I was more of morning person, because 7:00 am is proving to be a bit of a struggle for me. For now I can usually be found at my desk by 8:30 am. In the afternoon’s you won’t find me out trolling for fish, but I do try to change my perspective and head space before getting back to it the next day. I work around the cottage with my Dad gardening, painting decks or whatever other task needs to be addressed. Before going to sleep I often take down some notes on the thoughts and ideas that popped into my head during day, and this usually gives me a starting point for where I want to begin in the morning.

For now, the Hemingway Process seems to be working for me, but that doesn’t mean I might not switch it up in the future. I wish I had something a little more exciting to share with you on the process, but for now its just a lot of me sitting and typing and a little bit of me talking to myself. This writer’s life is not a glamorous one, at least not yet…