Newsletter archive · 7 Jul 2024
Hemingway's Lost Suitcase
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Hi Reader, Ernest Hemingway lost all of his best ideas. In 1922, a young Hemingway was on assignment in Switzerland. He was a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star newspaper. Meanwhile, his wife Hadley, traveling from Paris to see him, packed up Hemingway's papers, writing and manuscripts into a suitcase. Hadley was a thorough suitcase packer. She'd even included the carbons - 1922 speaks for iCloud backups ;) While the train was waiting in the Gare de Lyon, Hadley went outside to buy a bottle of Evian water. She returned to her seat to find the suitcase ROBBED. Hemingway's drafts, stories, and novel manuscripts–ones he'd spent years working on… Gone! Ernest had nothing left except for a poem and two short stories, one buried in a drawer and the other with an editor. (I don't know about you, but I get frustrated when iCloud or Google Docs messes up version control or some of my articles don't sync.) Hemingway was about to land a writing contract for his fiction. He was under pressure to show something to his editor. So, he started again. He wrote during the day as a journalist to pay the bills. At night, he worked from memory, rewriting his stories. He kept a large blackboard next to where he worked. He wrote down his daily word count each day to hold himself accountable. While rewriting his stories, Hemingway cut flowery sentences. He rewrote his stories using concise, everyday words. He stripped the "language clean, to lay it bare down to the bone." Thanks to a suitcase thief, he embraced a minimalistic form of writing, which he later became famous for. The missing suitcase also taught Hemingway that his subconscious could work on stories even if he didn't have his draft and notes to hand. He later said: The most important thing I've learned about writing is never write too much at a time… Never pump yourself dry. Leave a little for the next day. The main thing is to know when to stop. Don't wait till you've written yourself out. When you're still going good and you come to an interesting place and you know what's going to happen next, that's the time to stop. Then leave it alone and don't think about it; let your subconscious mind do the work. Hemingway's Lost Suitcase illustrates the power of a creative constraint. You don't always need more time. You don't always need more ideas. You don't always need more research. Remember, your subconscious is working on your stories and drafts even when you're doing something else. So, turn up even if you feel like progress is slow. Ask yourself these questions: "How can I get the same or better results with less money or time?" "What can I take out, cut, or stop doing to go from the first draft to DONE?" The answers will help you impose a creative constraint. Like giving yourself a deadline, real or imagined. Or forcing yourself to rewrite an entire piece in one session. Or, finally, publishing a piece you've spent months procrastinating about. Using creative constraints is one of the principles I teach in my Conquer Writer's Block course. Check it out. Write on, |
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