Happy 2025! As many of us start new writing projects, I came across these seven tips for writers from Ernest Hemingway and am sharing them here. As you read them, see which apply to you and your process.
First: “To get started, write one true sentence.” This is probably the most oft-repeated advice from EH. He described how he would start a new story by just thinking, sitting in front of a fire as he squeezed the peel of little oranges into the flames and watched the splutter of blue that they made. He says: “I would stand and look out over the the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now.'”
I love that confidence boost he gave himself, the ability to know that perhaps he was starting an unknown journey at the blank page, but he’s been here before and conquered it.
2. “Always stop for the day when you know what will happen next.” He felt that would keep a writer from becoming stuck. I do this myself, start the few lines of a new chapter for the next chapter or scene. It creates a feeling of comfort that I can go right back into the story where I left off.
3. “Never think about the story when you’re not writing.” I confess I’m not very good at this one. I often fall asleep plotting the next scene of a novel. EH thought of himself as a well that needed refilling when away from his desk.
4. “When it’s time to work again, always start by reading what you’ve written so far.” I do this, as a minor round of first edits, but really to get me back into the story faster. It helps with pacing, too. EH would read back a few chapters as a book lengthened, but he recommended reading from page 1 every week, something else I don’t do…
5. “Don’t describe an emotion—make it.” This is the classic show don’t tell we all hope to achieve, isn’t it? Sometimes EH felt this was beyond him, the area he struggled with after being a journalist.
6. “Use a pencil.” EH felt writing a draft in pencil allowed for easy edits on his daily read-throughs, and then when he typed it, he was editing again, and had a third chance for improvement when proofing for publication. I use a pencil for notes as I research and when I’m out and a thought strikes me, but I start my drafts right on my laptop. PD James wrote all of her first drafts in longhand on her kitchen table. This is one area where I feel each writer must find what works for him or her.
7. “Be brief.” EH notes the that it “wasn’t by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short.” Brevity enhances clarity and often, impact. We use it in crime writing to make a point, or an action, stand out. Here are other writers who chime in for briefness:
Stephen King: “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
George Orwell: “If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.”
Beatrix Potter: “The shorter and plainer the better.”
Mark Twain: “A successful book is not make of what is in its but what is left out of it.”
Even Strunk & White chime in, in The Elements of Style: “When a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.”
And possibly my favorite quote comes from Leonardo da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
What about you, our Miss Demeanors writer and reader. Which of these strike home to you? How do feel about brevity?

MIss Demeanors
Author
I’m more like you and less like EH with #3. The thorniest plot problems need their own thinking time blocks, right?
These are great, Marni. Thank you.
I’m a big fan of the second tip. When I get to the end of a chapter, I’ll write a few sentences of the next section to get me going the following day. As for not thinking about my writing when I’m not writing…that’s a tough one. My characters don’t always wait to be invited. They sometimes appear at the oddest times!
Marni, this is a great way to get us all started in the new year!
Pencil! I write a chunk of my first drafts longhand, but if I used a pencil, I’d end up with graphite all over my face and clothes. And hair. And in my food. A family friend, who just turned ninety, gave me this advice recently about writing: “You need a really good typewriter”. Anybody gone one rattling around? hehe… I have to say though, a bad laptop is impossible to write on. Whatever you use, make sure it’s the best you can afford, whether it’s a good pen, a good device, or, you know, a good typewriter.
Very insightful. I would add one more:
If you have a problem with the plot, ask yourself how to fix it before you go to bed. I do this and count on my subconscious mind to resolve the issue while I sleep. Usually, I wake up with the answer.
Thanks, Marni. I do use some of his tips but unfortunately not #3 about never thinking about the story when you’re not writing. I’m always thinking about the story. Also, #6, use a pencil. Writing in longhand doesn’t do it for me. I need my trusty MacBook Air.