Many of us an impulse and a deep down desire to write something and project it to the world. Whether it is a long novel, a screenplay for a motion picture, a short story , poems or any piece of fiction -- we often begin with various ideas floating aroumd. However, at times you hit a stage where the work gets stuck, and the frustration starts taking over.
As the idea stops developing after a certain idea thats has been idling in your sub concious for a long time. Instead of working, or finding a work flow, we find ourselves sitting in front of the desktop and procrastinating over it. The acclaimed Nobel Prize winning novelist, Ernest Hemingway has possibly got an answer to this problem.
According to Hemingway, creativity doesn’t come from one single source. This idea became widely known because of Hemingway’s protégé, Arnold Samuelson, who revealed Hemingway’s three-step writing exercise in his memoir With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba.
1. Close Observation: Hemingway emphasises it as a significant step. He tells us to venture out into the world, and look at what’s happening around us, and observe it with a Keen eye. Whether you are sitting in a quiet cafeteria, or bustling public places such. Observe every minute detail as if you’re a detective.
Whether it’s the conversation happening between two individuals or the unique mannerism of some person - that’s where we should look out for inspiration. He mentions that stories Involve People and is catered to the people. Hence, having a documentarian eye actually helps in adding the realistic and humanistic edge to our stories.
So, take out your laptop, phone, or a notebook in different places and write down, in detailed chunks, what’s happening around you. The objective is to tell the truth, even if it isn’t good or interesting. This exercise helps you understand how you describe real-world details, which are essential for adding flair to your fiction.
2. Empathy: This refers to the ability to understand and share the emotional experiences of other human beings. As you start observing your surroundings, focus on what the other people around you might be feeling. This can be inferred from their random conversations, gestures and reactions. This allows you to sketch their emotional graph, whether they arere sad, bored or depressed, happy, or excited. Write about these obserrvations. Imagine yourself as that person, empathize with their situation and notice how individuals respond to one another. This step is crucial to bring authenticity to a piece of fiction.
3. Repeat: Perfection is not achieved in a single attempt. Like forging a sword, it depends on how many times you are willing to hammer the metal into shape. Same is the case with Writing. We often judge our own ability by our initial attempts and come to a conclusion that writing is a futile task for us. What we must remember is that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Hence, we must practice consistently, and turn a blind eye to our inner critic until we reach our expectations.
Fun fact: Ernest Hemingway rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms nearly 47 times, proving that even great writing is built through relentless revision.
The article has been written by Yoga Adithya, an intern at Deccan Chronicle.
