On writing

Short Stories

I have attached four short stories. They represent the short story when it is best. On a limited space it presents a focused and razor sharp story which leaves the reader with a lasting impression.

• The Signal Man of Charles Dickens
• A Very Short Story by Ernest Hemingway
• The Last Night of the World by Ray Bradbury
• The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Hemingway quotes on the writing process

Hemingway has left a number of quotes on the writing process. The quality varies but I like the following and I try to apply them in my own writing.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.”—Ernest Hemingway

“If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.”—Ernest Hemingway

“I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.” —Ernest Hemingway

“Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility and try to make instead of describe, writing had been wonderful to do. But it was very difficult, and I did not know how I would ever write anything as long as a novel. It often took me a full morning of work to write a paragraph.”—Ernest Hemingway