I took this passage from a book of Earnest Hemingway's comments on writing, this passage was taken from Death in the afternoon p.191.
I really like the slight biting tone …
"When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. If a writer can make people live there may be no great characters in his book, but it is possible that his book will remain as a whole; as an entity; as a novel. If the people the writer is making talk of old masters; of music; of modern painting; of letters; or of science then they should talk of those subjects in the novel. If they do not talk of those subjects and the writer makes them talk of them he is a faker, and if he talks about them himself to show how much he knows then he is showing off. No matter how good a phrase or a simile he may have if he puts it in where it is not absolutely necessary and irreplaceable he is spoiling his work for egotism. Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over. For a writer to put his own intellectual musings, which he might sell for a low price as essays, into the mouths of artificially constructed characters which are more remunerative when issued as people in a novel is good economics, perhaps, but does not make literature. People in a novel, not skillfully constructed characters, must be projected from the writers assimilated experience, from his knowledge, from his heart and from all there is of him. If he ever has luck as well as seriousness and gets them out entire they will have more than one dimension and they will last a long time."
I really liked this passage for a two main reasons. First off, the idea of us creating people rung true (Joanna, you even used the word people in your comment). Secondly, I like the idea that for our work to be memorable we need to stay true to these people we create.
Some of you guys have already talked about how a character has to earn its keep and how its hard to throw them away because we created them. Hemingway says these 'people' come from our ' knowledge…experience….heart …and all there is of us'. –no wonder it is so hard to 'kill' them! According to Hemingway, what we have to do is make everything the character says or does relevant to the story or to the person we are creating; not just beautiful words for the sake of their beauty or irrelevant description or ramblings.
This is easier said than done. Sometimes I get a phrase stuck in my head and it sounds so great I just have to stick it in, or I get caught up with typical reactions to situations. I have to learn to ask myself is this what my 'person' would say or do? I'm going to try and work on this and hopefully I will end up with a really memorable character/person.
4 comments:
Hello, your posting on Ernest Hemingway is very helpful. I recently picked up "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" edited by Larry Phillips. I found it at a second-hand book store if anyone else wishes to look for this helpful work.
There are so many gems in this collection and I will post a few from time-to-time.
Here is one from a chapter called 'Knowing What to Leave Out':
It was a very simple story called "Out of Season" and I had omitted the real end of it which was that the old man hanged himself. This was omitted on my new theory that you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood.
(from A Moveable Feast, p.75)
Hi, the above note that says Maria is really from me. My computer plugged me in as my colleague since her google address is on my computer. Oh, well. Since I am here I will print another lovely Hemingway tip on writing.
On the subject of what to write about, Hemingway says:
...whatever success I have had has been through writing what I know about.
(to Maxwell Perkins, 1928, Selected Letters, p.273).
That's true. It's hard to take away from your own story. I had to experience that with our first story that we had to hand in. Im one of those writers who goes on and on, (kills me when essays have word limits), but I just love writing and can't stop once I get started.
So for our first story I had to cut down 15 pages that I'd written into 5. OMG! Was it ever hard! So I love what Earnest Heminghway is saying here about "you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood." It is so true. The trick is to learn what to leave in and what not to.
I also love what he's saying about characters being "people" rather than "characters" or caricatures". I'll keep that in mind... it's definitely a great way of looking at character development!
Tracy, thank you so much for sharing this. You have no idea how exciting it was to read.
His idea of making "people feel something more than they [have] understood" through omission is something that we explore in film studies as well. It has to do with onscreen/offscreen space, and how that which is not seen is sometimes so much more important and present than that which is evident, seen. I get so excited when two distinct art forms collapse; it is wonderful to see that omission can be incorporated into writing too.
In fact, that gives me a better perspective on "Hills Like White Elephants" too. Isn't that story exactly about the words omitted?
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