So I ignored him and wrote two sentences:Hemingway’s advice for lawyers and other writers in A Moveable Feast
By Brian C. Potts*
He was sitting at the next table, a tall fat young man with spectacles. He had ordered a beer. I thought I would ignore him and see if I could write. So I ignored him and wrote two sentences.[1]
It won’t surprise you that Hemingway was sometimes solitary, sometimes gregarious; sometimes warm and sometimes gruff. Who isn’t?
And if you’re a writer, it won’t surprise you that Hemingway—one of the greatest writers ever—often worried about money, especially early in his career.
But would it surprise you that Hemingway—winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—faced writer’s block?
Would it surprise you that Hemingway rewrote his works over and over and over?
That Hemingway was an early bird?
Hemingway was a model of the hardworking artist not dependent on uncertain muses but on simply sitting down to write. Indeed, I have found that A Moveable Feast—Hemingway’s pseudo-memoir of his Paris years—overflows with blunt advice for lawyers, legal writers, and writers in general.
Reading Hemingway can make you a better writer and a better lawyer. In One True Sentence: Hemingway’s Advice for Lawyers in A Moveable Feast, 25 Journal of Appellate Practice and Process 391 (2025), I glean 35 nuggets of wisdom for lawyers and other writers. Here are some appetizers:
2. Flow
The story was writing itself and I was having a hard time keeping up with it.[2]
When you are flowing, keep going. Maintain the flow and finish while you have momentum. If you stop, you waste time figuring out where you were and where you were going.[3]
3. Rewrite
That fall of 1925 he was upset because I would not show him the manuscript of the first draft of The Sun Also Rises. I explained to him that it would mean nothing until I had gone over it and rewritten it and that I did not want to discuss it or show it to anyone first.[4]
When you finish the first draft and a round of editing, set your work aside and return to it refreshed. Embrace the process of rewriting, editing, and proofreading. There is no great writing. Only great rewriting.[5]
14. Plain language
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.[6]
Avoid long wind-ups, legalese, and ornamentation. Use plain language. Write tidysentences. Write simply. And beautifully. And sometimes passionately.
Be honest and clear.[7]
20. War stories
You could always mention a general, though, that the general you were talking to had beaten. The general you were talking to would praise the beaten general greatly and go happily into detail on how he had beaten him.[8]
Cherish your war stories. Some will come earlier in your career than you expect. Keep track of them. When you close a case or a deal or an estate, take the time to write a note to yourself about it. Hemingway was a consummate journaler; in fact, A Moveable Feast is rooted in his journals. In your own journaling, ask yourself: What was the problem? Where was the drama and intrigue? How did the knot unravel?[9]
24. Walk
I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.[10]
Take breaks and good walks to sort through ideas and discover new ones. Many great writers swear by this.[11]
31. Stories
I told Joyce of my first meeting with him in Ezra’s studio with the girls in the long fur coats and it made him happy to hear the story.[12]
“Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.”[13]
Tell clear and compelling stories. They make people happy. So they make people listen.[14]
I tell my law students to rejoice that there is no such thing as great writing; only great rewriting. So don’t worry that your first draft is garbage. Of course it is. But you will work hard and your rewriting will be gold. The sooner you start writing, the sooner you can start rewriting. Start with one true sentence. Then ignore distractions and write two more.
* For Maria, Mark, and Servant of God Father Patrick Ryan. My thanks to Professor Tessa L. Dysart of the University of Arizona, Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process; to Dr. Craig Mindrum of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park; and to my Research Assistants Bar Sadeh and Mixa Hernandez.
[1] Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast 92 (Mary Hemingway, ed., 1964).
[2] Id. at 6.
[3] Brian C. Potts, One True Sentence: Hemingway’s Advice for Lawyers in A Moveable Feast, 25 J. App. Prac. and Process 391, 394 (2025).
[4] Hemingway, supra note 1, at 184.
[5] Potts, supra note 3, at 395.
[6] Hemingway, supra note 1, at 12.
[7] Potts, supra note 3, at 402.
[8] Hemingway, supra note 1, at 28.
[9] Potts, supra note 3, at 406.
[10] Hemingway, supra note 1, at 43.
[11] Potts, supra note 3, at 409.
[12] Hemingway, supra note 1, at 129.
[13] Id. at 183.
[14] Potts, supra note 3, at 415.