Writing and Re-writing

More from this summer's reflections on writing...

Wednesday, July 11: This writing process is a lot like weaving. Each morning when I sit down to my writing work, I wonder which thread, which color I will pick up today. And I wonder how, or if, it will change the pattern in the fabric. Most days, I still feel like I can only see the knotted side of the tapestry. I wonder at what point that will change?

Factoid from last night's news: Ernest Hemingway rewrote the last sentence of A Farewell to Arms 47 times. Two of the rejected endings shared on the news were big, weighty philosophical statements. The one Hemingway chose instead focused on action rather than beating the reader over the head with a moral. The character leaves the hotel and walks out in the rain.

By Hemingway's count (according to an interview with The Paris Review in 1958), it was only 39 times. Not surprising, but still inspiring to first-time novelists like me. I can't even begin to imagine what the last line of Crosswords (working title) will be. But I'm pretty sure I'll know it when I see/feel it. It will feel/sound just right.

The ending Hemingway was satisfied with?
"After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain."

So simple. So clear. So artful.