If you could sit down with any author living or passed and ask them one question about their writing process — who would it be and what would you ask?

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I’ll go first.

For me, it would be Ernest Hemingway.

I’ve read most of his books. I’ve visited his home in Key West. And yes… I’ve even “partied” with fellow fans during Hemingway Days years ago.

There’s something about his spare, disciplined prose that fascinates me. So much emotion beneath so few words. The famous iceberg theory, what’s unsaid carrying more weight than what’s written.

My question for him would be: "How did you decide what to leave out?"

"How did you know when restraint would say more than explanation?"

As someone who writes from story, experience, and heart… that balance between what to reveal and what to withhold is endlessly intriguing to me. I tend to overexplain things and sometime it takes me 4 or 5 reads and rewrites to whittle out the 'fluff.'

So, if you could sit across the table from any author with no time limits, who would it be… and what would you ask them about how they write?

ps. image created with AI ...

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