Ernest Hemingway's Writing Routine (And What to Steal From It)
Here’s a breakdown of Hemingway's daily writing routine. What worked for a Nobel Prize winner might actually work for you, too.
Want to write like a literary legend?
Today, we're diving into Ernest Hemingway's writing routine. We’ll learn what he actually did every day, why it worked for him, and whether any of it could work for you too. And I think it's always fun to try new things when it comes to writing. That can look like experimenting with your process, your environment, your schedule, or, in this case, borrowing elements from someone else's routine entirely and seeing what sticks.
Stick around for the last tip on this list. It's one I use in my own writing, and it's my favorite way to keep momentum going.
By the end of this post, you'll have four concrete elements of Hemingway's routine to experiment with.
No Nobel Prize required.
Who was Ernest Hemingway, anyway?
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most towering figures in 20th-century literature. You probably know his work: The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls. His prose style, sparse, direct, and emotionally loaded, redefined modern storytelling and earned him a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
But he wasn't just a writer. He was a war correspondent, an adventurer, a larger-than-life personality whose real-life experiences shaped almost everything he put on the page.
Here's the part that often gets overlooked, though: his success wasn't just about talent or inspiration. It was also about his method. He had a daily writing routine he followed with real discipline, and the results speak for themselves. So let's get into it.
1. Early morning writing
Hemingway was a crack-of-dawn writer. In his famous interview with The Paris Review, he said:
"When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write."
Why it worked for him: Early mornings gave him silence, solitude, and a mind that hadn't yet been cluttered by the noise of the day. Just him and the page.
Why it might work for you: Okay, not on purpose, but I actually woke up way earlier than expected recently and ended up just... going to my writing space. And I get it now. There's something about those early hours where it feels like the world belongs to you. It's refreshingly quiet.
There's also some neuroscience behind this, by the way. In the early morning, your brain is still coming out of sleep inertia, a state that can actually make you think more laterally and creatively before the demands of the day take over.
A few things early morning writing does:
Eliminates the "I'll get to it later" trap
Protects your sharpest mental energy for your creative work
Even just one focused hour can move your project forward more than you'd expect
You don't have to write all morning. Even a single focused hour before the emails and the to-do lists can make a real difference. Setting aside even fifteen minutes can be a life-changing habit.
2. Writing while standing
Hemingway wrote standing up, using a chest-high shelf for his typewriter. It was a deliberate choice to stay physically and mentally engaged while he worked, not just an eccentric quirk.
Why it worked for him: Standing kept him alert. It prevented the slow creeping fatigue that sets in after hours in a chair, and it kept his energy moving.
Why it might work for you: If you've ever hit that wall mid-writing session where your eyes go glassy, and you find yourself reading the same sentence four times, it’s worth trying. Standing naturally keeps your blood flowing and your body engaged, which tends to keep your mind engaged too.
A few options if you want to experiment:
A standing desk or even a high counter or bookshelf (very Hemingway of you)
An under-desk treadmill, bike, or elliptical, if you want to take it further
Even just getting up and pacing can increase creativity
And here's a bonus: Changing your physical position can actually shift your mental state. A lot of writers find that switching how they approach writing. Whether it’s standing, pacing, or even dictating out loud, it can break through a creative block in a way that just sitting there staring at the screen won't.
Hemingway Fun Fact: He rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times before he was satisfied with it. Thirty-nine!
3. Tracking his daily word count
Hemingway tracked his daily word output on a physical chart,"so as not to kid myself," he said. His typical target was 500 to 1,000 words a day. Some days he hit 450. Some days 1,250. The numbers varied, but the tracking didn't.
What's interesting is that he didn't treat this as a rigid rule. If he knew he wanted to go fishing the next day, he'd write more the day before. He built his output around his life, not the other way around.
His actual logged numbers at one point: 450, 575, 462, 1,250, 512, the higher figures on days he pushed harder so he could take the next day guilt-free on the Gulf Stream.
Why it worked for him: The chart kept him accountable. It gave him a record of effort on slow days, and it gave him permission to rest on days he'd earned it.
Why it might work for you:
You don't have to hit the same number every day. Adjusting for your real life is the whole point.
Tracking gives you a tangible record of progress, even on days when the writing felt hard.
Over time, patterns emerge. When do you write best? How much can you realistically do in a session? The data tells you.
A simple notebook, a spreadsheet, or a writing app that tracks word count all work. The tool doesn't matter as much as the habit.
4. Leave something unfinished (my personal favorite)
Okay, this is the one I want you to actually try. This is the tip I use in my own writing and the one I think about the most.
Hemingway had a practice of stopping his writing sessions before he ran out of steam, specifically, stopping when he knew exactly what would happen next.
From The Paris Review: "The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day, you will never be stuck."
He also said: "It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through."
And I love that second quote just as much as the first, because it hints at something beyond productivity. You know that feeling when ideas are practically buzzing, and you're itching to get words onto the page? If you stop while you still have that feeling, you carry it with you until the next session. You wake up wanting to write.
Why it works:
You avoid blank page dread, and you already know where you're picking up.
Your subconscious keeps working on the scene even when you're away from your desk.
You return to your writing with drive instead of having to rebuild it from zero every time.
Try this: Next session, stop mid-scene. Not at the end of a chapter, not at a natural stopping point, but stop when you're in the middle of something good and you know what comes next. Leave a note to yourself if you need to. Then close the document.
It feels wrong at first. Do it anyway.
So, what’s actually worth trying?
Not every piece of Hemingway's routine is going to work for every writer. He was a person with a specific life and a very specific relationship to discipline and solitude. But that's kind of the point. His routine worked because he built it intentionally, not because he followed someone else's rules.
The invitation here is to experiment. Try the early mornings for a week. Stand up for your next session. Track your words for a month. Stop mid-scene tomorrow and see how you feel when you come back.
Find what fuels your creativity and productivity, and then protect it like it matters. Because it does!
Watch the full breakdown
I covered all of this on video too, including some extra thoughts I didn't get to share here.
Want more writing tips like this?
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Happy Writing!
-Leslie
P.S. Hemingway rewrote that last page thirty-nine times. Your first draft is supposed to be messy. Keep going.
