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“Write drunk, edit sober,” is often attributed to Hemingway – but he swore he never drank and wrote.

“Write drunk, edit sober,” was the advice to aspiring authors from novelist, Peter De Vries. (The quote is often erroneously attributed to Ernest Hemingway, perhaps because he was famous for his voracious drinking—though he claimed he never drank while he wrote.)

I’ll quickly note that I’m not recommending De Vries’ battle plan for writing—not literally anyway—but I think he makes a great point on the different mindsets authors need to bring to the writing process.

Try on all 6 hats for your next writing project!

I recently wrote a blog called 6 Thinking Hats for Writing. The 6 Thinking Hats is a system developed for business by Edward De Bono. I borrowed his concepts and applied it to the writing task:

• The White Hat is neutral; it is simply when an author seeks more information before making any judgments.

• The Red Hat is when an author lets their emotions pour into the writing process and add passion to the story.

• The Yellow Hat is optimistic and believes anything is possible; it is positive and upbeat and encouraging.

• Green Hat thinking represents creativity; how can we come up with something new and different?

• The Blue Hat is when we have to get very organized and figure out how everything works together—and how to get the project done.

• The Black Hat plays “devil’s advocate” and challenges everything; it is not kind toward ideas that don’t quite work. [Read more…]