Born to Write: Influencing Hemingway

Reflecting on an obsession for writing, Stephen King argues that “some people are born with a need to tell stories.”

My mother knew that for fact.

When I was a child, she often told me about her famous father. To her mind, he was the greatest writer in history.

“And, Bobby,” she would say, “you share his blood. You were born to write.”

Long before I was born, Daniel M. Carr was the editor of the Kansas City Star, a force in Missouri politics, warden of the state penitentiary, and head of the Highway Commission. According to my mother, just before World War I her father had supervised and befriended a young cub reporter at the KC Star named Ernest Hemingway. Listening to her stories, I figured it was Dan Carr who taught Hemingway how to spell.

To be honest, my mother was a master at tangling the truth. Several years ago, while sifting through an old family scrapbook, I found a pile of faded newspaper clippings. In 1939, when Dan Carr died unexpectedly from a heart attack at the age of 58, he was celebrated in newspapers all over the state for his humor, wit, compassion.

Turns out my mother was correct about her father being a great writer, popularly known for his folksy series, Here and There in Ole Mizzou. And, yes, he was well-known in Democratic party politics.

Prison warden? Not exactly, he was secretary of the state penal system. Head of Highways? Try publicity director. Best of all, editor of the Kansas City Star? In fact, he was a columnist and copy editor.

Okay, the actuality of my grandfather being Ernest Hemingway’s boss and mentor is lost to history.

Still, here’s my mother’s version. After six months of being a lowly cub reporter, the 18-year-old Hemingway became discouraged with the newspaper business, joining the ambulance corps for duty overseas in the Great War. His best friend took him to the train station.

“Keep your head up, kid,” Dan Carr advised young Hemingway. “Believe me, you have potential.”

Yep, I come from a long line of storytellers.

A number of notable authors believed writing was in their blood.

“I have always written,” said Doris Lessing, who was eighty-eight years old when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

And Jack London was “born with a pen in my hand.”

Same for the likes of Stephen King, Virginia Wolfe, George Orwell, Toni Morrison, Franz Kafka, and Jane Austin.

Of course, even if it may seem natural, it’s never easy.

“All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed,” said Hemingway.

Born to write or not, everyone agrees with the required level of resilience and brain-bursting focus.

“The phrase ‘born to write’ describes the power of circumstances. But you still have to choose to write and to stick with it,” said Steve Bunk, author of Paint It Noir.

The retired editor of Idaho Magazine and resident of Boise, Bunk started writing professionally at the age of fifteen. He has worked as a freelance magazine journalist in the U.S. and overseas. His nonfiction book Goliath Staggered, about a people’s environmental movement, was praised by the Sierra Club and literary circles. Bunk coauthored a nonfiction best-seller in Australia and has written travel books and young adult fiction.

“The deeper you get into writing, the better you understand what it means to be painstaking,” Bunk said.

Paint it Noir, published by Hidden Shelf, is his first mystery. With the theft of The Maltese Falcon prop from the classic 1941 film, Bunk’s modern-day thriller follows a twisted path of murder and intrigue that has been hailed for its writing and complexity.

“To follow through on all aspects of writing a novel, including the language of every paragraph and sentence, is not something you can do with limited practice. It takes years.”

And a ton of persistence.

– Robert D. Gaines

Read more about Paint It Noir →

Until next time,

Robert D. Gaines

Founder, Publisher, Reader, Author

Hidden Shelf Publishing House

Unique Literature. Beautifully Crafted