I posted this on another thread recently, and I think it is absolutely fitting for this thread. This is purportedly an original draft by Hemmingway of the opening of The Sun Also Rises. In fact, the story goes that it was almost a final draft until someone noticed a problem or two!
This is a novel about a lady. Here name is Lady Ashley and when the story begins she is living in Paris and it is Spring. That should be a good setting for a romantic but highly moral story. As every one knows, Paris is a very romantic place. Spring in Paris is a very happy and romantic time. Autumn in Paris, although very beautiful, might give a note of sadness or melancholy that we shall try to keep out of this story. Lady Ashley was born Elizabeth Brett Murray. Her title comes from her second husband. She had divorced one husband for something or other, mutual consent; not until after he had put one of those noties in the papers stating that after this date he would not be responsible for any debt, etc. He was a Schotchman and found Brett much too expensive, especially as she had only married him to get rid of him and to get away from home. At present she had a legal separation from her second husband, who had the title, because he was a dipsomaniac, he having learned it in the North Sea commanding a minesweeper, Brett said.
I find it fascinating. It explains his famous quote "First drafts of anything are shit." It could almost be an outline, and the likes of this... She had divorced one husband for something or other, mutual consent; not until after he had put one of those noties in the papers stating that after this date he would not be responsible for any debt, etc. ... strikes one as a kind of placeholder to be fleshed out later.
I find it very hard to resist editing as I go, but it definitely makes one's work flat. Often I think it is an ego thing... it is really hard to let myself save something that looks so bad. But Hemmingway obviously never had a problem with it.
