Writing at Papa’s House and Yours

Monday morning, instead of logging on to my computer in my home office and dialing in for my first meeting of the day, I made my way to Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida. 

While I’m not not greatest among Hemingway fans, it was on my bucket list to roam through the house where he lived while he composed such American literary masterpieces as The Green Hills of Africa, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

The highlight was poking my head into his writing studio on the second floor of a building behind the house. While much of the house is minimally furnished, feeling much more like a museum than a home, his studio seemed like a space that remains fully his, the only room he might walk into and find functional and intact.

I was reminded again of the importance of having a place set aside for writing, or your creative work of choice. Having a space set up and purposely furnished is just as important as a garage for a mechanic, a wood shop for a carpenter, or an operating room for a surgeon. It need not be a large space or an elaborate one, but productivity comes of place. And judging from the work that Hemingway produced at his Florida home, he understood this as well.