Concerning writing, Hemingway said, "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." What did he mean by that?

I think he meant you should not use too many “elegant” words just to give readers the impression that you are smart. The job of a writer is to put their ideas across, not to appear smart-ass.

Hemingway is famous for using simple words so it may be plausible.

Or maybe he meant to write s truth that resonates for you so much so that you come face to face with an aspect of yourself that you are going to explore and unveil. You are compelled to write and write to find out what has been released by writing that sentence. Or not. I question my reliability as a source of useful information sometimes. This was just an idea.

He also said, ‘Write drunk. Edit sober.’ When you read Hemmingway, he uses very simple statements. His style allows the reader to invent the small details because he doesn’t use extra verbiage dealing with it. He sets the stage with enough information. Anything else gets dusty with age.

Nothing unreal exists.

The best way to get a good understanding may be to read some things Hemingway wrote.

I think he meant exactly what he said. The omission in his advice is that you have to then do it several thousand more times in a row to get the book-length manuscript, and then you have to get it edited and rewritten several times over.

But for now, and to start, you really do just have to write one true sentence. Once the process is begun, then you just need to keep doing more of that.

This was the pep talk he gave to himself when he felt blocked, not advice to writers in general. That kind of blockage often comes from feeling that one has to know where the work is going before committing oneself to it. His point is that you need simply begin from a point that you know to be true. It isn’t necessary to know where this will lead from the beginning. You start with truth and let it more truth grow from there.

I don’t feel that there’s an implied position here on what a “true sentence” ought to be like. In literature, something is true when it accords with experience. That leaves considerable latitude for style of expression.

No sentence is more true than “I will eventually kill myself.”

Hemingway’s approach to overcome writers block was to start with a sentence you know is true and from there it will be easier to move forward with the rest of the story.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’ So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.”