{"id":1266,"date":"2018-09-16T10:40:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-16T10:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/?page_id=1266"},"modified":"2021-09-19T17:07:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T17:07:54","slug":"zen-in-the-art-of-writing-ray-bradbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/zen-in-the-art-of-writing-ray-bradbury\/","title":{"rendered":"Zen in the Art of Writing Summary (Ray Bradbury)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In 1951 Ray Bradbury spent nine dollars and eighty cents in dimes to complete the first draft of a new novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Driven by his children wanting to play when he was supposed to be writing, Bradbury wrote it at a furious pace in the University of California library, paying for the use of a typewriter by the half hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That novel was Farenheit 451.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zen in the Art of Writing is a collection of essays that introduces Bradbury’s thoughts on writing and contains sage advice for the aspiring creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy first decision about a career was at eleven, to be a magician and travel the world with my illusions…<\/span><\/p>
My second decision was at twelve when I got a toy typewriter for Christmas. And I decided to become a writer. And between the decision and the reality lay eight years of junior high school, high school, and selling newspapers on a street corner in Los Angeles, while I wrote three million words.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Bradbury’s writing journey from selling newspapers on a street corner, to creating Farenheit 451, a cherished novel to this day, has always been about enjoyment,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI write all of my novels and stories, as you have seen, in a great surge of delightful passion.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
While the literary community often views crafting stories as a tortured process, with a writer releasing his inner demons onto the page, Bradbury viewed it differently…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo work creatively, an artist in any field must put flesh into it, and enjoy it as a lark, or a fascinating adventure.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
His exuberance not only his craft, but for life in general, shines through,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
And his motivations for writing? Enjoyment aside, writing for Bradbury was an antidote to life…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.”<\/span><\/p>
\u201cSecondly, writing is survival. Any art, any good work, of course, is that…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
According to Bradbury, you must creatively oppose the entropy of life. As such writing can be used as a form of tonic for decay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. For writing allows just the proper recipes of truth, life, reality as you are able to eat, drink, and digest without hyperventilating and flopping like a dead fish in your bed. I have learned, on my journeys, that if I let a day go by without writing, I grow uneasy. Two days and I am in tremor. Three and I suspect lunacy. Four and I might as well be a hog, suffering the flux in a wallow. An hour\u2019s writing is tonic. I\u2019m on my feet, running in circles, and yelling for a clean pair of spats.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
What Makes a Writer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Most of us, at some point or another, question whether we should be writing at all. Often you review your work and have no idea if it’s worthy or good for kindling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bradbury assesses a writer’s worth differently…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf I were asked to name the most important items in a writer\u2019s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Some of the best writers in history, he says, despite the tragedies in their personal lives, contained an animal vigour that escaped onto the page and into their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don\u2019t even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is \u2013 excited…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
And as far as creating the story you’ve always dreamed about? Where many writers get tangled in plot, character development and symbolism, Bradbury’s advice is wonderfully simple,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do you want more than anything else in the world? What do you love, or what do you hate? Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with all his heart. Give him running orders. Shoot him off. Then follow as fast as you can go…”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
You can imagine Bradbury, childlike at his typewriter, bashing away furiously at the keys, completely absorbed by his creations. Such is his timeless way of writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTime enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow. But today \u2013 explode \u2013 fly apart \u2013 disintegrate! The other six or seven drafts are going to be pure torture. So why not enjoy the first draft, in the hope that your joy will seek and find others in the world who, reading your story, will catch fire, too?”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Writing Techniques<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Echoing my recent effort to limit thought and engage in more meaningful action, Bradbury was a huge proponent of banishing your inner critic and pouring your subconscious out onto the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c […] In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
And as far as planning any new novel, Bradbury approached a story much like Steven King, allowing the characters to plot their own course…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRemember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact, rather than before. It cannot precede action […] so stand aside, forget targets, let the characters, your fingers, body, blood, and heart do.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In a world of three-step formulas and cookie cutter solutions, Bradbury’s method was gloriously liberated…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou stumble into it, mostly. You don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, and suddenly, it\u2019s done. You don\u2019t set out to reform a certain kind of writing. It evolves out of your own life and night scares. Suddenly you look around and see that you have done something almost fresh.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In a similar way, Bradbury cautions against becoming over analytical with your own work,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA good idea should worry us like a dog. We should not, in turn, worry it into the grave, smother it with intellect, pontificate it into snoozing, kill it with the death of a thousand analytical slices.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
But even with such a liberated writing style, Bradbury admits that he was slow to discover his unique writing voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was only when I began to discover the treats and tricks that came with word association that I began to find some true way through the minefields of imitation.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He began creating a series of lists, nouns that would provide the inspiration for new stories…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn my early twenties I floundered into a word-association process in which I simply got out of bed each morning, walked to my desk, and put down any word or series of words that happened along in my head. I would then take arms against the word, or for it, and bring on an assortment of characters to weigh the word and show me its meaning in my own life. An hour or two hours later, to my amazement, a new story would be finished and done.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It was a technique that Bradbury utilised from that day forward, and one that he advises writers to use to reveal stories hidden deep within themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c…I soon found that I would have to work this way for the rest of my life. First I rummaged my mind for words that could describe my personal nightmares, fears of night and time from my childhood, and shaped stories from these.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
These lists served to remind Bradbury of his earliest loves and hates, stemming from an overactive childhood imagination, which were a treasure trove of ideas for the aspiring young writer,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe stories began to burst, to explode from those memories, hidden in the nouns, lost in the lists.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In addition to word association, Bradbury recommends reading widely; Books, essays and poetry…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am not one thing. I am many things that America has been in my time. I had enough sense to keep moving, learning, growing.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The Writer’s Muse and Creativity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n