Tags

, , , , , ,

I have read several excellent books that share advice on writing. There are a number of them on the shelves in bookstores, imploring young writers to purchase them and leaf through their pages.

The one I enjoyed the most was Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. Because my schedule tonight won’t allow for a new piece of fiction, I thought I would take a moment and share some nuggets of wisdom from that book and hope it inspires the writer in all of us to continue writing every day we can:

“Write. Don’t think. Relax.”

“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

“It is a lie to write in such way as to be rewarded by fame offered you by some snobbish quasi-literary groups in the intellectual gazettes.”

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

“You grow ravenous. You run fevers. You know exhilaration. You can’t sleep at night, because your beast-creature ideas want out and turn you in your bed. It is a grand way to live.”

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”

“We must take arms each and every day, perhaps knowing that the battle cannot be entirely won, but fight we must, if only a gentle bout. The smallest effort to win means, at the end of each day, a sort of victory. Remember that pianist who said that if he did not practice every day he would know, if he did not practice for two days, the critics would know, after three days, his audiences would know.

A variation of this is true for writers. Not that your style, whatever that is, would melt out of shape in those few days.

But what would happen is that the world would catch up with and try to sicken you. If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both.”

Advertisement