Ray Bradbury had the conviction to write at least 1000 words every day since the age of 12 years old. In the midst of a 30-day writing challenge, I thought it might be appropriate to think deeper about some of his advice on the topic.
In “Zen in the Art of Writing” Bradbury collects a lifetime’s worth of wisdom on life, passion, and writing into 11 short essays. I read this book a while ago, but I was thinking about writing today, so many of its ideas popped back into my head. As I was looking back through the book to find some of my favorite quotes, I could see so clearly the results of writing daily for that long.
Here are a few of my favorites:
On The Inner Poet
" As we can learn from every man or woman or child around us when, touched and moved, they tell of something they loved or hated this day, yesterday, or some other day long past. At a given moment, the fuse, after sputtering wetly, flares, and the fireworks begin.
Oh, it's limping crude hard work for many, with language in their way. But I have heard farmers tell about their very first wheat crop on their first farm after moving from another state, and if it wasn't Robert Frost talking, it was his cousin, five times removed. I have heard locomotive engineers talk about America in the tones of Thomas Wolfe who rode our country with his style as they ride it in their steel. I have heard mothers tell of the long night with their firstborn when they were afraid that they and the baby might die. And I have heard my grandmother speak of her first ball when she was seventeen.
And they were all, when their souls grew warm, poets. "
- Ray Bradbury, Essay 3: "How to Keep and Feed a Muse"
On Our Hidden Wisdom
“We never sit anything out.
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.
The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
- Ray Bradbury, Essay 8 : "The Secret Mind"
On Writer’s Block
" Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy.
You can't try to do things. You simply must do things. "
- Ray Bradbury, Essay 8 : "The Secret Mind"
On the Value of the Individual Voice
"What do you think of the world?
You, the prism, measure the light of the world; it burns through your mind to throw a different spectroscopic reading onto white paper than anyone else anywhere can throw.
Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper."
- Ray Bradbury, Essay 9 : "Zen in the Art of Writing"
On First Drafts
" This afternoon, burn down the house. Tomorrow, pour critical water upon the simmering coals. Time enough to think and cut and rewrite tomorrow. But today-explode-fly-apart-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, by reading your story, will catch fire, too? "
- Ray Bradbury, Essay 1: "The Joy of Writing"
As I was taking these quotes out of their respective essays, I felt like I was separating a character from their story. Every word adds to a narrative that beautifully builds to illustrate an important idea. Over the course of eleven essays, these narratives come together to show how Ray Bradbury mastered the creative process. For this reason, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in writing, creativity, or mastery.