Bradbury’s “Zen In The Art Of Writing” Long On Motivation, Short On Advice

"Only this: if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer ... For the first thing a writer should be is—excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasm. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it’d be better for his health.”

Following the passing of Ray Bradbury, I discovered that he had written a book about writing. After deciding to read “Zen in the Art of Writing,” I learned that it was just a collection of essays he had written about writing over the course of 30 years. I found that it lacked the cohesion and organization of a “normal” book on writing, but it was still useful in some ways.

 The biggest message from Bradbury was that all content and inspiration for writing begins from experiences; that is, a large majority of his short stories emanated from childhood memories.

“ ... Every man will speak his dream. And when a man talks from his heart, in his moment of truth, he speaks poetry.”

“Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.

“But, you see, my stories have led me through my life. They shout, I follow. They run up and bite me on the leg—I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go, and runs off.”

He also stressed that one needs to come to the task of writing laughing and passionate, instead of viewing it as an arduous job. Bradbury also urged folks to write quickly and with a love of it.

“ ... Writing is survival. Any art, any good work, of course, is that. Not to write, for many of us, is to die.”

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

This was a short-ish book and it was more inspirational and motivational than anything else—it was more “Get out and do it” rather than having any type of instruction or direction. There were a few sidebars about being brutally honest with your readers and the importance of precise editing that offered some insights, but what shone through most was Bradbury’s unexpected love of poetry (though I found his poems at the end to be middling) and his belief that science fiction is widely misunderstood and underrated.

“If you can find the right metaphor, the right image, and put it in a scene, it can replace four pages of dialogue.”

“Remember: 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. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.

“So, stand aside, forget targets, let the characters, your fingers, body, blood, and heart do.”

The excellence of Bradbury’s storytelling is impossible to ignore ... yet I found the result of his attempt to offer insights into writing to be “just OK” as a book itself.

“Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all.”