- Formerly known as "Writers Manual" -

The Writer Gazette welcomes you!
Look to us for all your writing resource needs!

Zen in the Art of Writing
by Ray Bradbury

Paperback Reissue edition (April 1, 1992)
Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553296345 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.69 x 6.86 x 4.20
 

@From the Publisher

"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!" Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities every writer must have, as well as a spirit of adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are practical tips on the art of writing from a master of the craft-everything from finding original ideas to developing your own voice and style-as well as the inside story of Bradbury's own remarkable career as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems, films, and plays. Zen In The Art Of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.

@Book Review
by Michele Hriciso

If your writing is in desperate need of inspiration, you only need to look as far as a small book by Ray Bradbury, a grand master to find it. This book is a gem. In my opinion, everyone who even thinks about writing should have a copy. The beauty of it is that it doesn't tell you how to write science fiction as Bradbury does; it helps you tap into your own unique creative process and make you your own writer.

Even writers who are not fans of his futuristic, visionary writing will be able to find pearls of wisdom in the pages of "Zen in the Art of Writing". This book is not about Bradbury's bizarre stories, but rather a series of essays which detail his personal insight into the process by which he created those stories.

Bradbury theorizes that "when a man talks from his heart, in his moment of truth, he speaks poetry." That's every man, not just gifted writers, according to Bradbury.

Perhaps the single most encouraging essay in the book is the easily digested "How to Keep and Feed a Muse", in which Bradbury prescribes a writer's diet that is easy to comply with. He freely admits to being inspired by the poetry of other writers; in fact, reading other writers is a staple of the Bradbury diet.

"Read those authors who write the way you hope to write, those who think the way you would like to think,"Bradbury suggests. "But also read those who do not think as you think or write as you want to write, and so be stimulated in directions you might not take for many years."

Bradbury also cautions against literary snobbishness and encourages an eager embrace of all life has to offer the individual writer. "I believe one thing holds it all together," Bradbury says. "Everything I've ever done was done with excitement, because I wanted to do it, because I loved doing it." In that excitement, according to Bradbury's theory, a writer will find fodder for fantastic writing.

In the oddly-named essay "Drunk, and In Charge of a Bicycle", Bradbury illustrates how criticism can kill a writer's spirit by discussing his juvenile love of the Buck Rogers comic strip, and how that comic strip was the inspiration for his successful writing career.

"Friends criticized. Friends made fun. I tore up the Buck Rogers strips. For a month, I walked through my fourth-grade classes, stunned and empty. One day I burst into tears, wondering what devastation had happened to me. The answer was: Buck Rogers. He was gone, and life simply wasn't worth living. The next thought was: Those are not my friends, the ones who got me to tear the strips apart and so tear my own life down the middle; they are my enemies. I went back to collecting Buck Rogers. My life has been happy ever since. For that was the beginning of my writing science fiction. Since then, 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."

Bradbury acknowledges that approval is important for a writer. "We all need someone higher, wiser, and older to tell us we're not crazy after all, that what we're doing is all right." But he makes it clear that this need for approval should not take second place to the individual writer's belief in his or her own heart and its ability to determine the correct course.

"I was in love, then, with monsters and skeletons and circuses and carnivals and dinosaurs and, at last, the red planet, Mars. From these primitive bricks I have built a life and a career. By my staying in love with all of these amazing things, all of the good things in my existence have come about."

The book's title comes from the final essay, in which Bradbury addresses his belief that some commercially successful writers "lie" for monetary rewards, and how failure is a necessary part of the writing process.

Zen's application to writing has been addressed by other writers - most notably Natalie Goldberg, who has engaged in formal study of Zen Buddhism under an acknowledged master. But no writer makes Zen's application to the craft sound as simple as Bradbury does.

Bradbury believes Zen, as it applies to writing, consists of three steps: WORK, RELAXATION and DON'T THINK! This approach initially seems simplistic, but it is an accurate description of how all writers get to "the zone" - that magical place where the words flow freely from the brain to the hand, and everything that comes out of the pen or keyboard sounds like your true self.

"What is the greatest reward a writer can have? Isn't it that day when someone rushes up to you, his face bursting with honesty, his eyes afire with admiration and cries, 'That new story of yours was fine, really wonderful!' Then and only then is writing worthwhile."

"Tension and writing cannot coexist with each other", Bradbury explains. His antidote to tension: "Work, giving us experience, results in new confidence and eventually in relaxation. ... Suddenly a natural rhythm is achieved."

Bradbury suggests that if a writer tries his Zen method, he or she might find that work is a synonym for love. Any writer can find that truth in his or her own heart, but Bradbury's words of inspiration will certainly help the process along.

Amazon - Click To Buy

 Chapters - Click To Buy

Book Review written by: Michele Hriciso has been writing since she first picked up a pen at three years old. Her labors of love include an emergency services-oriented website at www.thecluster.com and a weekly column published at www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/living_with_psoriasis. She has four children - a husband, two cats and a dog. When she is not writing she can be found with her camera near the waterways of Brevard County, Florida. She works full-time as a police dispatcher to support her writing habit.
 

 For more book reviews: Click Here

Want to check out more writers resource books? Click here

Check back for new reviews on books that every writer should have! Also, feel free to suggest a book that you think should be listed here. Email Editor.