Zen in the Art of Writing
By Ray Bradbury
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About this ebook
In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing.
The first thing a writer should be is – excited
Author of the iconic FAHRENHEIT 451, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN and THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.
Part memoir, part masterclass, ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING offers a vivid and exuberant insight into the craft of writing. Bradbury reveals how writers can each find their own unique path to developing their voice and style.
ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING offers a celebration of the act of writing that will delight, impassion, and inspire.
Ray Bradbury
In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. An Emmy Award winner for his teleplay The Halloween Tree and an Academy Award nominee, he was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.
Read more from Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Illustrated Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fahrenheit 451: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Wicked This Way Comes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dandelion Wine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zen in the Art of Writing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quicker Than the Eye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Sing the Body Electric: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The October Country Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From the Dust Returned Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Zen in the Art of Writing
37 ratings34 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I read this on a lark. It was in the free books bin and even though I haven't written in a long, long time, I still sometimes feel the urge to pretend that I will write my masterpiece. Most of Bradbury's essays are about how a particular story came to him, how inspiration sneaks up on him. All very interesting, but not exactly useful to another writer, as each writer has his/her own process of inspiration. Not that this book was not worth reading, or that it wasn't pleasant to read. I see it as more encouragement to wanna-be writers. Bradbury's enthusiasm is quite charming.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I'm not saying this book is bad, but rather it turned out to be a lot less useful than I was hoping. Here are my few scattered thoughts:1. The essays here span several decades, and yet Bradbury's writing style and tone of voice don't tend to change much. I guess he settled on his voice early on and it just stuck.2. He talks about his own novels a lot - where the inspiration came from, what it was like to write the story - but he does so with the right modest:humblebrag ratio. In other words, it doesn't grate.3. There's not a lot of highly usable info here. The central point is this: write more and you will get better. I'm not sure I agree. While it's true that the more you write, the better you will get at writing more, I think without feedback you might find that the writing is simply never improving. There's just more of it.4. Bradbury lived in a time that has vanished - writers don't get the opportunities he had, and while he certainly worked to achieve his success, the path was not strewn with the obstacles that the writer of today must somehow get past.5. Boy, he really wanted to get his poetry published somewhere! I didn't read much of it - I'm a poor judge of anything more free-form than a sonnet - but how this ended up here is a mystery.So should you read this book? I picked it up for a few dollars, and it was probably worth the read. It motivated me to write, so there's that to go in the plus column, if nothing else.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book has been with me for a long time... a looooooooooong time. This is probably the fifth or sixth time I've read through it start to finish.It has been my constant companion, following me from college to college, town to town, traveling with me by air and by sea, and always, always inspiring me. Whenever I begin to doubt my convictions as a writer, I turn to Mr. Bradbury's sage wisdom and see exactly what I'm doing wrong. The advice he gives might not always stick, but that is more my own fault than his. I'm hoping this time will be different... but then, I always do. He writes with such verve, as if the words are struggling to get out of him. And this is a standard with him throughout time, as the essays included here all come from various points in his life yet contain the same passion. I can only hope to one day attain that.Tomorrow morning I plan to jump out of bed and step on the landmine that is me. Then I'll spend a good chunk of the rest of the day putting the pieces together. As he says, it's my turn. JUMP!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is a collection of essays about the author's writing process, written over man years, that he feels could benefit other writers. Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest American writers of the 20th Century. He has been labelled a science fiction author, probably because of his Martian Chronicles, but he has written in a number of genres and science fiction is only a third of his output. He had a remarkable memory, claiming that he could remember moments shortly after his birth, suckling at his mother's breast, and being circumcised at the age of four. In addition, he was able to write out the scripts of a radio serial from memory. He has written, novels, short stories, essays, poems, stage plays, and screenplays. And he has designed displays in exhibition buildings such as Disney's Epcot Centre.In my opinion, this book is a great insight into the craft and writing process of this great author. But as with every practice, each writer has to find his own way. Thus, this book may help if you are able to follow the same process. However, people like me need a little more structure in order to find our way. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ray Bradbury was a highly prolific writer best known for The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451.
In Zen in the Art of Writing is a collection of essays Bradbury wrote over the years in which he chronicles many of his writing experiences, his triumphs and failures, and the wisdom he gathered along the way.
The final essay, which is also the books title, is the most enlightening. Bradbury gets more succinct and to the heart of the matter. A writers tasks are "work, relaxation, don't think". These three can be used in any order but all three are essential. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ray Bradbury was a generous and down to earth communicator eager to share his insights after a lifetime of writing. He shared his failures as well as his successes and both were instructive. Bradbury came up with a process that pushed him forward and helped him get the practice he needed to solve problems in story writing. He wrote a story a week. Starting on a Monday, he would write like mad just to get it down in one sitting. No editing. No self-consciousness. Then on Tuesday through Friday he edited each day. On Saturday he "let go" of it and sent it off to a publisher. He didn't over work the stories, but just worked on them a few hours a day. That all important first day, Monday, became the day he kept the critic out and allowed that instinctive inner story teller to get to the most important seeds of his story. That freed him to let the editor out on the other days and craft the story with a fresh approach each day. This method also puts writing into perspective. The idea that creative inspiration is about 20% of a good story and the remaining 80% is doing the hard work of editing makes perfect sense. This was one of the most helpful, if not THE most helpful book I've read on the subject of writing. It makes you leap out of your chair and write.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've read this a couple of times now, and it stands as a great master's variation on the theme of "if you want to be a writer, write."
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best books on writing I ever read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Largely a collection of essays written by Bradbury over the course of his career, this is an interesting look into the life of one of the century's best-known sci-fi writers, though writers looking for specific writing instruction might want to look elsewhere.
Like Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird," this is not a "How-To" book replete with bullet points and step-by-step directions.
Instead, it's a chronicle of a well-known writer's journey from 12 year-old wannabe to successful fiction writer, and it's more fascinating for the pitcture it paints of a compulsive writer (and his thinking) than it was for specific writing tips.
I liked it, but I also like Bradbury, so while it's worth a read, it's also heavy on concepts like tapping into your subconscious.
(One constant from all the "writers on writing" books I've read; take notes. Lots of them.) - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cool look into the mind and creative processes of one of the most lyrical writers of recent times. There is a lot here to inspire your own writing without being full of preachy maxims.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. very inspiring. I am a fan of anything Bradbury but this was a helpful little book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is a collection of essays detailing an early section of Ray Bradbury's writing life. He offers thoughts on why writing works for him and how certain aspects of his writing developed. Similar to "On Writing" by Stephen King, it is definitely part autobiography and part writing reference. Some tips resonated with me as to how to develop ideas, while others felt a little dated. From a writer's standpoint, it offers a few basics that could assist people, but it is limited in scope. For the fan of Bradbury, definitely offers great insight into where and how he developed his books and stories. Mixed opinion on this. Probably recommend.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Perhaps the most important lesson in this collection of essays, for me, was that writing is work for the soul and should not be work for a monetary payoff. Write and relax, but write and work. Don't stress, don't over think it... but do it. For any writer, aspiring to be an author or not, this is a worthwhile read, to get your mind into creative mode. I particularly loved the idea of word plays which inspired some of Bradbury's work.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A wonderful glimpse into an original mind. The stories of how his ideas grew into books and tales are my favorite parts, how he describes everyday things to show the wonder and terror. "Write what you know" twists into useful advice as he describes the ravine outside of town, its mystery and the dread of young boys who have to pass by it at night. Bradbury offers the key to seeing your own world from a different angle, opening thousands of new ideas and plots you may never have seen before.Plus, it's Bradbury and his wonderful words. Since Roger Zelazny didn't write a book showing the workings of his prose, I shall be content to revel in this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5... the failure to relax a particular tension can lead to madness.That's probably my favorite line in this short little book about writing. Ray Bradbury put together a few essays about how he writes. He came across kind of nerdy, but hey, he did write The Illustrative Man, one of my favorite science fiction books. I could have done without the poems that ended the book but I read them too. This was my second reading and he said the same thing the second time around... word for word. Funny that.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ray (I cannot, after reading this, be so unfeeling and impersonal as to call him Bradbury) does not sit you down and spoon-feed you the elements of style. But then, that's what books like "The Elements of Style" are for.In an age when everyone seems to have a novel in their drawer, and when (as a direct consequence of the drawer situation) everybody who's published maybe half a book once feels qualified to tell you how to and how not to write, it is actually refreshing to bump into a book that does something else altogether: make you want to write.There is little talk about techniques (although there are a few invaluable practical pointers). What there is a lot of is the passion, exhuberance, childlike joy of a man who tells stories because it is what makes him feel alive, real, sane. Ray calls this "zest, gusto", and he is right in saying that too many writers nowadays are so busy agonising over the right way of saying something and making money in the process that they have forgotten what these words mean - they are doing the best job in the world, and have lost the ability/innocence to enjoy it.In conclusion. If you're looking to be taken by the hand along the mysterious, mystical avenue where writers "find their ideas", this is not the book for you - nor is any other real book in the real world, so good luck to you. If, on the other hand, you're looking for a friend, a mentor, a teacher whose wise, entertaining, inspiring words will make your fingers itch for a keyboard/typewriter/H.B. pencil/you name it, then get this.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A visceral explanation of the writing process, The book is filled with slices of Bradbury's life. For example, he paid ten cents a half hour on the coin operated typewriters at UCLA to write Fahrenheit 451. It's a thought provoking read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I would read anything written by Ray Bradbury. Anything. Although this is not the most helpful guide for aspiring writers, it offers many helpful suggestions, and it is an excellent book for fans of the author and anyone curious about his process.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book like all Ray Bradbury books makes you smile and gives a glimpse of the day to day working (or playing) of a true craftsman. He shows how he jumps off the cliff and builds his wings on the way down - and though most of us will never succeed to the extent that we ever soar like Ray Bradbury, it's still fun to watch.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brilliant advice on drawing on the subconscious to create art.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In this collection of essays, Ray Bradbury provides advice for writers and comments on his prolific career. He encourages writers to look to unusual places for inspiration. Read poetry. Visit art galleries or museums. Keep lists and revisit them regularly, even years later. Follow your passion. Do not write for reasons of “making it big” or appealing to current fads or capturing a commercial market. Write daily. Write one story per week and keep at it. He wrote 1,000 words per day every day. Written in his lyrical style, Bradbury’s enthusiasm for writing leaps off the page. It is more inspirational than instructional. Definitely worthwhile for those who enjoy reading about writing.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book by Ray Bradbury is fabulous. You won't find the traditional lessons on writing in the book. The essays point you toward an approach to writing. If you use the lessons well, your writing will improve, and you will discover much joy in the process. My advice is this: read the book, and imbibe the lessons. But keep another book by your side, on the technical aspects of writing. This book will give you much joy, and you will be able to apply the lessons in the book to other, creative, aspects of your life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like any good magician, Bradbury shows us his hat and the rabbits of his writing without revealing the magic. Work. Yes, of course. Keep practicing until the process becomes automatic. And how many hours is that? Relax. Let your subconscious bring out the words. No, no, you’re too tense! Don’t think. “Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art.” I must be doing it all wrong! This book reveals Bradbury, the authot, but this writing of the real is not the writing of the imagination that millions love.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As Bradbury points out in the closing chapter of this book, some writers write in order to make money, and some others write in order to achieve recognition and accolades, but the best writers write as a response to their own inner calling. For these, writing is a surrender to an unquenchable passion, a tribute to a deep seated drive, an acknowledgement that writing is fulfillment, not simply a job or craft. Just as "a man who does what he loves for a living will never have to work a day in his life," so to the writer who writes for the pure joy of doing it, because he is driven to put pen to paper, because he has stories that simply must be told, and because to not write would be unthinkable.
Writing is not work but prayer. heaven is not a place reserved for the afterlife but the experience of telling a story well and finding pleasure in the mere telling of it. Words are not put on paper, they dance out of the mind and explode into the world.
few books convey such passion, such love of craft as does this collection of essays Bradbury published over several years. Bradbury's passion is undisguised and cannot be missed by the reader who glides through the pages. The reader knows that he is reading something special. This is not a tome on the craft of writing written by some professor; it is a love note about the passion Bradbury felt and wanted the world to share throughout his career. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This short collection of essays shows a first-published date of Nov 1973, but each essay was individually published in a variety of magazines or journals, ranging from 1961 through 1986. I am a fan of Ray Bradbury’s and I initially found it interesting to read about where his story ideas came from. I particularly liked the image of a young (child? teen?) Bradbury keeping a notebook or journal where he jotted random words that struck his fancy, only to have those words percolate in his subconscious mind for years until Voila! a story idea was born. The word might be “baby” or “skeleton” or “carnival” or “dandelion.” More than anything I get the impression that he was open to anything. He spent his life observing and absorbing as much as possible to fuel his creative engine. And while he is probably best known as a writer of science fiction, he penned love stories and even wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick (yes, the movie starring Gregory Peck as Ahab). All that being said, and despite my liking his works of fiction, I found this collection dissatisfying as a whole. The fact that the collected essays spanned a couple of decades of his thoughts / writings probably didn’t help. And unlike Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing, this work did nothing to improve my own “reading” skill.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cracking collection of essays, but it's more insight into Bradbury as an author than great tips for writing. Bradbury is of the "gardener" school and lets the stories tell themselves, and he has a hell of a work ethic. That sums up the advice in this book as well. Read, collect experiences, always be writing, let the stories speak. But if you want some great essays on how Bradbury wrote his stories and books, and what the inspirational seeds were and how they grew, this is worth it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I have admired Ray Bradbury's writing for several decades now, so it was natural that I would love Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity. Bradbury always writes from the heart, and this collection of writing advice is no exception. Here's what I'm talking about:You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer's make-up, the things that shape his materials 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.One-thousand or two-thousand words every day for the next twenty years. At the start, you might shoot for one short story a week, fifty-two stories a year, for five years. You will have to write and put away or burn a lot of material before you are comfortable in this medium. You might as well start now and get the necessary work done.Bradbury's essays shine with energy, joy, and writerly encouragement. In short, they have zest and gusto. Reading Zen in the Art of Writing is like having your own personal writing cheerleader. Bradbury comes across so personable, so friendly, so ordinary, that you come to believe that you--an ordinary person yourself--could actually write something worth reading.Bradbury encourages the writer to mine the deep caverns of childhood memories, to make lists of nouns that resonate in the chambers of the soul, and to create titles that spark a story.Essays include:
- "The Joy of Writing" - 1973
- "Run Fast, Stand Still, or The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, or New Ghosts from Old Minds" - 1986
- "How to Keep and Feed a Muse" - 1961
- "Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle" - 1980
- "Investing Dimes: Fahrenheit 451" - 1982
- "Just This Side of Byzantium: Dandelion Wine" - 1974
- "The Long Road to Mars" - 1990
- "On the Shoulders of Giants..." - 1939, re-edited in 1980
- "The Secret Mind" - 1965
- "Shooting Haiku in a Barrel" - 1982
- "Zen in the Art of Writing" - 1973
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Although I bought it hoping for advice as a writer, and there was some of that, mostly it is about the zen in the art of Ray Bradbury's writing. Even without knowing all the author's work well, it was an interesting story of how a writer does exactly what he wants, is true to his vision, and is lauded for it.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is a collection of essays on writing. The essays recall the inspriation that lead to the creation of various stories and plays he wrote. His preferred technique to grow ideas is word association and life experiences. This is all the advice he gives inspiring writers which is very basic stuff. I thought the book was more a memoir of his writing, which I didn't find that interesting.