Friday, March 26, 2010

Zen In The Art Of Writing


The title of this post comes from a book by Ray Bradbury. (He wrote Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc.) This work shows such a love and exuberance for writing. Mr. Bradbury could light a fire under anyone whose enthusiasm has waned. To hear him tell it, you must write to live. You need zest, gusto, and self-knowledge. Like a benevolent mentor, he instills confidence into our often-shaky, artistic souls by telling us we are not crazy for assuming we can tell a good story, that we are right, and the rest of the world is wrong.

You gotta love Ray Bradbury. He loves you. Without ever meeting you. All because you're a writer. If you haven't read Zen In The Art Of Writing, put it on your to-read list. It is short and effusive and unabashedly sentimental. It's a Chicken Soup For The Soul for writers.

This is one of my favorite sections. To set the scene, in 1925 Illinois, a young Ray Bradbury is on the cusp of adolescence. It's the 4th of July, and he is setting off fire balloons. (They are tiny, colorful paper replicas of hot air balloons.) These sparkly, floating incendiaries sound beautiful but dangerous, and Ray is entranced by them. Surrounded by aunts, uncles, cousins and parents, he releases them reluctantly into the air. He looks at the dear faces around him as the balloons lift toward the sky and the moment is poignantly imprinted on his memory.

Mr. Bradbury shares this story to illustrate how writers are like time machines. We can preserve life by recording it. Though age alters us, and the people we love, we are captured forever through the written word. To quote from Zen:

"I see my grandfather there looking up at that strange shifting light, thinking his own thoughts. I see me, my eyes filled with tears, because it was all over, the night was done, I knew there would never be another night like this. No one said anything. We all just looked up at the sky. . .

"My beloved family still sits on the porch in the dark. The fire balloon still drifts and burns in the night sky of an as yet unburied summer."

See? Our experiences remain unburied if we write them down. And I feel like one of Ray's family when I read that account. As though I, too, am sitting on that porch, gazing at a fiery light rising into the inky darkness.

Do you put your memories in your stories, readers? Both good and bad? Do you keep a journal?

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend.

21 comments:

  1. I love putting bits of myself, my passions, my family, friends, and incidents from my life in my writing. I find it one of the only ways I can connect with my characters, setting, conflicts, and etc. And I feel like its my life that I'm writing about, even though it is clearly fiction.

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  2. No journal, but my first book had very specific high school memories. It's funny, because the ms went to a contest and one of the judges said "Really? Would something like that really happen? That's not very believable." And I was like Whoa! It totally happened to me!! It was funny.

    To bad all the memory scenes got cut out during the last rewrite.

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  3. Hi

    Ok - it's in my to-get list - what a lovely quote from it, thank you!

    Oh I pilfer my memories without shame in my writing and give it a different name of course to er.. protect the innocent - or the bystanders anyway!

    :-)

    Take care
    x

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  4. I used to keep a journal growing up, but now I infuse it into my stories! It's way better because it's more anonomous!

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  5. Oh, I'm definitely going to have to read that. I do love Ray Bradbury. I keep a journal. It is a great way to preserve memories. I haven't put many of my own personal stories into my fiction, but little bits and pieces.

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  6. I love this Roxy! I love all your posts :)

    I feel like everything I write has some part of my life in it. When I let other people read it who know me, I wonder if they can see it. But I think that's what gets readers, you can tell when something was written with feeling, and the only way to really feel something is to live through it.

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  7. I love Ray Bradbury too. Thanks for the reminder to reread this.

    And I definitely put my thoughts and memories in my writing. I think it makes my work more passionate and believable. Since I don't keep a journal, it's nice to know those thoughts are being captured somewhere.

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  8. great great post! and a tribute to ray bradbury!! (it's like 8th grade all over again! sigh.) :D

    i definitely include bits and pieces of things in my life in my stories -- everything i write is in inspired in one way or another by something i've experienced. it helps so much to write things down.

    thanks for this!!

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  9. I used to keep a journal, I don't anymore. And we too, as a family used to sit in the dark on the back deck and watch the fireflies. It was awesome. I've never used any of my family memories in my work but I have used my family as characters.

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  10. Really enjoyed reading this. I used to keep a journal, but lately I find that blogging and writing has kinda taken away the urge to record my life. I do use a lot of memories in my writing though.

    Have a great weekend!

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  11. Yes. I write in journals nearly every day, but without pressure. I keep them in my cedar chest when they're full. My writing has much of me and my life in it. I like that idea that the memories/moments are unburied. We keep them alive through our writing. Yes.

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  12. I haven't read Zen in the Art of Writing, but now I want to. Thanks!

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  13. I love the idea you state about our experiences being unburied if we write them down. I have always known this to be true, but especially since I started blogging daily. Thanks.

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  14. I will definitely put this book on my To-Read list. Beautiful excerpt.

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  15. Bradbury is an amazing man and an amazing writer - great post :)

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  16. Great post. I don't have a journal but I do love Bradbury. He's amazing.

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  17. I love reading preserved memories. I keep a journal (going back to when I was twelve), but I would want to edit out teenage insanity before sharing it with anybody else.

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  18. I love that book. It is a gem! I have been keeping a journal since I was 5 and it definitely helps (sometimes hurts) to go back and see all the different emotions. I think as writers we mine our memories whether we do it consciously or not.

    Have a great weekend!

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  19. I'm not the journaling type. But blogging sometimes feels the same. I do put some of my memories in my fiction writing, though it gets changed quite a bit. I can still recognize myself.

    Loved the excerpts, and I will put it on my TBR list. Thanks for the advice.

    .........dhole

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  20. I definitely use my memories in my fiction writing. Many readers ask me how much of my novels are true, and it's hard to answer them b/c so many of the details are those preservations that Bradbury refers to in "Zen". I like your post...I'm going to follow ;-)

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  21. Hi Roxy! Thanks for following! What a great post. I don't keep a journal about my life, but I do have a notebook filled with bits of dialogue, ideas for books and characters, scenery and anything else I think would be entertaining to read about.

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