Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

“What kind of schedule?

Something like this.  One-thousand or two-thousand words every day for the next twenty years.

…

For I believe that eventually quantity mill make for quality.”

This was my favorite piece of advice from Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury.  I came upon this book by happenstance.  I’d only just found that it existed a week before purchasing it.  I searched for it in Overdrive and it wasn’t one that my state had bought licenses for, so I just added it to my wishlist and went on with my life.

Then I opened a Kindle ebook email from the Modern Mrs. Darcy and saw that it was on sale for $1.99!  I’m sure you can guess what happened next.

This was a wonderful little book.  At 158 pages, it was fast to get through and it radiated with the joy of writing.  It consists of a collection of essays on writing by Ray Bradbury over a few decades.  Clearly, he is a person who allows the fears of his subconscious bubble to the surface, adds a dash of “what if?”, and he’s at his typewriter – baking up his next story.

At times the essays feel a bit duplicative, but he is coming at each topic at different angles so they aren’t exactly repetitive.  And his advice is pretty clear cut: write a lot and read more. Pretty simple really.  Right??!