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| View Larger Image | Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity
by Ray Bradbury
| | List Price: | $14.95 | | Price: | $10.17 | | You Save: | $4.78 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 93245 | | Studio: | Joshua Odell Editions | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 176 | | Publication Date: | August 01, 1994 | | Publisher: | Joshua Odell Editions |
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 22 reviews)
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Restoration 
Through these essays Bradbury restores an often distorted concept of writing and its role of personal, artistic expression. With vivid imagery as set forth in his essay on "feeding the Muse" and passion surging through his perspectives on the writing process - all writers (aspiring and pro alike) will find Bradbury's views to be a refreshing spray of acid on conventionalism. In other words - Bradbury's Zen is a perfect box cutting tool for thinking outside cardboard boundaries.
August 04, 2008 | |
Great Quality!
This book was instrumental in my success in my creative writing class. Thanks for the great product!!
November 07, 2007 | |
Soul Transfusion 
This book is like getting a transfusion. Not of blood, but of Ray Bradbury's enthusiasm. His motto was "Exactly one-half terror, one-half exhilaration." Well, this book takes out the terror of writing, and leaves us with pure exhilaration.
Even if you are not a writer, you may want to get this book just for Bradbury's zest.
This book is a tight tapestry of several ideas. It is part autobiographical, with the story of him ripping up his Buck Rodger's comics because his friends (like Job's friends) mocked him. Later he ripped up his friends as he stood strong for his conations and returned to his true bliss.
Bradbury also retells the story of his meeting Mr. Electrico at the carnival. Besides being the basis of "The Illustrated Man" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes," this meeting with the carne was Bradbury's equivalent of First Communion. He was never the same afterwards.
He also has some "nuts and bolts" tips for writers.
1. Let yourself explode. There are two types of explosions. One is the IED (improvised explosive device), where you just go to pieces. But there is also the explosion of popcorn. Be popcorn. Drop your restraints and inhibitions.
2. Write 1,000 words a day. This is not a whole lot, the equivalent of one full Amazon.com review. Trust me it works--it gets the garbage out of system. Practice makes perfect.
3. Follow a weekly regimen. Monday write. The next few days rewrite what you have written. This is crap filtration. Saturday send off the manuscript. Wash, rinse, repeat.
4. Don't think. That is, don't over think. Listen to your subconscious--that shadowy figure in the back of your heart that keeps talking to you. She tells you what is right or wrong. She's the same being who tells you things you had never thought of before. This is the muse. Without it, you cannot write.
This review cannot do justice to Ray's prose and sage advice. All I can do is whet your appetite, and hope you'll bite. The book is delicious!
ACTUNG: !!!BE SURE YOU GET THE EXPANDED VERSION!!!
September 25, 2007 | |
Care and feeding your Muse
This book is a wonderful collection of essays on writing by Ray Bradbury. The essays span about 20 years. They are mostly about the creative process. He provides inspirational advice on how to care for and feed your Muse. He discusses the methods that work for him. He tells us stories about how he came to write some of his more famous short stories and novels - e.g. how he was driven to tears, writing his first great short story "The Lake".
The book is probably most valuable for accomplished writers, because he assumes that the reader has already mastered the mechanics of writing and story structure. There is no discussion of plotting, character development, how to sell your work.
If the book has a fault it is that Bradbury is too talented. In the book, he tells the story of writing the first draft of Fahrenheit 451. He wrote it over a few days at a pay typewriter, a dime at a time, in a UCLA library! What works for a genius such as himself, may not work for other writers. He can sit down at a typewriter, commence a prose poem on a noun and miraculously have a story appear on the page. Most other writers do not have the natural command of storytelling. They need to work in a much more structured fashion.
July 04, 2007 | |
A Ray of Sunlight; Tapping Spirit Inside
This book is the real deal, Bradbury nails it. Call it parapfrasing what we all once knew, or tap into from time to time - but from Rainman it's a recipe, an axion, a reliable methodology! Never (almost never) have I felt connected, validated and understood at every page. Writing, like most of life and learning, is by nature. As we grow older and more analytical, and as we grow more attached to the physical world we move farther from the original spirit of our passions, as we learn, we forget. Bradnury makes it so easy to remember our dreams and live in the world that we as childrem, create for ourselves.
I bought this book and brought it into an adult writing class to show everyone. To my surprise, but not really, the teacher bought the book that same day!
June 05, 2007 | |
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