Ray Bradbury: On Writing: Collected Talks

by Ray Bradbury

Ray On Writing is a manifesto of Bradbury's writing philosophy. It is a collection of his speeches on the art and process of writing, delivered in Bradbury's entertaining, witty, and candid style.
Topics
• processes for developing ideas
• the 'hygiene' of writing
• how a bad writer becomes good writer
• developing your enthusiasms
• how to take in inspiration
• where to find your voice
• and more

Excerpt from Ray On
"People are always asking about mind blocks and having difficulty with writing.
That simply means you're doing the wrong thing. It's that simple. Especially in Hollywood, but it happens with bestsellers you're tempted to take money to do things you shouldn't be doing. Your subconscious then says to you, on a secret level, 'I don't like you anymore. And I've got news for you. We're shutting off the waterworks.' Blockages come very simply from doing work you shouldn't be doing. As soon as you stop that, and go do something that you love, it comes back on again. It's that simple."

91 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2017

About the author

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).

The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".

Reviews

[Stanley Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book several months ago and finally getting around to reading. I have read Bradbury’s “Zen and the Art of Writing” and enjoyed reading that work, and I enjoyed reading this Bradbury work, I just don’t think it reaches the same level of excellence as the “Zen” work so giving 4 stars. His insistence on metaphors is very good, however, maybe if he would have given a few examples it might have been better. Overall, highly recommended…SLT

[Yashoda Sampath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Less about the mechanics of writing than about the pure joy of it.

[Jerry MeCaskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of talks Bradbury gave to various audiences. His love of writing truly comes through. As for me, the way Bradbury talked was just fantastic, so I enjoyed this book.