Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper. Make your own individual spectroscope reading. Then, you, a new Element, are discovered, charted, and named! ~ Ray Bradbury
writing tips
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #24
[The writer’s] greatest art will often be what he does not say, what he leaves out, his ability to state simply with clear emotion, the way he wants to go. ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #21
The main thing is compression. It really isn’t putting so much is there any metaphor – and this is where my knowledge of poetry has been such a help to me. …If you can find the right metaphor, the right image, and put it in the sink, it can replace four pages of dialogue.” ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #20
“Instead of the six lines of dialogue, can’t you find a way of saying it with two?” ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #19
I had to write a 260 page screenplay. That’s six hours. Jack said, “Well now you’ve got to cut out 40 pages.” I said, “God, I can’t.” He said, “Go ahead, I know you can do it. I’ll be behind you.” So I cut 40 pages out. He said, “OK, now you’ve got to get another 40 pages out.” But I got it down to 180 pages. And then Jack said, “Thirty more.” And I said “Impossible, impossible!” OK, I got it down to 150 pages. He said, “OK now thirty more.” Well, he kept telling me I could do it. And, by God, I went through a final time and got it down to 120 pages. It was better. ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #17
Dandelion Wine, like most of my books and stories was a surprise. I began to learn the nature of such surprises, thank God, when I was fairly young as a writer. … No one told me to surprise myself … I learned to let my senses and past, tell me all that was somehow true. ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #16
I write all my novels and stories, as you have seen, in a great surge of delightful passion. ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #15
But how did I begin? I wrote 1000 words a day. For 10 years I wrote at least one short story the week, somehow guessing that the day would finally come when I truly got out of the way and let it happen. ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #14
Who are your friends? Do they believe in you? Or did they stunt your growth with ridicule and disbelief? If the latter, you haven’t any friends. Go find some. ~ Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #13
Do not, for money, turn away from all the stuff you have collected in a lifetime. Do not, for the vanity of intellectual publications, turn away from what you are, the material within you, which makes you individual, and therefore indispensable to others. ~ Ray Bradbury
