Craftsmen all have skills, but people with skills are not necessarily craftsmen. Craftsmanship is a state where people and technology become one. Writing is also a craft. The person who has this craft may not be a world-famous person, but great writers often have the craft of writing.
If "Nabokov's Favorite Word" talks about the writing techniques of great writers, "Zen Machine for Writing" talks about the craftsmanship of great writers and Bradbury's writing method. .
The author of this book, Ray Bradbury, is an American science fiction novelist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Bradbury was a prolific and award-winning writer whose writing inspired countless readers to dream, think, and create. Representative works include "Black Carnival", "The Martian Chronicles", "Fahrenheit 451", "Pattern Man", "Dandelion Wine", etc. Among them, "Fahrenheit 451" was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress as one of the "100 Most Influential Novels of the Twentieth Century" and was made into a film of the same name by the famous French director Francois Truffaut.
As a best-selling writing classic for more than 20 years, "The Zen of Writing" is not a work of the author's experience looking back on the past many years after he became famous, but a collection that spans more than 30 years. Among the eleven articles, the earliest is "The Secret Mind" in 1956, and the latest is "The Long Road to Mars" in 1990. In this book, the author does not talk too much about writing skills, but more about his own writing methods: Integrate writing with life, enjoy the fun of writing, and write your true self-like, anger, Love, hate.
The author believes that writers without interest and passion can only be regarded as half-writers. They are not being themselves, but are just following the trends of the commercial market or paying attention to what the avant-garde in the industry is doing.
He is full of passion and true to himself. The people, things and things he encounters in life, as well as his own emotions, can be turned into writing materials. For example, I wrote "Sun and Shadow" after seeing an infuriating photograph; I was angered by being frequently stopped by the police while walking or meditating, so I wrote "Pedestrian"; I created "Tram" after a favorite tram; A pair of tennis shoes gave birth to "Summer in the Air"...
Just as Mr. Ye Shengtao said in "Falling Flowers and Water Surfaces Are All Articles": "The materials are obtained from real life, and the artistic conception is what I think of here and now." "Most of Bradbury's works are derived from real life and his own true emotions. This is also his writing plan: What do you want most in this world? What do you love? What do you hate? For him, it is his pleasure to enjoy the completion of the work. Maybe the revision will bring torture, but at least the first one can be fully enjoyed.
Bradbury pursues true self-expression so much. Was he so from the beginning? No, he also kept imitating others and neglected to observe his inner true self. He started writing at the age of twelve, and it was not until he was twenty-two that he came into contact with his writing skills through the creation of "The Lake". Nonetheless, in the following years, his work continued to be dominated by imitation. During this period, the compilation of the title list began. The list looks like this:
Through this list of titles, he discovers that his past loves and fears came from circuses and carnivals. After that, he continued to make a list, adding one after another:
By constantly improving this noun-based list, the author gradually discovered that what plays a role in the work is personal observation, fantasy, and obsession. Checklists help us discover and find our true selves. Just like the author discovered through the list that his fears came from circuses and carnivals. For many years, he never got close to the merry-go-round, but many years later, this list led him to create "The Magic Master". The "Old Woman" in the list became one of the stories in "Dark Carnival" and "Dandelion Wine", the memory of infancy became "The Little Assassin", and "The Martian Chronicles" is also related to the list.
Bradbury published more than 500 works (parts) in his lifetime. High productivity means that he needs a lot of writing materials and inspiration. Professional writers do not rely on inspiration, great writers are more likely to nurture inspiration, such as Bradbury.
For the author, inspiration is the muse of creation and the inner subconscious, which can be cultivated. Raising a muse requires reading poetry that makes your hair stand on end, collections of essays that enhance your perception of fashion in all its forms, and short stories and novels whose writing styles and ideas resonate with or contradict yours. Through different attempts, feel the stimulation in different aspects. Have sensitivity and perception of people, things, and things, constantly search for, discover, appreciate, and love, and make true responses to the materials.
Words can make the invisible muse tangible. It is mentioned many times in "The Zen of Writing" that the author has been writing a thousand words every day since he was twelve years old, constructing stories using the grammar he has learned, and constantly practicing and imitating. This process has become a habit and a subconscious mind, and the muse naturally blends into it and appears in the text.
In "The Zen of Writing", "interest", "passion" and "truth" are repeatedly mentioned by the author. This is his way of writing and is also the commonality of many great writers. place. Face your true self, live a true life, write true stories, and find your own way of writing.