بسم الله ..
حينما تريد جرعة من الأمل يوم تريد أن تفهم مامعنى أن تكتب
هذا الكتاب يفعل بك الكثير
والحمد لله رب العالمين

بدون اینکه تا به حال داستانی از ری بردبری خوانده باشم با این کتاب او یکی از دوستان صمیمی من شد و هنوز هم هست. کتاب‌های یادگیری قواعد و فنون داستان‌نویسی به جای خودشان بسیار محترم و لازم اند اما این کتاب تمام زواید و حواشی کار نویسندگی را کنار می‌زند و یکراست به اصل و ذات نویسندگی خلاق می‌پردازد. نویسندگی برای نویسندگی. نه برای شهرت نه برای پول نه جایگاه اجتماعی نه احترام بین منتقدان و حرفه‌ای‌های ادبیات نه حتی برای مردم و مخاطبان. داستان‌نویسی برای عشق ورزیدن به داستان‌نویسی. این چیزیه که خیلی وقتا میون خیلی چیزا گم میشه ولی اصل و گوهر درخشان نهفته در هر نویسنده است. به نظرم هر نویسنده‌ای ـ چه تازه‌کار چه کهنه‌کارـ باید هر چند وقتی یک بار خودش رو با این کتاب تر و تازه کنه و شاداب و سرحال دوباره برگرده سر کارش.

All due respect to Mr. Bradbury, but quite frankly I don't really see the point of this book.

The thing is that doing something and teaching others how to do it are vastly different skills, and they don't necessarily overlap. I spent the past year tutoring kids in reading, and the first thing I learned was how difficult it was to translate a skill that came naturally to me into something that would help beginners. Ray Bradbury was clearly someone for whom writing came naturally (he has a lot to say about books or stories 'finishing themselves' in the course of a day), but the advice he has to offer here is, at best, vague.

From what I can tell, his main points - repeated throughout the book - are this:
1. Write what you know, a catechism which is often misinterpreted to mean 'write your own limited experiences endlessly'. Bradbury, instead, is talking about using your own experiences and strong emotional reactions to fuel your writing, regardless of what exact resemblance it may have to what you experienced.

2. Have passion for what you do. He is emphatic and uncompromising when it comes to the idea that you have to write every day for years, probably decades, before achieving substantial success. While these specific recommendations don't apply to everyone (not everyone who writes wants to work exclusively or predominantly in short stories), the general idea is definitely applicable. It is here where I think Bradbury comes through clearest, because his own passion for the craft comes through even when his advice seems muddied.

3. Get out of your own way. The titular essay of this collection, 'Zen in the Art of Writing', is close kin to the advice given during NaNoWriMo to 'turn off your internal editor'. Bradbury advocates working, but not being wound up about it, until the words simply begin to flow on their own. Nowadays, this is an actual, recognized psychological concept.

One minor annoyance: though this is unsurprising for the time, Bradbury treats male as a universal default throughout the text. Everything is about 'the man' or 'the boy', including one sentence in which he refers to the reader, specifically, as a man:

...so you are that precious commodity, the individual man, the man we all democratically proclaim, but who, so often, gets lost or loses himself, in the shuffle.

(Emphasis mine.)

Later, he references a book by Dorothea Brande, saying that it details "many of the ways a writer can find out who he is and how to get the stuff of himself out on paper". Now, I get that male-default is an archaic writing convention only recently overturned, but assuming that the writer-persona is inherently male in a description of a book written by a woman seems particularly rich.

Several of the essays in this book are just about the genesis of particular works, which might be interesting if Bradbury were a little more reflective on the topic, but he glosses over a lot of the mechanical aspects of writing. I suspect this book may be more interesting to people who are seeking inspiration and motivation as writers; if you're looking for actual craft tools, it's not a very rich resource. There are some great quotes, though:

We never sit anything out.
We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled.
The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

اگه برای بردبری اون ملاقات و اون نامه نقطه ی عطف و نقطه ی تایید مسیرش بود برای منم خوندن این کتاب بعد چند سالی که خریدم نقطه ی تایید بود. تاییدی از یه آدم بزرگ و باتجربه. اگه فقط سه سل قبل کتاب رو می خوندم می گفتم اینا فقط حرفه اما حالا که کلی تمرین کردم و همین مسیر رو رفتم می فهمم که همه اش حقیقته که اگه نبود من صفحه به صفحه و سطر به سطر به وجد نمی اومدم تا بگم که این رو تجربه کردم یا این همون حرف منه یا این مرد چقدر ذهنش شبیه منه یا اینی که می گه که منم. لحظه به لحظه ی خوندن این کتاب برای من مرور زمان هایی بود که به مشق نویسندگی گذروندم و چیزی که از خودم ساختم و ذهنی که پرورش دادم. خوشحالم که راه رو درست رفتم، روش هام صحیح بوده و نتیجه هم گرفتم. حتی از شیوه هایی که خودم استفاده کرده بودم به دیگران پیشنهاد می دادم و وقتی دیدم بردبری رو هم همونا رو ارائه کرده، همون چیزهای ساده اما به شدت مهم و کارآمد رو دوست داشتم خودم رو تشویق کنم که خوب اومدی، درست اومدی و ادامه بده.

بخونین و لذت جادوی کلمات این مرد رو ببرین که روحش در آرامش باشه.
این حرف ها نه از سر ذوقن، نه بیهوده، نه دلخوش کننده؛ بلکه خود حقیقتن و وقتی درکش می کنین که توی دلش باشین یا از سرگذرونده باشینش.

The man that wrote 1000 words every day since the age of 12 wrote about where he got his ideas. I also learned to appreciate poems from him.

No one writes quite like Ray Bradbury. Perhaps that’s an understatement, but as I was reading Zen in the Art of Writing, I was again reminded of his brilliance. He has impeccable control of the English language. But at the same time, his sentences are playful and colorful. His thinking is philosophical and, at the same time lighthearted.

“But ideas lie everywhere, like apples fallen and melting in the grass for lack of wayfaring strangers with an eye and a tongue for beauty, whether absurd, horrific, or genteel.”

Picking up this book, at this moment was kismet for me. As I said out loud to someone recently, I’d like to write more and maybe even get paid for it again. In this collection of essays, Bradbury reminds me that I have to do my work first. Writing a thousand words every day is a given. And Bradbury talks about what it was like for him to develop the discipline. But he also describes how he created writing prompts based on his world, past, present, and future.

“When people ask me where I get my ideas, I laugh. How strange—we’re so busy looking out, to find ways and means, we forget to look in.”

Full review at TheBibliophage.com.

"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!"

I'm not sure what prompted me to read this book. There's a part of me that's always wanted to write, but I've lacked the self discipline. Of course, I also lack self confidence. Unlike most writers, I have never felt the need to write every day. At least, I didn't think I did.



I remember being asked to write a story in school. My teacher gave me a good grade and said it was very imaginative. That was the last time we ever got that assignment. It didn't make me write. When I was a little girl, I would fill the blank pages of books with drawings - usually ballerinas. I was obsessed with ballerinas despite being tall and chunky and not in the least graceful. Unfortunately, my writing and illustrations were unappreciated by my parents especially my father who accused me of wasting my time drawing "dolls."



I wish I had read this book years ago. Who knows what I could have accomplished. Maybe nothing. Maybe something. Maybe everything. I went through my scifi phase when I was in college and in my early to mid 20's. That included reading Ray Bradbury who is less science fiction than a sort of fantasy, but not the fantasy that's big nowadays. His was sometimes gentle, sometimes raw with a lot simmering under the surface. I devoured the Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451 and so much more.



Yet one of my all time favorites is his very sweet and wonderful Dandelion Wine. I also remember a story called The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit that was so utterly enchanting.



I got a copy of this slim little book of essays from our local library and read it in one sitting, sipping coffee, water, eating lunch, having a snack. The essays were written over many years and express Bradbury's views on writing and creativity. You won't really be satisfied unless you stop trying to be a "money writer" and write just for the pure abandonment and joy. (I wonder how many people are doing that right now.)



There was no Pulitzer Prize for literature announced this year. Is it because there are no good writers? Or is it because publishers would rather not take a chance with literature? (Chickens and eggs, anyone?) If I knew a young person who had ambitions to write - actually I do know one right now - I might give them a copy of this book. (If I can find a copy at a cheap price, I may send her one!)



In the essay, "Drunk and In Charge of a Bicycle," Bradbury talks about how one project lead to another, all starting with his love of dinosaurs. From noting that a collapsed pier looked like a dinosaur to writing a story of a dinosaur who hears a fog horn and thinks that it is another dinosaur and dies of a broken heart to being asked by John Huston to write the screen play for Moby Dick after Huston read that story, to reintroducing a new translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which led to his conceptualizing the entire second floor of the United States Pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1964 which, in turn, led to Disney asking him to help with Epcot Center designs. Phew!



How can you NOT love this imagery: "Bees do have a smell you know, and if they don't, they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers." (Having just returned from Longwood Gardens, I can especially appreciate that image!) I love his passionate explanation of why science fiction is relevant. It is a "History of Ideas," he says. And he's RIGHT. Very often, I will see something or hear something and remember a short story or novel I read that predicted what I'm seeing now. (And it's not always pretty either, but it's true.)



He tells the writer not to be tempted by literary reviews or the money that may be available in mass circulation. (Not an easy temptation to walk away from which is, perhaps, why pseudonyms were born!) Ask yourself "What do I REALLY think of the world, what do I love, fear, hate?" Then he advises that you put it all on paper. In his early days, he wrote a bunch of words that intrigued him. They became his starting points. Can you imagine him as your creative writing teacher. He would probably get in big trouble and wouldn't last long, but if you had him for a few glorious months, who knows what you could write!



The last chapter, "On Creativity," is a series of poems. One of them is called Troy: "My Troy was there of course, thought people said not so....Go Dig the Troy In You!" Optimist that he is, Bradbury seems to think that we all have Troy in us waiting to be dug up. What a wonderful thought that is!

حسنا،
ما يقدمه هذا الكتاب شيء جميل ورائع مبدع حقا، وملهم جدا.
باختصار شديد، خلاصة تجارب سنوات طوال في فن الكتابة، أكثر من خمسين عام، مع الورقة وآلة الكتابة، وقصة هناك وهنا رواية، والخ.
أنصح به؟
ما رأيك أنت؟!

اهمیتی نداره نویسندهٔ تازه کار هستید یا کار کشته و حتی اهمیتی نداره که می‌خواهید نویسنده باشید یا نه! این کتابیه که برای خلاق بودن در زندگی حتمن باید بخونیدش.

خود من از اون دسته آدم‌هایی هستم که با این تیپ کتاب‌های آموزش فلان هنر اصلن حال نمی‌کنم اما به جرات می‌تونم بگم خوندن این کتاب رو اینقدر طول دادم که برای مدت بیشتری لذت ببرم. هنوز هم قبل از نوشتن؛ به سراغش میروم و گپ و گفت دوستانه‌ای باهم می‌کنیم.

راجع‌به عنوان نسبتن ترسناک کتاب هم همین نقل قول ری برادبری، نویسنده ی کتاب، کافیه: "این عنوان را البته مخصوصا انتخاب کردم که جلب نظر کند!" در کل از اسم کتاب نترسید؛ ری برادبری از ساده ترین و بی شیله پیله‌ترین نویسنده‌هاییه که میتونید پیدا کنید و این صداقت و معصومیت کودکانه‌اش توی آثارش هم به وضوح آشکاره

such a warm journey ❤

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

I'd say that to me this seemed more like a pleasant to read bunch of essays than something constructively helpful in writing one's own books. Not like I was upset about it or something, not at all, I liked it very much. But if you indeed expect it to help you with writing - you better be very young and you better know who Mr. Bradbury was. I mean not just superficially know the name, but you better REALIZE the amount of work he's done and his impact on certain generations of readers.

I LOVE Ray Branduty. His style. His insight. His vision. His everything. Probably it all was summed up nicely by himself in his ZEN of Writing.
This volume is full of zen, hands down. Lots of incredible insight. Lots of wonderful essays on how Ray Bradbury became the visionary we've all come to know and respect and love and look up to.
Hands down one of the finest books on writing ever. Worthy of 500 stars and more. A lot MORE!
(I've no idea how come I've read this one just now and not ages before. A treasure I stumbled upon at random.)
A fav for years to come.
Respect. And Zen.

Q:
Since then, I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room. (c)
Q:
"What's that dinosaur doing lying here on the beach?" I said.
My wife, very wisely, had no answer. (c)
Q:
First I rummaged my mind for words that could describe my personal nightmares, fears of night and time from my childhood, and shaped stories from these. (c)
Q:
I was amused and somewhat astonished at a critic a few years back who wrote an article analyzing Dandelion Wine plus the more realistic works of Sinclair Lewis, wondering how I could have been born and raised in Waukegan, which I renamed Green Town for my novel, and not noticed how ugly the harbor was and how depressing the coal docks and railyards down below the town.
But, of course, I had noticed them and, genetic enchanter that I was, was fascinated by their beauty. Trains and boxcars and the smell of coal and fire are not ugly to children. Ugliness is a concept that we happen on later and become self-conscious about. Counting boxcars is a prime activity of boys. Their elders fret and fume and jeer at the train that holds them up, but boys happily count and cry the names of the cars as they pass from far places. And again, that supposedly ugly railyard was where carnivals and circuses arrived with elephants who washed the brick pavements with mighty steaming acid waters at five in the dark morning. (c)
Q:
In other words, if your boy is a poet, horse manure can only mean flowers to him; which is, of course, what horse manure has always been about. (c)
Q:
Literary history is filled with writers who, rightly or wrongly, felt they could tidy up, improve upon, or revolutionize a given field. So, many of us plunge forward where angels leave no dustprint. (c)
Q:
But the subliminal eye is shrewd. (c)