Ray Bradbury's Wise Words

[paragraphs]

If you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don't even know yourself. For the first thing that a writer should be is--excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it would be better for his health.


I need this plastered in front of my face.

Comments

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

It's so refreshing to see your enthusiasm. And your word count makes me blush, really.

Sometimes I wonder if I am enthusiastic enough. Most of the time, I hold myself back, because there are so many other things to do which all demand my attention. I feel like a parent who has to divide her attention between equally loved children. And writing is the least scheduled of my loves, while aikido and the seminars are much more controllable. This is why I almost fear getting sucked into it too much - and therefore I still don't let myself loose completely.

I wonder how you manage the transition between writing and the rest of the world. Any tricks you could teach me?

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Well...Word Wars was the first time I have let loose in YEARS!!!! To prepare, I had to have my house clean. LOL. So I cleaned Friday, told the kids exactly what I was doing and if they disturbed me during each one, I'd kill them. Nick was doing most of them with me so that helped. In fact he made me do ones I didn't want to, and I was glad. Grin.

It is very hard for me to turn it all off. I surprised myself by being able to. And, by writing on my laptop, on my bed. Crazy! And, even weirder--no music. All those factors made it work. Crazy.

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the need to have a clean house - especially with the bigger projects it's so much better to write in a clear environment.

I like how you change your surrounding: the bed and laptop. Writing in cafes with a friend worked very well for me, maybe I should try to do that on my own, too. This is why I'm so fascinated when you talk about writing in the bookshop. Music never worked for me as a background thing, not even when I was at school. It distracts me and whenever I try to listen to music, I turn the level so low that I don't hear it any longer.

I wish I could simply wear a special outfit to get into that writerly mind set.