Storytellersunplugged

(You learn something new every day. Brian saved this in Blogger as a draft days ago — when I posted it, it posted back on the day when he created it! Here it is again - DNW)

The other day I read a fantastic essay by Ray Bradbury called Run Fast, Stand Still, or, The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, or, New Ghosts from Old Minds. According to Locusmag.com (Stories, Listed by Author), Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (edited by J. N. Williamson for Writer’s Digest Books) originally published this essay in 1987, but you can find it reprinted in Mr. Bradbury’s non-fiction book, Zen in the Art of Writing. *This book is at the top of a short list of books I consider essential.In this essay, Mr. Bradbury passes on some lessons from his own life. I’ll share a few of them with you here, but I won’t take credit for them. Ray Bradbury, one of the true geniuses in the writing business, deserves full credit. His book is a treasure chest of anecdotes, ideas, and encouragement.

Here and now, I will try to pass on a few of those gems without borrowing heavily from the text of the abovementioned book. It will lose something in translation, so I urge you to go out and buy Zen in the Art of Writing.

Run Fast …
“In quickness is truth.” - Ray Bradbury.

Speed is a writer’s friend. When you find an idea or the thread of a story, you must grab it at once and take off with it. Leave all questions, concerns, doubts, and other bogeymen in your dust. Write down what comes, and quickly, before inspiration wanders away to favor another with its bright grin and manic energy. By taking and running, you can finish a short story in a single night, maybe two, or a full novel in a few months. You will also get your story in its purest form, free of navel-gazing, second-guessing, and the creative confusion that comes with considering what your fans, editors, reviewers, detractors, relatives, and mates will think of it.

You are writing the story for you and no one else.

What you’ll end up with, and I know this from personal experience, is one butt-ugly first draft, but that’s just fine. Ugly first drafts are what rewrites were invented for. The rewrites are where you let others in (literally or figuratively), and if you want others to enjoy your story, this is where you should consider their opinions and input.

That first draft, however, is all you, baby! Running through a landscape of your imagination’s choosing; running so quickly you feel like you’re flying. You know you might trip up and fall on your face at any moment, but you’re having so much fun you hardly care.

Stand Still …
“Be a chameleon, ink-blend, chromosome change with the landscape.” – Ray Bradbury.

Not just pretty words, but sound advice, and a way to avoid a trap I always seem to fall into when trying to find inspiration.

When pressed for inspiration, I tend to look inward for, to my emotions and experiences, my philosophies and fears. My inner-self, sadly, is a well I all too often find shallow and dry. I’m not even going to think about what that says about me as a person. It’s too depressing to consider.

Be a wallflower. Shut up, sit back, and watch the world move around you. Watch strangers in the park, on their commute to work, arguing, laughing, crying. Take some time off from your grim Cradle-to-Grave death march, and see what you’ve been missing. Your city or town, your neighborhood, your favorite restaurant; the world is a strange and interesting place filled with strange and interesting people.

Lie down in the grass and watch the clouds move across the sky, changing shapes as they drift with the wind, divide, dissipate, converge. See anything interesting in them?

You will if you watch long enough.

No only will you often find direct inspiration in the world around you, something amazing will happen while you’re looking the other way. Your own well will begin to fill again, and the next time you look into it, you may be surprised by what you find.

Word association.

This is a game, or maybe more like an exercise, that Mr. Bradbury writes about, and which appears to have become the seeds of some of his best stories. It’s simple as hell, too.

Get some paper. Get a pen. Write down the first word (albatross) or pair of words (The Spider) that comes to mind. What does that word make you think about when you look back at it? Chances are there is a reason that word was rolling around in your head, something old, forgotten and dusty, just waiting to be found again.

On the other hand, maybe there is no reason at all, but what the hell, just go with it.

I’ve put my own small spin on the word game, making three lists of words; things I hate, things I love, and random things, an object or person that happens to cross into my vision at that moment, or maybe just a brain-fart.

When you have your lists, pick one thing from each list, a love, a hate, and something from your random list.

Here are my three - The Letter (random), birds (loves), and strangers (hates).

These three things, poured back into the mixing-bowl of my head, combined to become a good idea for a story.

Indulge me and try it yourself.

If it doesn’t work for you, it was no big waste of time or energy, but if it does work, don’t thank me.

Thank Ray Bradbury. It all started with him.

Brian Knight

*List of essential non-fiction works
Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style
Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing
Stephen King’s Danse Macabre
Stephen King’s On Writing
Edo Van Belkom’s Writing Horror