“Excitement Rises”

From “Zen in the Art of Writing” by the great Ray Bradbury:

“Be certain of this: When honest love speaks, when true admiration begins, when excitement rises, when hate curls like some, you need never doubt that creativity will stay with you for a lifetime. The core of your creativity should be the same as the core of your story and of the main character of your story. What does your character want, what is his dream, what shape has it, and how expressed? Given expression, this is the dynamo of his life and your life, then, as Creator. At the exact moment when truth erupts, the subconscious changes form the wastebasket file to angel writing in a book of gold.…

“…have you trained well enough so you can say what you want to say without getting hamstrung? Have you written enough so that’s you are relaxed and can allow the truth to get out without being ruined by self-conscious posturing or changed by a desire to become rich?

“To feed well is to grow. To work well and constantly is to keep what you have learned and know in prime condition. Experience. Labor. These are the twin sides of the coin which when spun is neither experience nor labor, but the moment of revelation. The coin, by optical illusion, becomes a round, bright whirling globe of life. It is the moment when the porch swing creaks gentle and a voice speaks, The voice rises and falls….The words become poetry that no one minds, because no one has thought to call it that. Time is there. Love is there. Story is there.”

I love “Zen isn’t the Art of Writing”—it has a mystical quality that really lifts me up and reminds me that what we write is so much more than just words on the page. If we can breathe life and heart into them, they become alive and touch other hearts. Write on!

Please help KWD grow by sharing: https://karinwritesdangerously.com/

About karinwritesdangerously

I am a writer and this is a motivational blog designed to help both writers and aspiring writers to push to the next level. Key themes are peak performance, passion, overcoming writing roadblocks, juicing up your creativity, and the joys of writing.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply