Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Ray Bradbury Routine

Ray Bradbury – The more you write, the more you want to write.

The Ray Bradbury Routine – 1000 words a day - “Everyday for 2 hours, I begin a new short story, sometimes finishing it, or write an essay or poem. This routine has continued for sixty five years.”
1 - Write Daily - if you don't write daily, what would happen is that the world would catch up with  and try to sicken you. If you did not write everyday, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both.
2 - Gently lie and prove the lie true ...everything is finally a promise... what seems a lie is a ramshackle need, wishing to be born...
3 - Formula - Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with all her heart. Give her running orders. Shoot her off. Then follow as fast as you can go. The character, in her great love, or hate, will rush you through to the end of the story."
4 - Write quick. In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth dead falling or tiger-trapping
5 - Write at least thousand words a day everyday; discover the treats and tricks that come with word association; put down brief notes and descriptions of loves and hates.

6 - make lists of titles, put down long lists of nouns. Run through those lists, pick a noun and then sit down to write a long prose poem-essay-story on it.

Rest in Peace Ray and Thank you for all the inspiration!

EY