Writing spontaneously and with originality came easily to Ray Bradbury– because he employed a very natural technique that never failed to generate stories. He collided or juxtaposed ideas from his spontaneous lists of remembered objects and emotions. These lists generated ENERGY, CONNECTION and CREATIVITY!
Ray Bradbury on LISTS.
Three things are in your head: First, everything you have experienced from the day of your birth until right now. Every single second, every single hour, every single day. Then, how you reacted to those events in the minute of their happening, whether they were disastrous or joyful. Those are two things you have in your mind to give you material. Then, separate from the living experiences are all the art experiences you’ve had, the things you’ve learned from other writers, artists, poets, film directors, and composers. So all of this is in your mind as a fabulous mulch and you have to bring it out.
How do you do that? I did it by making lists of nouns and then asking, What does each noun mean? You can go and make up your own list right now and it would be different than mine. The night. The crickets. The train whistle. The basement. The attic. The tennis shoes. The fireworks. All these things are very personal. Then, when you get the list down, you begin to word-associate around it. You ask, Why did I put this word down? What does it mean to me? Why did I put this noun down and not some other word? Do this and you’re on your way to being a good writer. You can’t write for other people. You can’t write for the left or the right, this religion or that religion, or this belief or that belief. You have to write the way you see things.
I tell people, Make a list of ten things you hate and tear them down in a short story or poem. Make a list of ten things you love and celebrate them. When I wrote Fahrenheit 451 I hated book burners and I loved libraries. So there you are.
So…
1) Make a list of everything you LOVE.
2) And a list of everything you LOATHE!
3) And now a list of NOUNS…randomly open to ANYTHING. These are private lists. You can add to them and like Bradbury, use them for daily inspiration.
‘’ Begin your writing by reminding yourself to ‘try easy’…’’ ( Levy and Kreigel) . Aim for 90% rather than 110%!
4) Write around 100 words in response to this quotation taken from Saki’s tale The Lull:
…Vera burst into the room with the question: ‘I say, can I leave these here?’
From the very useful advice Bradbury gives in the main body of the quotes above, I take ‘Don’t think’ to mean, don’t let over-analysis of what you are creating get in the way of what you are creating – to stop ponderous self conscious writing. So, not thoughtless writing, but writing that still has the unmistakeable energy of creation. Will look at the Saki from what I have read of him before, I’m sure it will have that energy in a very subversive way! Sarah