The second book I'm giving away this month is Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing.
It never fails to amaze me that famous writers had the same fears and doubts that I have now.
Ray writes that he received a fan letter from an art historian, that approved of his writing and told him to keep doing what he was doing.
"I needed that approval. We all need- someone to tell us we're not crazy after all, that what we're doing is all right."
This book is very inspirational for anyone who wants to be a writer or is second guessing themselves.
Ray talks about the process that worked for him: He starts everyday with word association. He would weigh in either for the word or against it, then what it meant to him in his life. He would create characters to argue the points and before the day was out he had a story.
Exercise:
Make up a story with the following words in:
Orange
Smoke
October
horrid
Leave a comment to be eligible to win this book or The Summer of the Bonepile Monster by Aileen Kilgore Henderson
Winners will be announced next week.
See you then,
Sheila
3 comments:
What a great story about Ray Bradbury! Thanks for that, Sheila. Smooth sailing!
Bradbury was a master at the craft of writing, but he too was human. Any validation that we can get encourages us to persist. That's also an important fact for parents to remember regarding their own kids.
Arlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
That is so true Arlee
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