the Writers' Collaborative · Reading, MA
Letters from the Writers' Collaborative
A weekly editorial on craft, the week ahead, and occasional notes from the center.
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A Look at The Commons
A recent archived edition of The Commons.
This week: Ray Bradbury on why we write. Plus, a recommendation of William Zinsser's On Writing Well and a writing exercise.
Live Forever
Ray Bradbury on why we write
In his collection of essays, Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury pieces together stories from his life while providing insight into the act of writing. Though the subject of each essay is different, they are united by one core question: why do we write?
Bradbury addresses the question directly in the context of his genre: science fiction. In the essay “On the Shoulders of Giants,” Bradbury states that “all science fiction is an attempt to solve problems.” According to him, the genre is a vehicle for wonder and innovation. Science fiction authors respond to real problems with imagined solutions, free from the constraints of reality. Sometimes those solutions make their way into the real world, as “science fiction becomes scientific fact.”
To problem solve.
Reflecting upon his writing origins, Bradbury suggests a deeper, yet related, motivation.
Bradbury credits a man named Mr. Electrico as the catalyst for his writing. Over Labor Day weekend in 1932, at the age of 12, Bradbury attended a carnival. Each night, Mr. Electrico would be shocked in an electric chair, apparently with a smile on his face. Brandishing a sword, he would knight each of the children in attendance after the show. When he reached Bradbury, Mr. Electrico cried, “Live forever.” In “Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle,” Bradbury recalls staggering away from the encounter inspired, carrying “the gift of trying somehow to live forever.”
Through his work, Bradbury sought not only to problem solve but to capture moments forever. Reflecting on fond memories of loved ones, his childhood, and summers that have long since passed, he suggests that those memories can be kept alive through writing simply because we say so.
Writing is a form of magic, enabling us to put aside what we “know” and explore what we believe. Great writing stems from our inner child: ferocious curiosity and the belief that everything is possible. As Bradbury writes in “How to Keep and Feed a Muse,” his first career decision, made at eleven, was “to be a magician and travel the world with my illusions,” a dream he never gave up.
Source: Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity (Capra Press, 1990). Quotations from the essays “On the Shoulders of Giants,” “Drunk, and in Charge of a Bicycle,” and “How to Keep and Feed a Muse.”
On Writing Well
In this classic writing guide, William Zinsser presents his four pillars of quality writing: brevity, clarity, simplicity, and humanity. Zinsser carries those pillars through many lessons on the forest and the trees of writing, from form-specific technique down to punctuation. First published in 1976, it remains a keystone resource for any nonfiction writer.
Learn moreSolutions
Think of a problem that does not currently have a solution. Then write a short piece of fiction that solves it. Allow your mind to imagine solutions that are improbable or impossible. This exercise serves as a reminder that our writing lives outside the constraints of reality.
Trust the process.