Writing is an art form, one that must be practiced to be improved.
If you can't tell already, I love writing. Writing has been my first love ever since I was a little girl. I believe it's the first skill I acquired before anything else. As a child, I began writing poetry and short stories. I'm still not sure where I sought the inspiration to do so. But I would write anything, from my experiences to my daily life at school. I suppose I was inspired by the movies and cartoons I watched. Writing has always been my safe place. It's like this magical place I can run off to and create fantastical worlds of my own, and imagine a life beyond what is visible to the human eye. Writing is a magical land of beautiful impossibilities made possible. The fact that we can use our words to inspire, encourage and impact positive change, is incredible to me.
I was never mentored by anyone specific to be a writer. All I had access to was the privilege of learning diligently from my English Language teachers as a child, and as I got older, I would read writing articles, and watch screenwriting lectures on YouTube. I also took a screenwriting course at university many years ago. It was a fun and enlightening experience. In this digital age, we have so much access to platforms where we can learn anything that we want. It's truly amazing, and I feel extremely grateful for it every day. So many amazing artists and writers have shaped and inspired my creative journey such as Billy Wilder, Charlie Kaufman, Bo Burnham, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ernst Lubitsch, and the man I'll be referencing today, the prolific Ray Bradbury.
Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter and is recognized as one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. Many years ago, I came across a video on YouTube of Ray Bradbury giving a screenwriting lecture. I remember being so inspired by his words that I also wrote a lot of what he shared in my journal at the time. His insights on writing helped me build better habits as a writer, so I thought it would be a brilliant idea to share them. I hope these tips inspire you, and you're able to implement them in your craft be it as a writer or simply as an artist.
Lessons From Ray Bradbury On Writing:
A Question To Ask Yourself
Are you madly in love with filmmaking? / Are you madly in love with writing?
Seek Inspiration For Your Writing
Read comic books to inspire your humour.
Read 1 poem a night.
Read 1 essay a night.
Read 1 short story a night.
Be interested in science fiction.
Protect Your Craft
Be quiet! No more talking about your screenplays, because you're giving your ideas away -- you're giving your passion away. You're giving away all the fun. Because when you give it all away, you will never get it back again.
Don't let anyone doom you. Behave OPTIMALLY.
Do not take on work you do not love. Only do work that you love to do.
Action Is The Fulfilment of Intentions
Thinking is the enemy of creativity. Doing is everything. But you can't 'do' unless you know on some intuitive level.
Doing is being.
There's no such thing as trying. There's only doing.
Do! Do! Do! Write every day!
Building Productive Habits
The Art of the Metaphor: Reading lots of poetry helps with the ability of the intuitive self, the hidden mind to hand you metaphors to eliminate pages of dialogue, because you don't want a screenplay that talks. Only on occasion do we want 'talking' screenplays. The creative use of cameras and metaphors is what we want. The Hidden Mind is the invisible intelligence. It is the intelligence that we don't see at first. You have to listen a little bit harder to understand/grasp the message that is being conveyed.
You don't want everything word for word. You want the ESSENCE.
Start every day by writing a poem.
By writing quickly, you free the intuitive self to come to the surface and speak its truth.
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you gained a few lessons or more. If you're a writer, I can assure you that these golden tips from the acclaimed Ray Bradbury are all you need to know. Writing is an action word, so get some writing done today. And you don't have to be a professional writer to start writing. You can write about anything (e.g. daily life entries in your journal). For the most part, we were all taught to read and write for this purpose -- to be able to convey our unique understanding and interpretation of the world to others.
Thank you for making it this far. Thank you for being here. I'll see you in the next story, friend.
Warmly, Grace.
❤️❤️