Writers: Do you have a favorite book on writing? I’m not talking about your old MLA handbook or that copy of Writing with a Purpose you kept from college (uhh, no I don’t have those books on my bookshelf still…).

I mean one of those inspirational, tips and tricks, take my advice, you got this kind of books that our more famous brethren have put out there to make us newer “struggling” writers feel worse better about our writing process!

That book for me is Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I’ve picked it back up again and again for a touch of inspiration. It wanders and meanders and shouts and rambles, but made me feel like I wasn’t wasting my time, and that it is possible to create something worthwhile.

From the Preface on, I felt as if I was sitting down to have a conversation with Mr. Bradbury about the meaning of life. As if someone finally understood why in the hell I spent so much time with a pen in my hand, writing ridiculous adventure stories, journaling ideas, and imagining how I could tell a story. No, it’s not just a hobby or even a career. As he put it: “Writing is tonic.”

“It reminds us that we are alive and that it is gift and privilege, not a right…So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all. Second, writing is survival…Not to write, for many of us, is to die.”

Dramatic? A bit. Yet it rings so true. If I didn’t write, what would I do? Like Sebastian in my book, I cannot escape who I am.

Bradbury’s Method

Among the conversational sage wisdom given through this book is Bradbury’s overall method for creating writings: Work. Relax. Don’t Think.

He tells aspiring writers (and any artist, really) that first we must Work and keep at it, keep writing, get the words out on the page. “What we are trying to do is find a way to release the truth that lies in all of us.” Experience teaches us what is good and what is crap (those are my words, not his, but you get it).

Once we put in the work, we need to Relax. “Work, giving us experience, results in new confidence and eventually in relaxation.”

Last, Bradbury tells us writers: Don’t Think!

This is my favorite part! He’s describing that letting go of your thoughts—what many artists, athletes, programmers, painters, etc. refer to as “flow” or “flow state.”

Anyone who’s been in a flow state knows how it feels. Like the words come straight out of your subconscious and you are just the one moving the pen across the paper. You “get into the groove” and the story simply comes with minimal effort. Don’t Think is Flow.

“What are we trying to uncover in this flow? The one person irreplaceable to the world, of which there is no duplicate. You.”

His method is maddeningly simple, which means it’s tough to do, like knowing vegetables and fruit will make me live forever but all I want is chocolate! So, it’s up to me to work at it. I’ll go get a carrot and get back to writing.