Ray Bradbury on Writing

Over the holidays I managed to finish reading Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing. The book consists of  a series of essays which originally appeared in other publications. Having just read Stephen King's On Writing, I was struck by the fact that both Bradbury and King have strong beliefs about how stories "write themselves", flowing naturally out of character development. Here are some quotes by Bradbury on the subject:

"Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with all his heart. Give him running orders. Shoot him off. Then follow as fast as you can go.  The character, in his great love, or hate, will rush you through to the end of the story."

"The time will come when your characters will write your stories for you, when your emotions, free of literary cant and commercial bias, will blast the page and tell the truth."

Compare Bradbury's quotes with Stephen King's quotes here.

Also like King, Bradbury wrote of the insecurity from which writers often suffer:

"We all need someone higher, wiser, older to tell us we're not crazy after all, that what we're doing is all right... But it is easy to doubt yourself, because you look around at a community of notions held by others writers, other intellectuals, and they make you blush with guilt."

Given the fact that two established authors have had much the same experiences, there must be some real nuggets of truth in what they are saying. Wide eyed, I am listening. :)

The Ray Bradbury portrait above is by Pixar artist Lou Romano for the cover of Written By magazine.