Author Annalisa Parent muses on Bradbury’s quote on writing
In my other (non-writing) life, I am a photographer. In the early years of my training, a wise, experienced photographer said “The key to my success is taking lots of pictures, because you generally throw away at least half,” or something like that. And it is true, in photography, that photos are rejected because someone blinked or grimaced, or retouched because someone was having a bad hair day, or all out rejected because the photo simply didn’t work or there was a frame of the same shot that captured the scene more accurately.
And so it is with writing.
As Bradbury points out: one must be prolific in order to generate anything worth publishing.
Are you gonna write flops? Yup. Are you gonna follow some character down a path that ends up being a dead end after 20 pages? Yup. Is all that meandering worth it? Absolutely.
Why? Isn’t it all just a waste of time?
I would argue that engaging with characters, even if the scene never makes the final cut of the novel, helps us to know our characters, understand our characters, and therefore help the reader to do the same.
If you follow a character down the primrose path straight to a dead end, it’s ok to feel like you want to deck him. But, I think the odds are, the information garnered along the way– all the flowers he stopped to smell, and animals he observed– will give depth to your character, understanding to you, and lend to the character’s likability for the reader.
Besides, writing every day for the sake of writing, much like Theophile Gauthier’s “L’art pour l’art” is just plain fun. (If you don’t think it’s fun, you might consider another way to spend your time.)
Tongue out of cheek, writing can be tedious, but writing everyday, and planting that butt to that chair, will yield results.
Sometimes the best images take the longest to develop.
Thank you so much, Kate. That means a lot to me. Thanks for reading. And good luck in your writing (even if Bradbury calls it rambling!) 🙂
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.” My favorite (snippet) Ray Bradbury quote, so much so that I have it printed out and taped to my computer monitor! Not because I view it in a negative way, but because it encourages me to embrace this crazy thing I do, day after day!
I’m a former photographer and remember being told that out of every 24-exposure roll of film, you MIGHT catch one or two that are good and, if you’re lucky, great. Such is magic!
Beautiful blog post, and wonderful blog! -Kate