Neha's Notebook

Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury What is creativity? How is a story born, germinated and cultivated before it is jotted down on a notebook’s page? What is a writer’s life like? This book embodies the answers to questions like these, in a melodious manner! Zen In the Art of Writing is a beautiful book brimming with nostalgia of the golden summers and darkness of the eerie thing at the top of the stairs. Chapters flow and drift and pulsate with raw enthusiasm and passion towards art of words. The book is organized in twelve generous chapters - a collection of creative essays peppered with snippets of memoir and plenty of zest, gusto. Here are the pointers and quotes I extracted from reading the book. Read on! #1 WRITE WITH ZEST & GUSTO • Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked about the most important items in a writer’s make-u...

Ray Bradbury is the name of one of the most enthusiastic storytellers and fiction writers of 20th century. Most of his novels are written in the themes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. He was also known to share openly, his knowledge of the art with young writers. Many of his teachings can be read in the form of short essays in his book  Zen in the Art of Writing. While I was reading this book  m yself, I came across the word ‘Gusto’ for the very first time through the initial chapters of the book. Its not like that I was awestruck, at once, reading this simple word, howsoever, the way he writes about it, playing emphasis upon it, I could feel the enthusiasm that Mr. Bradbury is known to express in his novels. Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating, by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer’s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the ro...