The Place For My Writers Notes

Writing with 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 to name the most important items in a writer's makeup, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto."

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"What has all this to do with writing a short story in our times?"

"Only this: if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.... the first thing a writer should be is -- excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms...."

"How long has it been since you wrote a story where your real love or your real hatred somehow got onto the paper? When was the last time you dared release a cherished prejudice so it slammed the page like a lightning bolt? What are the best things and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to whispering or shouting them?"

"So, simply then, here is my formula."

"What do you want more than anything else in the world? What do you love, or what do you hate?"

"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...."

"... on the way, in your work, why not carry those two inflated pig-bladders labeled Zest and Gusto. With them, traveling to the grave, I intend to slap some dummox's behind, pat a pretty girl's coiffure, wave to a tad up a persimmon tree."

Ray Bradbury, The Joy of Writing in Zen in the Art of Writing

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Write! Get excited again!