I am walking into an office that I am completely unfamiliar with.There is a black and white theme. White tile floors, black contemporary furniture. Surrounded by white walls with a few that are accented black. The smell of freshly copied paper lingers in halls. There is no one in sight but I hear voices in the distance. I quickly head down a hallway toward them. As the voices became louder I see the glow of a light shining from a room. I discover an office that seems to be the only room that is painted dark red. I step inside and I am greeted by an older man with white thin hair wearing glasses with thick black frames. He is very polite and acts as though he already knows me but must see that I am confused. He introduces himself as writer Ray Bradbury. Now I know that I have heard this name before but it takes me a moment to realize that he is the author of “Zen in the Art of Writing”. Mr. Bradbury offers me a seat around a table where two other unfamiliar faces are already seated. Mr. Bradbury introduces one woman as Anne Lamott author of “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life ”, and the other woman as Carolyn Chute author of “How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call”. Mr. Bradbury explains that they were in the middle of a conversation about writing processes and they proceed with where they left off:
Carolyn Chute: “Writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming.”
Tina Hutton: “Mrs. Lamott, how do you prepare yourself before any of your work?
Anne Lamott: “So I sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly. I let my mind wander.”
Tina Hutton: “I’ve been unsuccessful with that strategy. I have a very difficult time instantly disconnecting from everything.”
Carolyn Chute: “You see, I can’t just switch from life mode to writer mode. Usually it takes three days to get into writer mode.”
Tina Hutton: “What do you mean by writer mode?”
Carolyn Chute: “To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way to your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission. Complete submission.”
Tina Hutton: “Mr.Bradbury, when you were writing your list of nouns, what were you hoping the outcome would be?
Ray Bradbury: “I was feeling my way toward something honest, hidden under the trapdoor on the top of my skull.”
Tina Hutton: “How do you find out what you will write about?”
Ray Bradbury: “You stumble into it mostly. You don’t know what you’re doing until suddenly, its
done.”
Anne Lamott: “E.L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.”
Tina Hutton: “Is there any other advice you can give to a new writer like myself?”
Ray Bradbury: “In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are.”
Anne Lamott: “A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft - you just get it down.The second draft is the up draft - you fix it up.“And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.”
Carolyn Chute: “Writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming.”
Tina Hutton: “Mrs. Lamott, how do you prepare yourself before any of your work?
Anne Lamott: “So I sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly. I let my mind wander.”
Tina Hutton: “I’ve been unsuccessful with that strategy. I have a very difficult time instantly disconnecting from everything.”
Carolyn Chute: “You see, I can’t just switch from life mode to writer mode. Usually it takes three days to get into writer mode.”
Tina Hutton: “What do you mean by writer mode?”
Carolyn Chute: “To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way to your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission. Complete submission.”
Tina Hutton: “Mr.Bradbury, when you were writing your list of nouns, what were you hoping the outcome would be?
Ray Bradbury: “I was feeling my way toward something honest, hidden under the trapdoor on the top of my skull.”
Tina Hutton: “How do you find out what you will write about?”
Ray Bradbury: “You stumble into it mostly. You don’t know what you’re doing until suddenly, its
done.”
Anne Lamott: “E.L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.”
Tina Hutton: “Is there any other advice you can give to a new writer like myself?”
Ray Bradbury: “In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are.”
Anne Lamott: “A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft - you just get it down.The second draft is the up draft - you fix it up.“And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.”