Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity.

It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.

Ray Bradbury said this and you'll be pleased to note I have actually heard of him! (He's an American Sci-Fi writer.) I've been listening to his short stories on the radio at some unearthly time in the wee small hours when sleep escapes me.

I love that title!






I've not been finding any hours, minutes or even solitary seconds for creative writing lately.

There's been a great deal of paid freelance work - can't be sneezed at - and other things that have swallowed up my time. When I'm not doing those things, my brain's like porridge...

 ...or I'm asleep - or I'm not asleep and listening to Ray Bradbury short stories on the radio.

The funny thing is, I usually spend AGES over my writing - not so much in the planning but in the execution - honing, selecting exactly the right word, tinkering. Self-conscious? You bet! Though often the results don't appear that way.

This time last year, because of time commitments, I had left myself about 12 hours to write the first ten pages of The Melting for a contest deadline. Bear in mind, this might usually have taken me two to three WEEKS.

I had NOTHING - only two characters in my head, no setting, no scenes planned, no ideas, NOTHING.

I think they were the best ten pages I ever wrote.

 Now I'm striving to recreate the same conditions. Somehow it isn't working...