Zen in the Art of Writing Read online

  An athlete may run ten thousand miles in order to prepare for one hundred yards.

  Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come.

  All arts, big and small, are the elimination of waste motion in favor of the concise declaration.

  The artist learns what to leave out.

  The surgeon knows how to go directly to the source of trouble, how to avoid wasted time and complications.

  The athlete learns how to conserve power and apply it now here, now there, how to utilize this muscle, rather than that.

  Is the writer different? I think not.

  His greatest art will often be what he does not say, what he leaves out, his ability to state simply with clear emotion, the way he wants to go.

  The artist must work so hard, so long, that a brain develops and lives, all of itself, in his fingers.

  So with the surgeon whose hand at last, like the hand of da Vinci, must sketch lifesaving designs on the flesh of man.

  So with the athlete whose body at last is educated and becomes, of itself, a mind.

  By work, by quantitative experience, man releases himself from obligation to anything but the task at hand.

  The artist must not think of the critical rewards or money he will get for painting pictures. He must think of beauty here in this brush ready to flow if he will release it.

  The surgeon must not think of his fee, but the life beating under his hands.

  The athlete must ignore the crowd and let his body run the race for him.

  The writer must let his fingers run out the story of his characters, who, being only human and full of strange dreams and obsessions, are only too glad to run.

  Work then, hard work, prepares the way for the first stages of relaxation, when one begins to approach what Orwell might call Not Think! As in learning to typewrite, a day comes when the single letters a-s-d-f and j-k-1-; give way to a flow of words.

  So we should not look down on work nor look down on the forty-five out of fifty-two stories written in our first year as failures. To fail is to give up. But you are in the midst of a moving process. Nothing fails then. All goes on. Work is done. If good, you learn from it. If bad, you learn even more. Work done and behind you is a lesson to be studied. There is no failure unless one stops. Not to work is to cease, tighten up, become nervous and therefore destructive of the creative process.

  So, you see, we are working not for work's sake, producing not for production's sake. If that were the case, you would be right in throwing up your hands in horror and turning away from me. What we are trying to do is find a way to release the truth that lies in all of us.

  Isn't it obvious by now that the more we talk of work, the closer we come to Relaxation.

  Tenseness results from not knowing or giving up trying to know. Work, giving us experience, results in new confidence and eventually in relaxation. The type of dynamic relaxation again, as in sculpting, where the sculptor does not consciously have to tell his fingers what to do. The surgeon does not tell his scalpel what to do. Nor does the athlete advise his body. Suddenly, a natural rhythm is achieved. The body thinks for itself.

  So again the three signs. Put them together any way you wish.

  WORK RELAXATION DON'T THINK, Once separated out. Now, all three together in a process. For if one works, one finally relaxes and stops thinking. True creation occurs then and only then.

  But work, without right thinking, is almost useless. I repeat myself, but, the writer who wants to tap the larger truth in himself must reject the temptations of Joyce or Camus or Tennessee Williams, as exhibited in the literary reviews. He must forget the money waiting for him in mass-circulation. He must ask himself, "What do I really think of the world, what do I love, fear, hate?" and begin to pour this on paper.

  Then, through the emotions, working steadily, over a long period of time, his writing will clarify; he will relax because he thinks right and he will think even righter because he relaxes.

  The two will become interchangeable. At last he will begin to see himself. At night, the very phosphorescence of his insides will throw shadows long on the wall. At last the surge, the agreeable blending of work, not thinking and relaxation will be like the blood in one's body, flowing because it has to flow, moving because it must move, from the heart.

  What are we trying to uncover in this flow? The one person irreplaceable to the world, of which there is no duplicate. You. As there was only one Shakespeare, Moliere, Dr. Johnson, so you are that precious commodity, the individual man, the man we all democratically proclaim, but who, so often, gets lost, or loses himself, in the shuffle.

  How does one get lost?

  Through incorrect aims, as I have said. Through wanting literary fame too quickly. From wanting money too soon. If only we could remember, fame and money are gifts given us only after we have gifted the world with our best, our lonely, our individual truths. Now we must build our better mousetrap, heedless if a path is being beaten to our door.

  What do you think of the world? You, the prism, measure the light of the world; it burns through your mind to throw a different spectroscopic reading onto white paper than anyone else anywhere can throw.

  Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper. Make your own individual spectroscopic reading.

  Then, you, a new Element, are discovered, charted, named!

  Then, wonder of wonders, you may even be popular with the literary magazines, and one day, a solvent citizen, be dazzled and made happy when someone sincerely cries, "Well done!"

  A sense of inferiority, then, in a person, quite often means true inferiority in a craft through simple lack of experience. Work then, gain experience, so that you will be at ease in your writing, as a swimmer buoys himself in water.

  There is only one type of story in the world. Your story. If you write your story it could possibly sell to any magazine.

  I have had stories rejected by Weird Tales that I turned around and sold to Harper's.

  I have had stories rejected by Planet Stories that I sold to Mademoiselle.

  Why? Because I have always tried to write my own story. Give it a label if you wish, call it science fiction or fantasy or the mystery or the western. But, at heart, all good stories are the one kind of story, the story written by an individual man from his individual truth. That kind of story can be fitted into any magazine, be it the Post or McCall's, Astounding Science-Fiction, Harper's Bazaar, or The Atlantic.

  I hasten to add here that imitation is natural and necessary to the beginning writer. In the preparatory years, a writer must select that field where he thinks his ideas will develop comfortably. If his nature in any way resembles the Hemingway philosophy, it is correct that he will imitate Hemingway. If Lawrence is his hero, a period of imitating Lawrence will follow. If the westerns of Eugene Manlove Rhodes are an influence, it will show in the writer's work. Work and imitation go together in the process of learning. It is only when imitation outruns its natural function that a man prevents his becoming truly creative. Some writers will take years, some a few months, before they come upon the truly original story in themselves. After millions of words of imitation, when I was twenty-two years old I suddenly made the breakthrough, relaxed, that is, into originality with a "sciencefiction" story that was entirely my "own."

  Remember then that picking a field to write in is totally different from slanting within that field. If your great love happens to be the world of the future, it is only right that you spend your energies on science fiction. Your passion will protect you from slanting or imitation beyond the allowable learning-point. No field, fully loved, can be bad for a writer. Only types of selfconscious writing in a field can do great harm.

  Why aren't more "creative" stories written and sold in our time, in any time? Mainly, I believe, because many writers don't even know about this way of working which I have discussed here. We are so used to the dichotomy of "literary" as opposed to "commercial" writing that we haven't l
abeled or considered the Middle Way, the way to the creative process that is best for everyone and most conducive to producing stories that are agreeable to snobs and hacks alike. As usual we have solved our problem, or thought we solved it, by cramming everything in two boxes with two names. Anything that doesn't fit in one box or another doesn't fit anywhere. So long as we continue to do and think this way, our writers will continue to truss and bind themselves. The High Road, the Happy Way, lies between.

  Now – are you surprised? – seriously I must suggest that you read ZEN IN THE ART OF ARCHERY, a book by Eugen Herrigel.

  Here the words, or words like them, WORK, RELAXATION, and DON'T THINK appear in different aspects and different settings.

  I knew nothing of ZEN until a few weeks ago. What little I know now, since you must be curious as to the reason for my title, is that here again, in the art of archery, long years must pass where one learns simply the act of drawing the bow and fitting the arrow. Then the process, sometimes tedious and nervewracking, of preparing to allow the string, the arrow, to release itself. The arrow must fly on its way to a target that must never be considered.

  I don't think, after this long article, I have to show you, here, the relationship between archery and the writer's art. I have already warned against thinking on targets.

  Instinctively, years ago, I knew the part that Work must play in my life. More than twelve years ago I wrote in ink on my typing board at my right hand the words: DON'T THINK! Can you blame me if, at this late date, I am delighted when I stumble upon verification of my instinct in Herrigel's book on Zen?

  The time will come when your characters will write your stories for you, when your emotions, free of literary cant and commercial bias, will blast the page and tell the truth.

  Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.

  So, stand aside, forget targets, let the characters, your fingers, body, blood, and heart do.

  Contemplate not your navel then, but your subconscious with what Wordsworth called "a wise passiveness." You need to go to Zen for the answer to your problems. Zen, like all philosophies, followed but in the tracks of men who learned from instinct what was good for them. Every wood-turner, every sculptor worth his marble, every ballerina, practices what Zen preaches without having heard the word in all their lives.

  "It is a wise father that knows his own child," should be paraphrased to "It is a wise writer who knows his own subconscious." And not only knows it but lets it speak of the world as it and it alone has sensed it and shaped it to its own truth.

  Schiller advised those who would compose to "Remove the watchers from the gates of intelligence."

  Coleridge put it thus: "The streamy nature of association, which thinking curbs and rudders."

  Lastly, for additional reading to supplement what I have said, Aldous Huxley's "The Education of an Amphibian" in his book, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

  And, a really fine book, Dorothea Brande's Becoming A Writer, published many years ago, but detailing many of the ways a writer can find out who he is and how to get the stuff of himself out on paper, often through word-association.

  Now, have I sounded like a cultist of some sort? A yogi feeding on kumquats, grapenuts and almonds here beneath the banyan tree? Let me assure you I speak of all these things only because they have worked for me for fifty years. And I think they might work for you. The true test is in the doing.

  Be pragmatic, then. If you're not happy with the way your writing has gone, you might give my method a try.

  If you do, I think you might easily find a new definition for Work.

  And the word is LOVE.

  1973

  … ON CREATIVITY

  GO PANTHER-PAWED WHERE ALL THE MINED TRUTHS SLEEP

  Not smash and grab, but rather find and keep;

  Go panther-pawed where all the mined truths sleep

  To detonate the hidden seeds with stealth

  So in your wake a weltering of wealth

  Springs up unseen, ignored, and left behind

  As you sneak on, pretending to be blind.

  On your return along the jungle path you've made

  Find all the littered stuffs where you have strayed;

  The small truths and the large have surfaced there

  Where you stealth-blundered wildly unaware

  Or seeming so. And so these mines were mined

  In easy game of pace and pounce and find;

  But mostly fluid pace, not too much pounce.

  Attention must be paid, but by the ounce.

  Mock caring, seem aloof, ignore each mile

  And metaphors like cats behind your smile

  Each one wound up to purr, each one a pride,

  Each one a fine gold beast you've hid inside,

  Now summoned forth in harvests from the brake

  Turned anteloping elephants that shake

  And drum and crack the mind to awe,

  To behold beauty yet perceive its flaw.

  Then, flaw discovered, like fair beauty's mole,

  Haste back to reckon all entire, the Whole.

  This done, pretend these wits you do not keep,

  Go panther-pawed where all the mined truths sleep.

  WHAT I DO IS ME – FOR THAT I CAME

  for Gerard Manley Hopkins

  What I do is me – for that I came.

  What I do is me!

  For that I came into the world!

  So said Gerard;

  So said that gentle Manley Hopkins.

  In his poetry and prose he saw the Fates that chose

  Him in genetics, then set him free to find his way

  Among the sly electric printings in his blood.

  God thumbprints thee! he said.

  Within your hour of birth

  He touches hand to brow, He whorls and softly stamps

  The ridges and the symbols of His soul above your eyes!

  But in that selfsame hour, full born and shouting

  Shocked pronouncements of one's birth,

  In mirrored gaze of midwife, mother, doctor

  See that Thumbprint fade and fall away in flesh

  So, lost, erased, you seek a lifetime's days for it

  And dig deep to find the sweet instructions there

  Put by when God first circuited and printed thee to life:

  "Go hence! do this! do that! do yet another thing!

  This self is yours! Be it!"

  And what is that?! you cry at hearthing breast,

  Is there no rest? No, only journeying to be yourself.

  And even as the Birthmark vanishes, in seashell ear

  Now fading to a sigh, His last words send you in the world:

  "Not mother, father, grandfather are you.

  Be not another. Be the self I signed you in your blood.

  I swarm your flesh with you. Seek that.

  And, finding, be what no one else can be.

  I leave you gifts of Fate most secret; find no other's Fate,

  For if you do, no grave is deep enough for your despair

  No country far enough to hide your loss.

  I circumnavigate each cell in you

  Your merest molecule is right and true.

  Look there for destinies indelible and fine And rare.

  Ten thousand futures share your blood each instant;

  Each drop of blood a cloned electric twin of you.

  In merest wound on hand read replicas of what I planned and knew

  Before your birth, then hid it in your heart.

  No part of you that does not snug and hold and hide

  The self that you will be if faith abide.

  What
you do is thee. For that I gave you birth.

  Be that. So be the only you that's truly you on Earth."

  Dear Hopkins. Gentle Manley. Rare Gerard. Fine name.

  What we do is us. Because of you. For that we came.

  THE OTHER ME

  I do not write

  The other me

  Demands emergence constantly.

  But if I turn to face him much too swiftly

  Then

  He sidles back to where and when

  He was before

  I unknowingly cracked the door

  And let him out.

  Sometimes a fire-shout beckons him,

  He reckons that I need him,

  So I do. His task

  To tell me who I am behind this mask.

  He Phantom is, and I facade

  That hides the opera he writes with God,

  While I, all blind,

  Wait raptureless until his mind

  Steals down my arm to wrist, to hand, to fingertips

  And, stealing, find Such truths as fall from tongues

  And burn with sound,

  And all of it from secret blood and secret soul on secret ground.

  With glee

  He sidles forth to write, then run and hide

  All week until another try at hide-and-seek

  In which I do pretend

  That teasing him is not my end.

  Yet tease I do and feign to look away,

  Or else that secret self will hide all day.

  I run and play some simple game,

  A mindless leap

  Which from sleep summons forth

  The bright beast, lurking, whose preserves

  And gaming ground? My breath,

  My blood, my nerves.

  But where in all that stuff does he abide?

  In all my rampant seekings, where's he hide?

  Behind this ear like gum,

  That ear like fat?

  Where does this mischief boy

  Hatrack his hat?

  No use. A hermit he was born

  And lives, recluse.

  There's nothing for it but I join his ruse, his game,