This blog is dedicated to artists of one kind or another. It isn’t always the easiest life, but I don’t want to imagine doing anything else.

Before I became a writer, I was an actor for a while. And like anybody, I had heroes. One of the biggest regrets I had was that I never got to meet Paul Newman before he passed away.

Believe it or not, that was not a digression.

In putting together last week’s blog on writing rules, I found many more rules than I had room to write about. From many different authors. So I thought, maybe I’ll do another week of rules. Less work for me; less of my ramblings for you to read—win-win.

Which is when I accidentally discovered a lecture that Ray Bradbury delivered in 2001 to a university in San Diego. He was 80 at the time—died 11 years later. June 5, 2012. Having listened to him speak, I also regret never having met him.

Time Out: If you don’t know who he is, stop reading right now, hit Ctrl+T (if you’re on a PC) and look him up. Don’t rush. I’ll wait.

Time In: I started writing my first book in 2012—it was a middle-grade novel about a little girl from outer space. Since it was the very first book I’d ever written, you might well imagine that I had lots to learn. And you’d be right. It’s never seen the light of day.

Okay, that’s not strictly true. A couple agents saw it and kindly rejected it. Again, not entirely accurate—“a couple” was more than 40. And “kindly rejected” is a down-right lie for the most part. I even hired a recognized industry professional to help me “punch up” my query letter. That’s a story for another blog, but for now, let’s just say it was money poorly spent.

I tell myself I’ll go back and rewrite it one day. (Now there’s a digression.)

But, back to Ray.

He said a lot of really awesome stuff in his lecture, but the thing that spoke to me most was his attitude. His love of writing. In fact, when he said:

“Writing is not a serious business. It’s a joy. A celebration. You should be having fun at it.”

…I immediately hit pause and tweeted that quote. Because it’s something I need to remember when I get all caught up in worry about deadlines and revisions and word count and all the other necessary minutia of the writing life. It’s something you should remember, too.

To paraphrase something else he said and reiterated repeatedly: Writing is not about making money or being famous or any of that crap. It’s about the joy of creation. Of discovering. Of surprising yourself. Otherwise it’s work, and you should quit and go do something that makes you happy.

He talked about amazing things. Being a touch typist and writing in the dark on a cruise ship so he wouldn’t wake his wife—not seeing a word he wrote. Accidentally running into a group of people in a museum killing time waiting for his train—and they were all holding a copy of his book, The Martian Chronicles. And the story behind that book that I don’t have room to tell you. He wrote 30 novels, several screenplays, countless short stories and poems, and he said he’s never worked a day in his life.

I’m sorry I never met you, Ray.

I’d like to tell you how much you inspired me.

Maybe one day…