PONDERING: RAY BRADBURY HAD A WRITING GROUP TOO!




 
Pondering The Joy of Writing Groups and Ray  Bradbury
  



A gathering at the first World Science-Fiction Convention in 1939. Julius Schwartz is the gent with the glasses in the back at left. Ray Bradbury is in the front row at far right. The man at far left in the front row is Forrest J Ackerman.


      We all have a need to be understood and maybe that’s why we seek out the camaraderie of other writers. I meet with a group of writers.  We  call ourselves the Saturday Morning Coffee and Critique group (SMCC).  We have all gotten to know  my character, Clare, and her Crows over time as her story unfolds.  I am constantly awed and inspired by their feedback.

     In 1939 Forest J. Ackerman invited 19 year old Ray Bradbury to join him and his fellow science fiction writers  at Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles.    Ackerman  recognized a  talented wunderkind in Bradbury, who would make a great addition to the L.A. Science Fiction Society.
   
      I like to imagine Bradbury, “the kid,”  sitting with the other writers around the cafeteria table; a long formica table, littered with overflowing ashtrays and all-you-can-drink limade. He's engaged in deep conversation with the likes of Emil Petaja, Fredric Brown, Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett, Jack Williamson and Robert A. Heinlein  --Robert A. Heinlein for God’s sake!--
 
     Ray Bradbury loved to write, he loved the creative process, he loved science fiction, and he loved science fiction writers.  I know this because my middle grade years were shaped by Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, Ferhenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man.  I also know this because I heard Bradbury talk at Santa Barbara City College,  in the late seventies.  He was so  authentic and enthusiastic.  I believe he wanted to pass on the flame just like Forest J.Ackerman had passed it on to him in  Clifton’s Cafeteria. 

     It makes me feel good that Bradbury attended a writing group.  

     

     I believe it is worth searching for the right group. Many kinds of  writing groups are all over the place.  Meet-Up  http://www.meetup.com/about  offers  many local writing groups worth checking out.  You can even try starting your own Meet-Up group.  Professional organizations often have resources too.  I joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators,   http://www.scbwi.org  and learned that they could refer me to member writing groups. 

 

    I'd like to quote Stephen King from his book, On Writing.  One of his biggest influences was none other than our man,  Ray Bradbury, http://www.raybradbury.com/ .    A fellow SMCC member, used the quote from Stephen King on her blogsite Signs are Everywhere (http://pikeplace1.blogspot.com/) and that's how I found it.  This is how I feel about a good writing group:

"Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don't have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough."