Writing books

Abstract

That is what you have to have to write a book: zest and gusto. A book is like an article only longer — considerably longer. All the rules of article writing apply to the writing of non-fiction books, and it is non-fiction that is discussed in this chapter. If you are planning to write a novel then you will have to look elsewhere for information.

Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer’s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto.

Ray Bradbury