“When I was twenty-two, I began to make lists of nouns to try to jar my subconscious into sitting up to beg for delivery. It didn’t work until one hot noon, when, sitting in the sun with my portable typewriter, I wrote this: “The Lake.” (…) From that day on I began to pay attention to the right, left, or perhaps lop side of my brain. I found that I could provoke memories of odd notions or strange metaphors by listing my favorite nouns, though I didn’t know why they were favorites. Some of my first lists ran like this:
THE NIGHT, THE ATTIC, THE RAVINE, DANDELIONS, MIDNIGHT TRAIN WHISTLES, TENNIS SHOES, BASEMENTS, FRONT PORCHES, CAROUSELS, DAWN ARRIVAL OF CIRCUSES.”
THE NIGHT, THE ATTIC, THE RAVINE, DANDELIONS, MIDNIGHT TRAIN WHISTLES, TENNIS SHOES, BASEMENTS, FRONT PORCHES, CAROUSELS, DAWN ARRIVAL OF CIRCUSES.”
Ray Bradbury on how he found his voice as a writer. See also Anton Chekhov.