"So you want to be a writer?" - Bukowski
if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
- Last seen on Oct 15 4:21 PM. Member since August 3, 2006.
- I am a 18 year old girl from North Carolina (United States)
- When I'm not writing, I'm not alive enough.
- Visit my homepage at tealgin.blogspot.com
- I am in the groups Eccentric Oddballs, Erotic Disturbing and Horrific, Erotic and Psychotic, Erotica for Everyone, GSA Gay Straight Alliance, Masochism, Parler et Ecrire Dans Francais Seulment, The Marilyn Manson Club, The Melancholic Children, The finer details, United Army of Rabbits Socialists and Republics
- I have 77 comments
My Stories
-
Give me two picture prompts and two song prompts to choose from.<100 words, 4 comments, April 2
-
We all know what it's like to disguise a stomach sore.200 words, 4 comments, March 31. In Poetry
-
cocktail breath
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Fall, sky. Fall.
My other items
1 - 3 of 16
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- don't let your thoughts go loose; get them back before they hurt someone. at allpoetry
My head was born empty and my heart hard to please
unless it hurts. - you're stupid. holes are burned into your brain forever. at allpoetry
“you’re in a wrong place,” / you said to me / i don’t think i’m going to fall in that hole, i’m sorry, but thanks ’cause it is / so cute of you, enoughenough my words will get carried away. / i know i go too - and we can suffocate together at allpoetry
a heavy soggy breath / ejects from my silky throat's orifice, expanding and desiring / some healthy amount of beatings / to pursue its extinctive yet frightening lonesome dreams. / insomnia's make-up brush s
Guest Book
1 - 4 of 4
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hobo kiti : Shoes on August 9, 2007mint-flavoured gel-inserts,
red, black-top
high-top
string
strung
telephone wires
heels, straps and thongs
gum-soled pebble crust
jesus fuck blaahhhh I'm bored. -
miles of smiles on July 27, 2007Hiiii.♥
-
Joker boy on July 25, 2007I Heart ,You are awesome
-
Manectric on July 18, 2007Goodybe, goodbye.
I will be leaving storywrite in T-1 hours. For a while.
Perhaps we'll be able to send messages on myspace, but I find it incumbent to leave this site.
I hope you enjoyed our chat yesterday.
