So you want to be a Writer ?

by Charles Buckowski

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
starring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
If your doing it for money
or fame,
don't do it.
If your 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 your trying to write like someone els,
Forget about it.
If you have to wait for it to roar out of you,
wait patiently.
If  it never roars out of you,
do something els.
If you have to read it to your wife or girlfriend or
your boyfriend or to your parent or to anybody at all,
your 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 your 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.

- Charles Buckowski