So You Want to be a Writer?

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994)

In my travels this morning reading poetry online and in Substack, I came across a poem about being a writer by Charles Bukowski. Line by line, I was shocked.

I went ahead and read Mr. Bukowski’s poem several more times. I’m still not sure whether he was dead serious and trying to discourage beginning writers, or the poem was written tongue-in-cheek because he was in a writing slump, or he was just a cantankerous old fart who wanted to scare off any potential rival writers.

(If ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ … judging by his photo at the top of the page, he looks like a cantankerous old fart)

Here, you read it. What do you make of it?

So You Want to be a Writer?
by Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994)

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 or men 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.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
I dived further into Mr. Bukowski's personal life and found his experiences heavily colored the poem's message. He had a difficult, often challenging life with alcoholism, dead end jobs, and struggles with conventional success.

His writing often reflected this ‘lowlife’ perspective, plus the daily grind of living. The poem's blunt and unbending undertone is like a mirror reflecting his own approach to life and writing. It’s a powerful statement about the sacrifices and dedication required of a true writer.

As for me, I’m going to stick with what I believe about being a writer. My three favorite quotes:

“It's fine to say you want to be a better writer, and I very much hope you do. It's just as fine to say that you want to be a published writer, or a richer writer. But if you’re just saying you want to be a writer, then let me remind you —-you already are a writer.”
—-Karl Wiegers
-*-*-*-
“No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice - your choice.”
― Beth Mende Conny
-*-*-*-
”Listen to your heart and write for You. You never know if what your heart shares might be just exactly what one person needed to hear, as though you were writing only for them.”
—-C.J. Heck

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