Monday, April 03, 2006
SO...
Something from poet and novelist Charles Bukowski shared by Eclectic Curiosity to the occupants of Writer's Block.
Now, I'm sharing it here.
so you want to be a writer?
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.
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the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind. --- Tell me about it. Heh. Nice one.
In some ways para ka ding si Bukowski no? kaya mo siguro nagustuhan yan. maangas. Hanap pa ko ng ibang pang inspire sa writer's block. :-)
I'm sure many "award-winning writers" out there will disagree. Which means this is gospel. Hehe.
Bukowski's the bomb. :)
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Bukowski's the bomb. :)
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