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.
-- Charles
Bukowski
# # #
No witches, no warlocks, no vampires.
Just a sexy, rollicking tale about a guy trying to hit it big in Hollywood.
"A great summer read!"
"A sexy Hollywood tale!"
"It's WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN for the 21st century!"
