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