Paul Whybrow
Full Member
The career of Charles Bukowski should give encouragement to any writer who starts to apply themselves late in life to writing. He was 49 when he finally quit working at menial jobs, including as a filing clerk at a post office. As he said :
“I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy … or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.”
He’s sometimes been referred to as the ‘laureate of American lowlife’, and he was certainly familiar with the seedy side of poverty. An inveterate drunk, he turned his experiences into a script which was filmed as ‘Barfly’, starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.
Always happy to bite the hand that fed him, he penned an amusing Roman a clef called ‘Hollywood’, in which he wrote of the making of the film adaptation of ‘Barfly’, using pseudonyms to disguise the names of the actors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_(Bukowski_novel)
Bukowski’s weariness with the world meant that he said a lot of truthful things, in what sounds like a cynical way. Even his gravestone is cryptic, with the inscription "DON'T TRY". What he intended with this advice has been explained as waiting for inspiration to write something – one shouldn't try, forcing work out of one’s system – if it doesn’t come naturally, leave it.
His poem ‘So You Want To Be A Writer’ explains his philosophy well, and should be read by anybody aspiring to be a writer.
‘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.
More of his wise words on writing at:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/helenlewismcphee/16-writing-tips-from-charles-bukowski-1qwe0
“I have one of two choices – stay in the post office and go crazy … or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve.”
He’s sometimes been referred to as the ‘laureate of American lowlife’, and he was certainly familiar with the seedy side of poverty. An inveterate drunk, he turned his experiences into a script which was filmed as ‘Barfly’, starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.
Always happy to bite the hand that fed him, he penned an amusing Roman a clef called ‘Hollywood’, in which he wrote of the making of the film adaptation of ‘Barfly’, using pseudonyms to disguise the names of the actors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_(Bukowski_novel)
Bukowski’s weariness with the world meant that he said a lot of truthful things, in what sounds like a cynical way. Even his gravestone is cryptic, with the inscription "DON'T TRY". What he intended with this advice has been explained as waiting for inspiration to write something – one shouldn't try, forcing work out of one’s system – if it doesn’t come naturally, leave it.
His poem ‘So You Want To Be A Writer’ explains his philosophy well, and should be read by anybody aspiring to be a writer.
‘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.
More of his wise words on writing at:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/helenlewismcphee/16-writing-tips-from-charles-bukowski-1qwe0
