So you want to be a writer? [Charles Bukowski]

– poster by wemakeapair.com –

Last week I sneaked in mammacheblog blogger training day. Here are the lessons I attended:

Barbara Damiano – Content is the King: contents, publishing project and monetizing

Enrica Crivello – Facebook and twitter for your blog

Enrico Epifani – The Seo mom: basic tools to improve the visibility of your blog

I must admit I didn’t expect such a high level, I’ve been gladly surprised! speeches were interesting, full of useful information, and very inspiring. I will work a lot in next weeks, deepening the proposed subjects through my notes.

Now, moving on to the poster, inspiration came from the closing part of Barbara Damiani speech. At the end of this post you will find the complete text by Charles Bukowski, so that it would inspire you too.

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.