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.