12 November 2017. 196th Anniversary of the Birth of F M Dostoyevsky

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No Comment Necessary Department… So You Want to be a Writer?

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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

1920-94

1 January 2013. A Suggestion from your Editor… Check Out Don Watson from Oz… GOOD STUFF

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Don Watson is one of the most effective writers of English out there. Here’s a good example (this is the main page for his essays in The Monthly). He hates jargon, he hates weasel words, and he hates imprecision. What’s to dislike? I’ll go even farther… if your work involves the use of words, his writings are de rigueur. I’m not being hyperbolic. If you spend just a little time with Mr Watson, trust me, you’ll catch the good contagion from him, and it’ll do you nothing but good (have a slug off the jug afterwards and kiss your dear ones, that’ll make it a trifecta). Here are his three must-read books:

• Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language (2003) (ISBN 978-1-74051-278-7)
  
• Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words: Contemporary Cliches, Cant and Management Jargon (2004) (ISBN 978-1-74051-366-1)
• Bendable Learnings: The Wisdom of Modern Management (2009) (ISBN 978-1-74166-904-6)

NB: Two of the above have “click to look inside” links… do so. You won’t be disappointed!

They’ve been a great aid to me and my writing… I commend them VERY highly to you. BUY THEM. READ THEM. HEED THEM. Good Stuff, kids… and I don’t say that lightly. I wanted to give a real New Year present to all of my literate friends. This is it… my recommendation. You won’t be disappointed in the least. Also, click here for Weaselwords, also from Oz… keep smilin’… that truly fries their ice and riles ’em…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

1 January 2012

Civil New Year

Albany NY