Some of the best words ever written…
From my good old friend, Charles Bukowski… taken from Factotum.
“There were always men looking for jobs in America. There were always all these usable bodies. And I wanted to be a writer. Almost everybody was a writer. Not everybody thought they could be a dentist or an automobile mechanic but everybody knew they could be a writer. Of those fifty guys in the room, probably fifteen of them thought they were writers. Almost everybody used words and could write them down i.e., almost everybody could be a writer. But most men, fortunately, aren’t writers, or even cab drivers, and some men-many men-unfortunately aren’t anything…”
Gotta love the drunk bastard.
Makes you think. Writing……Is it just your hobby, or is it a calling?
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that is a good question–
most will answer–hobby, some will believe a calling, but the writers will say I am only a writer while I am writing…
Ha! That is Chucky. An experience I think we have all felt but few are brave enough to say it ao pointedly and succinctly. Nothing changes in that respect, everyone uses language, everyone thinks they can write, oh well,
I like Scot’s response.
I think it was a calling directing me to pursue a writing hobby. You are not a writer unless someone else pays you for your product, otherwise you are a merely literate.
Yes you gotta love the drunk bastard–if all drunks could be so talented–just think!
Well, I am pretty sure Chucky would agree with me and not Scot or Johnny. He was legendary for his commitment, he hated poseurs and dilletantes and he believed being a writer was about having a soul not about fiddlarsing around with words.
“I want to die with my head down on this
machine
3 lines from the bottom of the
page
burnt-out cigarette in my
fingers, radio still
playing
I just want to write
just well enough to
end like
that.”
Chucky Bukowhiskey (rip).
[...] (this post got me thinking–may have been inspired here) [...]
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lovely quote, and really good question. i don’t know if you have to get paid to be able to consider yourself a writer. i think it’s more about touching people or educating them or healing yourself. i think accomplishing any of those feats with your writing can make you a writer as well.
I side with Paul, the pasted poem is a perfect case in point. Will be back –
so true.
i think writing is my calling though.
hopefully. lol.
So you wanna be a writer?
Get off your ass and write then.
“Writing is my calling???” (comment 11)
Sorry its no one’s calling.
A bonfire of the vanities comes to mind.
Being a writer is being an observer of something other than your own navel.
Its not about “healing yourself” or “educating others”
You should write because you have something to say.
Read the quote again.
Writing is not intellectual masterbation.
Just like the physical act, the routine of self indulgence will get old not only for yourself but for others who have to watch the exercise in self gratification.
Write!
Stop writing about writing.
Jeeeze!
I’m entirely with you regarding the common malpractice you’re wittily refering to as intellectual masturbation. I have observed this phenomenon as particularly rampant on a college class level. Having established that though, I must say I don’t see ANYTHING wrong at all with somebody who says they believe writing is their calling.
Jeeze!
You must have been inebriated while making that remark.
I’m inebriated more often than not.
There is no such thing as having a “calling”
You enjoy something…you’re goodat it.
Lucky you.
Nothing is divinely inspired or god given.
Wrok is required to get it right.
If something comes easily, its not nearly as good as you may think it is.
Bottoms up!
T
All right, I fit exactly the type of an insanely perfectionistic, blood-sweating writer you’ve outlined in your post. (And it’s an uphill struggle for me too as English is my second language!) Now suppose for the sake of argument I were to say that I could’ve put all that hard work & dedication in, let’s say, painting or doctoring or raising a family… It seems there is such a thing as a calling after all — wouldn’t you agree?
Do I agree?
Ahhhh……
No.
Joseph Conrad didn’t learn to speak English until he was 32.
Before “Heart of Darkness” and “Lord Jim”, he followed other paths.
It seems to me that hard work figured in there somewhere along with talent.
Was it some divine siren call that prompted these masterpieces?
Nope.
It seems to me that the folks with talent get on with it and leave the discussion of metaphysical imperatives to the wannbes.
I may be wrong on that.
No, I don’t think I am.
Ciao!
I think I agree with you…
It’s good to know J.Conrad learned English at 32.
Oh well, I’ll keep plodding! L.