> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://ishangirdhar.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# So you want to be a writer?
- URL: https://ishangirdhar.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer/
- Published: 2022-05-16T08:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T14:24:47.000Z
- Author: Ishan Girdhar

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedif 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 tosleep 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.