More of a lecture and a personal statement of beliefs, �so you want to be a writer� is Charles Bukowski�s pithy manifesto on the urge to write. Written in open verse without capitalization the poem is almost a �retro-Beat-generation� lecture and observation on what writing is not and who should not write. One can imagine this poem being recited to the beat of a bongo drum in a �50s coffee shop where the drummer accentuates the writer�s frequent use of �don�t do it� throughout the poem.

From the very first line, the author advises, �don�t do it,� (�it� being writing) if �it doesn�t come bursting out of you / in spite of everything.� The author liberally uses the word �if� throughout his longest first stanza and the shorter second and third ones. He suddenly switches to �unless� in the fourth line to build on the notion that writing is a bursting forth: �unless it comes unasked out of your / heart and your mind and your mouth / and your gut.� The poem, then, is about the visceral experience and the urge to write. The poet tells us that writing cannot be forced and produced, but �must roar out of you.� If just thinking about writing �is hard work� or �if you�re trying to write like somebody / else,� the poet again says, �don�t do it.�

The poem�s best and most telling advice to writers is this: �don�t be dull and boring and / pretentious, don�t be consumed with self- / love.� Libraries, he says, have �yawned themselves to / sleep / over your kind.� In the end, the poet claims that writers are �chosen.� It will happen all by �itself and it will keep on doing it / until you die or it dies in you.�

There is nothing in the poem about honing writing skills or having a clear idea of the planning that has to go into large writing tasks like novels. The author, in fact, appears to disregard purposefully accepted writing convention in laying out the lines of his poem. He abandons English capitalization rules and goes straight to his message. He views writing as more an urge that becomes bottled inside the writer that, �unless it comes out of / your soul like a rocket,� again, don�t do it.

Perhaps not the best advice to an English composition student with an essay-writing deadline, the poet seems to exclude the notion that writing might somehow be two parts inspiration with a generous dose of skill. The poem is more about the art and the urge of writing, and does a fine job in articulating what truly talented and inspired writers feel. For the untalented and uninspired, there is only the craft, whose end-product is more like a paint-by-numbers picture hung next to a Picasso.

The theme of the poem is: inspiration

The style of the poem is: conversational

We can infer from the poem, that writing: cannot be forced.

For Bukowski, "true writers" are: chosen