Ask the Author: A.P. Nuri
Answered Questions (5)
A.P. Nuri
Vivid dreams. Ha, I experience some pretty interesting stuff in my sleep, but (needless to say) they give me inspiration for all of the manuscripts I have stored away in my laptop. All fifteen of them.
A.P. Nuri
Having no boundaries. Publicly displaying your deepest hopes and fears. Reminding readers that they're not alone.
A.P. Nuri
I don't have to deal with it. Haha. I know, how is that helpful? But really, I don't. And I don't wait for inspiration to come. I just go. Life is inspiration. And if that isn't enough for you, read "so you want to be a writer?" by Charles Bukowski. This poem has never failed to back up my answer for this question.
A.P. Nuri
If you know this is your calling, don't let anything stop you. Not even yourself. This is what you were meant to do. You are enough.
That being said. Regardless if your calling is writing popular fiction or articles for National Geographic. If you are uncertain or don't know what you're calling is, I always tell people to read this poem from Charles Bukowski:
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.
That being said. Regardless if your calling is writing popular fiction or articles for National Geographic. If you are uncertain or don't know what you're calling is, I always tell people to read this poem from Charles Bukowski:
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.
A.P. Nuri
I'm currently wading through the rigorous editing process of my next novel, The Learning Wilds. It's a big step away from Emerald Butterfly and has been in the works for over 6 years.
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