Bukowski’s Rules

I discovered the writer, Charles “Hank” Bukowski, towards the end of the last century. I was introduced to his work by my friend and literary mentor, Colin Broderick, who is presently in the process of finalizing a wonderful film script about the man. It’s brilliant.

Hank B was a gritty, self-taught, writer. He wrote poetry, short stories and novels. All of his work found its basis in his life experience. He had a tough but colorful life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski

At times Bukowski was a knock about, a lay about, a womanizer, a gambler, a drunk and a brawler.

But damn it, he could write with the best of them. His writing was authentic. It felt true. It often made me laugh. But it could also be unexpectedly poignant.

So, of course, if there was someone I would look up to as a writer, it would be Hank Bukowski.

Now I have taken some writing courses at the college level in both The New School, where I was blessed to be mentored by a classmate, Lou Myers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Myers), and later at Lehman College, where I had wonderful writing instruction by a faculty that included Clement Dunbar III and Billy Collins (I never took a class with Professor Collins – a close friend of Colin B – but hung out with him on occasion drinking wine after school in the English Honors Social Room – clever as fuck. His poetry is brilliant). Professor Dunbar mentored me through the process of writing my one and only legit play, Revelations, a transexual love story written circa 1980, long before it was fashionable, which won me the CUNY Jacob Hammer Award, and has been performed at both The Village Gate and The Actors Theatre in Manhattan way back in the last century.

I’ve also engaged with a few writers groups over the years. I always started out enjoying the comradery, writing is a lonely business, but eventually realized that I was wasting time – a precious commodity for a lawyer, husband and father – talking about writing when I should have been writing.

So, during lunch breaks during my tenure at Gold, Farrell and Marks, I sat in Barnes & Nobles in Union Square scanning books about how to write.

The most useful to me were the books that taught me form – for screenplays – but I could not seem to adapt to the many rules on writing – grammar or style – I encountered in the more serious books. As a matter of fact, the more “how to” books I read, the more I was convinced I could never be a writer. Despite being a lawyer, I have never been good at following rules.

When I finally sat down to write The Wise Ass, I told myself “fuck all of the rules.” Just write a story that you would tell your drunk friends in a Bronx bar on a late Friday night in the 70s.

I never thought TWA would ever be published. After all, it broke most of the rules. Grammar, spelling and punctuation. The trifecta.

Four years and five novels later, I have realized that readers will forgive a rule breaker if you can entertain them.

Which brings me back to Hank Bukowski. And his rules.

One day while checking out his books online – I have lost most of the ones I purchased through one way loan outs or leave behinds – I came across a LitHub article that discusses a book on Bukowski’s Rules of Writing.

https://lithub.com/charles-bukowskis-rules-for-writing/

I was surprised that Hank Bukowski followed any rules. But then I read them. And they resonated.

1. Give yourself time to mature as a writer
2. Let your creativity find whatever outlet it needs.
3. Treat the submission of your work like it’s a job.
4. Sometimes you have to write a lot of bad stuff to get to the good stuff.
5. It’s ok to rely on magic.
6. Don’t worry about grammar.
7. Don’t overwork your writing. Often, the first is best.
8. Work all the jobs.
9. Don’t get an MFA.
10. Really, don’t get an MFA.
11. Writing is maybe like fucking.
12. There are no bad ideas.

Now, most of these are self explanatory, (there are a few more but I didn’t want to swipe them all) and some even titillating, and the book has wonderful Bukowski excerpts that support each rule. Indeed, you fine, five readers know me well enough by now to completely understand why they resonate with me just by the language incorporated. But you should check out the Lithub article for the subtext for each of the rules. I will quote the very final line of the excerpts quoted, under rule number 12, which is a short but meaningful sentence, “my soul is now a mule.”

Claire was thrilled when I read that to her.

I just ordered a paperback copy of the actual book on Amazon.

Indeed, if I were to ever teach a course on writing, the only textbook I would impose on my students would be this book. I could fill a twelve week semester just drilling down on each of the rules. Wouldn’t that be fun. I wouldn’t teach it as part of an MFA program. I would rather teach a bunch of hungry writers in a community college class, so I could save them the expense (money & time) of an MFA program. Pay it forward.

Because if you want to be a writer. Just write. If you have a story in you, it will come out. Fuck the rules.

Well, Friday is now upon us. Thank you Universe.

Hopefully, you fine, five readers can slip out from work, early and unnoticed, and launch those days that make life worth living – the weekend. Now that summer is behind us, after completion of weekend errands, cooler fall afternoons are best wasted on a good book.

I’m going to go out and cuddle some kitties, and then make my rounds. Then we’ll see what the legal world offers.

But no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.