The beloved Dharma Bum and a gentle soul who, at times, was “as nutty as a fruitcake and happier,” Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922–October 21, 1969) is one of my all-time favorite writers. I previously wrote about his fascination with Buddhism and dream escapades, and today I would like to revisit his timeless advice on writing. With injunctions like “Write in recollection and amazement for yourself” and “You’re a Genius all the time,” the 30-item list is as much a blueprint for writing as it is a meditation on love. It was eventually included in The Portable Jack Kerouac, the only anthology of his work ever published and an essential introduction to one of America’s most influential wordsmiths.
1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy.
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening.
3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house.
4. Be in love with yr life.
5. Something that you feel will find its own form.
6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind.
7. Blow as deep as you want to blow.
8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind.
9. The unspeakable visions of the individual.
10. No time for poetry but exactly what is.
11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest.
12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you.
13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition.
14. Like Proust be an old teahed of time.
15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog.
16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye.
17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.
18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea.
19. Accept loss forever.
20. Believe in the holy contour of life.
21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind.
22. Don’t think of words when you stop but to see picture better.
23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning.
24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge.
25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it.
26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form.
27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness.
28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better.
29. You’re a Genius all the time.
30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven.
Complement this writing advice from The Portable Jack Kerouac with Jack Kerouac on explaining Buddhism to your parents and why the world is nothing but a dream.
I’m a freelance writer with 6 years of experience in SEO blogging and article publishing. I currently run two websites: MindfulSpot.com and OurReadingLife.com. While you’re here, get the latest updates by subscribing to my newsletter.
