This week we’re going to do a bit of navel-gazing as part of our weekly creative writing prompt/exercise!

Do you ever question why you write? What’s the point? What do you want to write, mostly? Who are your readers? Where are your words ending up?

If you don’t, then perhaps you should. Because now is the time to write yourself a writing manifesto.

I know the correct definition of the word  (according to the Oxford Dictionary) is ‘a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate’. It comes from the Latin words for ‘make public’ and ‘obvious’.

But we’re writers, so we enjoy twisting words to suit our aims, don’t we?

You could make your writing manifesto really short and use it on your social media home page info if you want to go public with it.

But how about writing a longer pithy paragraph or two which puts why you are doing this into perspective? Pin it somewhere close to where you usually work so you can remind yourself every now and then what you are doing and why.

Begin by elaborating on ‘I believe…’, then go on to ‘I want…’ and finish with ‘I understand that…’. And there you are, you have your own personal writing manifesto!

Call back next week for another creative writing prompt/exercise. There’s a new one every Wednesday at 5pm, Dublin time. There is more on what this is all about here.