part-time writers' manifesto

At our writing group on Friday Anna suggested our prompts and exercises, since I was completely wiped out from running the seder the night before (and Anna was a hero, since she was the person who stayed and helped clean up after the seder - but still she volunteered to be in charge of our writing on Friday morning).

And she suggested we write a manifesto, and we agreed on the part-time writers' manifesto. Here's my stab (unedited - I know it's raw and there's nonsense in it):

• We can be any age we want.

• We shall never look straight on at our writing time.

• It's all about the hours.

• It's all about the pens and the notebooks.

• We shall wear bright colors on alternate days.

• Every day is a playground of hours; the playground is there to be played in and the hours are there for spending.

• We are the part-time writers of the world so we must, every day, find something to do besides writing.

• Look away from the writing, always; never be caught at it.

• While procrastinating as a writer, learn to play an instrument and speak a language.

• While procrastinating as a writer, read good books, eat fabulous food, and be a mensch.

• Take every day, divide it in half down the middle with an angry fat black line, and write on one side, do something else on the other.

• Learn to recognize your fellow part-time writers - by the pen? the writer's bump? the funny clothes, the faraway look - what? how?

• Become two entirely different people - encourage, egg on, feed your schizophrenia. Watch your other self who lives on the other side of the angry uncrossable line: who is that person? what moves her? do you love her?

• Drive a little orange triangular car where  you have to push with your feet, a la Fred Flintstone.

• Fill up notebooks and throw them away.

• Never rrevise. Never reread. Always start over.

• Never be afraid. Be fearless in writing, fearless in destroying, fearless in never looking back.

• The writer is somebody else.