How, Not What

I have two excellent posts I'd like to share with you all. 

The first - "A Writer's Manifesto" - is by Julie Duffy. You might know her, as I do, from StoryADay, but she wrote this for Writer Unboxed. 

"A writer’s manifesto is a highly personal document that,

• Is about your identity as a writer.
• Gives you a unified sense of what you want to achieve in all your writing.
• Transcends genres and projects.
• Is more motivating than individual goals."

She not only shares her own manifesto, but she also gives guidance on how to create our own. I wrote one up for myself and put it on my bulletin board. I look at it every day, and it does exactly what she says it does. 

"When you find yourself struggling, ask yourself how you want to be writing. Not what characters or stories or subjects you’ll tackle or how you’ll make this scene perfect, but what you want to achieve with your writing. Pick up your manifesto and ask how you can make today’s writing align with your values."

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Now, any post that starts off referencing actor Bryan Cranston as dentist Tim Whatley from Seinfeld has me hooked. So, of course, I kept reading James Scott Bell's "What Bryan Cranston Can Teach Writers" over at The Kill Zone.

Bell talks about Cranston's autobiography, A Life in Parts, where Cranston talks about his acting career and the moment he started focusing on the process and stopped focusing on the outcome. Bell relates it to writing. 

"You’re not here to get something, 

you’re here to give something—

entertainment value to a reader."

An excellent reminder! 

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Do you have a writer's manifesto? Plan on creating one? Are you able, for the most part, to focus on the process and let the rest go?