A Writers Manifesto/The Story Mint's

In 1914, a group of artists, including American poet, Ezra Pound, founded a movement called Vorticist. They essentially stood for breaking away from traditional forms of art and creating new and energetic art. The First World War was looming and, although this is not stated, there appeared to be a sudden firing of energy within the artistic world that rejected modernism and tried to create a fresh approach to the way artists expressed themselves. They produced a magazine called Blast , a short-lived literary magazine of the Vorticist movement in Britain.

The group produced two editions of the magazine and presumably were unable to sustain their energetic drive toward injecting writing with a new philosophy because their country was at war.

Their Manifesto includes several philosophical statements, which read:

• We stand for the Reality of the Present—not for the Sentimental Future, or the

Sacripant (London) Past.

• We want to leave Nature and Men alone.

Essentially, they were rejecting landscapes and nudes as subjects and were adopting, instead abstraction. The manifesto and the artist’s intention appear very grand and noble. The following line, which came out in the second edition, captures that:

• We only want Tragedy if it can clench its side-muscles like hands on its belly, and bring to the surface a laugh like a bomb.

Although, in today’s world this language would seem just a bit over the top, I do sense that between the lines they were trying to capture a world, which the war was rapidly taking from them – freedom to create and explore their art.

Just this week I came across examples of writers’ manifestos written for today’s world and I thought that it was interesting that manifestos by artists continue to hold some attraction. I expect it is no different to creating a Mission Statement. Jeff Goin’s manifesto announces that writers should stop ‘writing to be read and adored’. He starts with ‘Chapter 1…The End (A Good Place to Begin)’. It is all tongue in cheek, as was the Vorticists’ Manifesto, but there is an element of truth in what he says. We are writing to be read, but we cannot write against our inner voice in order to please the reader.

In 1967, literary critic and philosopher, Roland Barthes, caused a stir when he wrote that the Author is Dead. In his article, he was saying that we need to read a text as if there is no author in order to understand the meaning behind the writing. In fact he was saying that critics and writers must allow readers to unravel the meaning of a text according to their interpretation, rather than being dictated to by the writer.

This is a very important idea because every reader brings to a piece of writing his or her experiences. Those experiences will influence what meaning they take from it. I smile when I think of this idea in relation to texts like ‘Fifty Shades of Gray.’

There are many more manifesto examples. Here is a website that offers Ten Insanely Awesome Inspirational Manifestos including the one Frank Lloyd Wright wrote for his Apprentices.

So, I had a go at writing one for The Story Mint. Here it is.

The Story Mint Writers’ Manifesto

We are a community of writers committed to inspiring aspiring writers to craft fabulous pieces of writing.

Every writer must succeed. With our support, he or she will.

We recognise the journey to writing success is a lifelong endeavour.

We challenge all writers to fearlessly experiment, unconditionally share and thoroughly enjoy crafting words.

We always respectfully read others’ writing and extend them the utmost courtesy when we offer feedback.