An English teacher friend told me recently that it’s a constant challenge to ensure students arrive for lessons with a pen.
As a reminder he took the first line of the US Marines’ Rifleman’s Creed poem and placed it on the classroom wall.
However, instead of saying ‘This is my rifle’, it read ‘This is my pen’.
The first time I ever heard the Rifleman’s Creed was in the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket. It stuck me then, as it does now, as a powerful piece of work.
As a result of these two things I couldn’t resist adapting it further to create the ‘Writer’s Creed’.
Here it is:
This is my pen. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My pen is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
My pen, without me, is useless. Without my pen, I am useless.
I must use my pen true.
I must write better than my colleague who is trying to write better than me.
I will.