Rumors Cover FinalWhen I began writing/blogging during a snow-bound week in 2012, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. 

Thank goodness!
I found a writing community (thank you, Facebook) and jumped in with both feet by sending emails to three people I had never met: Laura Boggess at Tweetspeak Poetry LL Barkat (well, many places) and Glynn Young (Faith, Fiction and Friends).
I was very forward with them and a bit zealous (anxious?) about my new venture. I gave a bit of my writing background, asking should I start?  How to start? What would they suggest?
Surprisingly, each one wrote me back with encouraging and helpful words. I did NOT expect that.
Glynn especially took the time to very kindly enumerate for me his own journey and make several good suggestions.
So I began to write. (Oh my, I feel for the people who had to wade through all that print!)
I packed an overwhelming amount of information into the first few posts. Everyone needed to know just how very smart and talented I was. It’s embarrassing to think about (you can read my very first post here if you’d like).
Upon visiting L.L.’s website, I found her book ‘Rumors of Water—Thoughts on Creativity and Writing’.  It had been well-received and reviewed so I thought I’d best see what this was all about and ordered a copy; writing is what I was up to, rumored or not.
In the last two chapters of Rumors of Water, ‘Glitches’ and ‘Time’, Barkat states (p. 148),
“Sometimes as writers,
we want to gather everything into a single place. 
I have wanted to tell all my stories in one book,
as if a single book could really hold all my stories
I have wanted to make all my points in one article,
as if my thoughts on a subject could really be contained in one article.”
Oh.  That was me.  Ouch. Well, I was warmed to know it wasn’t the only one with a penchant for verbosity. 
The subheading for this chapter ‘Experience takes time’—states the obvious: Anything well-crafted or beautiful takes time. 
I cannot be the best writer in four months.  I can be a better writer in a year, maybe. 
And I don’t need to say everything I know about a particular subject (or many all at the same time as I’ve done more than once) to what? Impress you?
I’m afraid that’s been my motive on a few occasions.
There are days when I’ve written something and unsure of the content, hit the ‘Publish’ button trusting God with the results. 
On those ‘I wonder if I should have written that’ days, I can ask myself, as LL points out–(‘Publishing’ p. 126:)
“Have we developed a smaller community
who really cares about us as people,
about our creativity and our essential selves? 
A community that is not going to judge us too harshly,
 or be too jealous of our successes…?”
To my great astonishment I can say the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ 
My naive writing efforts have been received by supportive, like-minded people who have been nothing but encouraging and kind.
I have been welcomed and validated in ways I never imagined. And along the way I’m inspired to be a better writer.
I’m attempting to hone my words so I don’t bury the page with more language than a person can consume. 
I’m learning (I hope!) to be more concise, less preachy. More gentle….many things. 
And God is confirming to me the verse He gave me almost 20 years ago from Psalm 45:1,
“My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”
Becoming a skillful writer………..that will take some time.
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