My Writer's Body

As I begin this journey as a regular blogger, I have been asking my friends to check it out. One friend just reminded me of a Body that is working in my life right now--my writing critique partners. Some of you may know I am writing a novel. To take on such a task it's a good idea to join a critique group. As I looked into doing this, I prayed a lot! And boy was God generous! Not only did He drop me into two critique groups, but He created a Writer's Body within them.

First Corinthians 12:4-11 tells us we are all given different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit; different kinds of service, but the same Lord. These are to work for the common good. And that's what my "Writer's Body" does. What an amazing group. Not just because they all are so skilled as writers, but because God put them together in such a way.

For those of you who don't know what a critique group is, it's a group of writers who will look at your work and tell you how you can improve it. You send it out to them after you've poured out your heart and soul on paper and then it comes back looking as though it met a dragon in battle :o). But just as God allows us to go through the Valley of Shadow and Death to stretch and grow us ... so do my critique partners spar with my Work-In-Progress in order to make it better. And that they most surely do!

My "Writer's Body," as I think I will now call them, is fully equipped with arms, legs, a torso, eyes, ears and all the rest. In writer's terms that would mean the following: Someone who can spot my telling (when it needs to be showing), my overuse of words, my cliches and my long-winded diatribes that make no sense. Other members will give me examples of how to describe something more fluidly, use commas appropriately and to tighten up my language. Oh there is so much more. And my critiquers do this. I send out my WIP and each sends it back with their own set of skills having polished out the smudges. And even though I am sometimes weary at the newly created work on the chapter I thought was done, I know down to the pit of my being God has been very, very good to me! I am truly blessed by this group and my writing has shown their hard work on my behalf.

Thank you, Lord!