The Best Gift.

For Christmas, my husband and I decided to gift each other with a class we each wanted to take. My husband wants to take a blacksmithing class, and eventually learn to make knives. I fully support this creative endeavor and am happy to support him in a hobby that takes him away from his computer, which he sits in front of all day at work, and a lot of times, when he gets home, too.
As for me, I wasn't sure if I wanted to take a writing class or a class in mending and hemming. One is a structured creative outlet that I need, and the other is a skill that I would like to learn. In the end, I decided on writing. This past Sunday, I found myself at a writing workshop in Bethel, at Byrd's Books. The workshop was led by Judith Marks-White, a local author.
It's been a long time since I took a writing class, and I wasn't sure how I'd do. I knew that she would ask participants to share their writing, if they wished but I thought I'd be too nervous. We gathered at tables set up in the middle of the bookstore and were asked to choose from a list of prompts, and write for 20 minutes, maybe more. It felt like a long time!
And write I did. I had an idea right away after looking at the prompts, and wrote a story that had been working away in my mind for a few weeks now. Having the time and the space to write was a blessing, as I didn't think I would ever be able to get the story down on paper.
But I did. I wrote, and read what I wrote, to myself, and wrote some more, did a little self-editing, and wrote some more, until I felt that I had something to work with. I listened to fellow workshoppers read aloud before gathering my nerve. I read my piece aloud in a shaky voice, testing the tone of the piece.
The feedback was positive and affirming, and I felt like it was genuine. It was not really a setting for hard criticism but I didn't feel that people were "just being nice," one of my constant fears when I present something I've created. I felt encouraged, and motivated to keep working on my story until I have something that can be shared with the world at large.
Best Christmas ever, I think.

Writing workshop. I read my piece out loud and got a nice reaction to my story. I was so nervous but it felt good to put myself out there and get good feedback. #yearofmaking 8/365 #AmWriting

A photo posted by The Real Nani (@the_real_nani) on Jan 11, 2015 at 12:39pm PST

{Read more slices here: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/share-your-story-2/}