Gifts

Christmas is the time for gifts.  But gifts come in many types, just as left-overs do.  We all remember the thrill of getting the thing we really wanted for Christmas, the joy and excitement it brought us.

But material gifts lose their sparkle some time into the New Year, and we go back to our ordinary lives.  That's the time to call on our innate gifts to make our writing, and our lives, special.

As writers, we have the gift of storytelling.  Some of us are gifted a dialogue, others description.  Still others of us can portray the minutiae of psychological situations in a depth I would never achieve in a million years.

As we approach the New Year and think about what we want to achieve as writers in 2014, we'd do well to consider our gifts before setting our new goals.

We often downplay compliments we get about our writing, but we should use the gift of feedback to discover what we're doing well.  Our readers give our stories the gift of attention, and it's worth our while finding out what holds their attention best.  

Use your writing gifts in 2014.  Claim them, and use them to their full.  That way you stand the best chance of the world rewarding you for their use.