On the WRITE path...

Birds of a Feather...

Well I decided to ‘get back in the saddle’ again and that means writing. So to start, I went back to the very beginning where my writing took on new life, my first online course in the writing world, f2k. As I’ve watched my writing grow over the years, I’ve learned many tips and tricks of the trade.


I’ve been writing all my life, at a very young age actually, and almost every writer says the same thing; “I’ve always wanted to write, it was in my blood.” My life took a whirlwind of unexpected twists, leaving my hometown and starting anew in a strange new place. Writing was my comfort zone as all things around me were in turmoil; writing as usual became a safe haven. I turned to taking writing more serious and dove into The Christian Writer’s Guild two-year correspondence course. Certificate of Completion in hand, I moved forward.

I learned journalistic material and as the course neared the end, I signed up to a Free Creative writing course online called f2k. Fiction 2000 is what f2k stood for (how many times have I had to repeat that over the years?) This is where there were strict rules and guidelines and you were hard pressed to see students running through the halls entering other classrooms. It was a very organized platform to get the writing bug to nip me in the butt. The mentor I was assigned to was not the best so I took it upon myself to help students throughout the six weeks, basically mentoring them AND taking the course as well.

After I completed the course I was asked to mentor the next session for a woman who became a very dear friend, Joan McNulty Pulver. I mentored and felt extremely good helping other writers begin their dream as I too was fulfilling mine, writing and submitting my work. For seven continuous years, 3 times a year, I mentored the course with other mentors from Writers Village University. I had signed up to WVU for a year, but by years end I miraculously had a lifetime membership and was asked to assist at WVU.

Over the years the site has transformed into smiley bearing posts, pictures and videos being allowed to share and many more new changes. Site crashes, change in formats all made WVU and f2k what it is today. Embrace the changes they say. These are the very people who bicker and bite because Facebook changes, but embrace these new changes being thrown in your face at the writing site? A little hypocritical if you ask me.

I embraced all the changes over the years, but last year there was another change, an Ezine! (pronounced: ezeen) I asked to enforce a 500 word limit, a possible intern for mentors, the powers listened, as they did to many of my suggestions that will probably remain in place for years to come. Your welcome writers! Why a 500 word limit? Well let me tell you, when you have fifteen-twenty students in your class, and you need to read each and every one, each and every week, the word count works for the volunteers manning the course. The interns are mentors in training but really they are a blessing to an overworked mentor.

As I begin this next leg of my journey, I thought it fitting to go back to where it all began, as a student with f2k. Mentors, a few that I trained are in place, a mentor that was there when I first began is still there (june) and life is about to change again in a whirlwind of unexpected expectancy. Things will be a lot different. I’ll make new friends while trying to remain friends with some of the old ones, but what I know for certain is, I’m writing again and can now relax. I am what I am, a writer!