Be BRIEF

I’m blabby, gabby, a gabster. I use too many words on a regular basis, be it in my blogging, my writing for publication, or my conversation.

One of the challenges of the A to Z Blogging Challenge is simply to be BRIEF, to get a message across without using up too much of a reader’s time, especially during this month when we are all not only concerned with our own posts, but with reading as many of our fellow bloggers’ writings as possible. I set myself a word count that I’m to stick to no matter what.

It’s hard for me to cut my own words from a piece, to chop them off like the ends of a zucchini or peel them away like the outer wrappings of an onion to get to the more potent points inside. But once they’re gone I rarely miss them, and find my writing is better in its more concise form.

It’s a lesson I need to learn in life, as well. Burned into my brain is the memory of the day I went grocery shopping and spent a good deal of time talking to the cashier, a friend of mine, as she processed the contents of my shopping cart. She told me later that when I finally left the line, the man behind me said, “Wow, that lady can talk! I married a woman like that once. Glad I got rid of her.”

I was horrified..mortified…and made to really consider the way I communicate. Many is the time I’ve sent even a wordy text message on my cell phone, and wished later that I’d sent just a simple sentence instead that would have had more impact in its brevity than my longer missive.

Thankfully most of our written words can be edited. Not so with our conversation. Once it comes out of the mouth it’s spoken and can’t be taken back. Even the “send” button on the message app on my cell phone has caused my stomach to clench more times than I’d like after I’ve pushed it and then wished I could take my message back.

How funny that my communication in all its forms resembles the packages of men and women’s underwear I’ve seen on the store shelves. I’m going to leave the long johns behind me and go for the “briefs”: they cover the essentials without a lot of extra material to get in the way of things.

Be BRIEF.

“Listen, for I have worthy things to say…”
(Proverbs 8:6 NIV)