Tag: helping others

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Helping Hands

It has now been over a month since Hurricane Helene tore through north-central Georgia where I live. The historical storm ripped through my community as a category one hurricane catching everyone off guard, including weather forecasters. No one predicted the severity of damage we experienced in the Central Savannah River area (CSRA).

  • Downed power towers
  • Downed cell phone towers
  • Thousands of trees uprooted blocking roads and destroying homes.
  • Loss of water supply
  • Food shortages
  • Fuel shortages

It didn’t matter who you were or where you lived in the CSRA, you experienced loss and hardships. Regardless of your financial status, race, religion, or political preference, people came together to get hot meals from local churches or the Red Cross.

For weeks after the hurricane, neighbors were out helping neighbors by removing debris from their property, sharing necessities, or simply just encouraging one another. So, I decided to use my health and physical abilities to get out and help others in my community also.

There are still people in my region who don’t have power or water. They will be the first to tell you the importance of getting a helping hand.  It will take months to years for many communities affected by Hurricane Helene to recover. It’s okay if people need a helping hand to get through the recovery process.

Helping Hands

I am old enough to know that we all need help at some point. Life was never meant to be a solo journey, but a community experience. We need others in our life to help and encourage us during the hard times.

Being part of the disabled community has humbled me. They taught me the importance of accepting help from them as well as others. I would have never made it through those first few months after my accident if it wasn’t for community. I can humbly share that help from others isn’t a handout, it is a helping hand when we need it the most. At first, my pride kept me from accepting help from others.

Various organizations are part of the Helping Hands initiative; most deal with persons with mental and cognitive special needs. These organizations come alongside persons with disabilities to help them navigate life. We cannot devalue a life because it is not like our own. Pride makes us think we can do things on our own, humility reminds us that we can’t and will need help from others at some point.

My disability is a constant reminder that it is better to be humble than to be humbled by a hardship in life. I have also seen the importance of asking for a helping hand within the writing community.

Writing Help

Most writers start out believing that the writing career is a solo process. I get it, we think since we have the “Great idea,” we can do everything from the beginning to the end by ourselves. It doesn’t take long for us to realize we have a fantasized understanding of the writing process and writing careers. Don’t laugh yet!

Because at some point the pressures and reality of publishing and writing careers break us and we each find ourselves looking for help from someone, anyone who can help us fulfill our writing passions. Writers need help throughout their writing journey from each other and others in the industry. The writing and publication process can be hard and can be discouraging.

You don’t have to be legally blind or have a TBI (traumatic brain injury) like me to learn you can’t do it all by yourself. That is why writers need community to help them on their writing journey. Help them by giving:

  1. Support
  2. Feedback
  3. Advice
  4. Reach
  5. Inspiration
  6. Help others

Recently, I found a typo in something I posted online—being a perfectionist, this mistake discouraged me. Often, I am my own worst critic, especially when it comes to mistakes. 

I shared my disappointment with my writer friend in Georgia. Her advice helped me push past my negative feelings and encouraged me to keep on posting. I was relieved to hear her similar experiences and the truth that, “Every writer misses typos at some point.” So, if you are like me, haunted by careless typos, rest assured you are in good company.

To my fellow wordsmith in Georgia, I say thank you for your help and encouragement. And to all of the other writers who have traveled this journey with me, I can never repay you for your help and guidance.

What I can do is press onward and pay it forward. For those of us who have received invaluable support and advice from other writers who are with us on our journeys, there is an inaudible obligation to help other writers who are struggling on their writing journeys.

Pay It Forward!

Being part of the disabled community, I don’t have a lot of resources to share with others. I do have time, physical health, and experience I can put to use or share with others. One of my promises to God after my accident was, I wouldn’t take my legs or physical health for granted. I would use my abilities to serve Him if He gave me the ability to move again.

God has blessed me with health and abilities beyond most people my age. In a lot of ways, I am in better shape than I was before my accident, and not just spiritually. I can run, walk, and lift more weight than most people half my age.

I have also learned the skills and art of writing during my 20+ years of pursuing the craft. Patience, wisdom, and strength come from enduring hardships and trials, not from living a happy-go-lucky life. So, what better way to show God my gratitude than to pay it forward to others who may be struggling in life or their writing goals?

  • Encourage
  • Share
  • Inspire
  • Advise

Recently, I connected with another writer online who lives in Colorado, a state I will always call home.Not only do we connect on our passion for the “Springs,” we both aspire to use our abilities and craft for a higher purpose. She has already used her abilities and faith to write her inspirational fantasies. Since she recently released her latest books, I decided to offer her some advice to help her grow her social media platforms and pointed her toward a mutual friend to help her with marketing.

How can you pay it forward to others in your community or circles of influence to help others who are struggling?  Sometimes it is the simple things that others need from our helping hands.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
History in the Making

A Snapshot of a Lifesaving Organization

History in the making

Consider this scene:

              “Another final notice.” She glared at her husband, slapped the paper bill with the back of her hand.

              “I get paid tomorrow.”

              “That’s too late! They’re turning off the electricity at 5:00.”

              “What do you want from me?” His face heated as frustration grew. Didn’t she know he was doing the best he could? He glanced at his wife then at his two children sitting at the kitchen table, heads ducked, pretending to do their homework.

He had soooo failed his family. That bottle—still haunting him.

He jerked open the back door. “I need a meeting.”

A “meeting” has become a well-known term for attending a gathering with fellow alcoholics. This organization, Alcoholics Anonymous (“AA”), has become a saving grace for burdened people who want to engage with those who share a common goal of conquering their addictions. The promise of anonymity and promotion of accountability gives hope for victory to those beset with this crisis.

The prevalence of this problem invites the world of socially aware writers to weave the issue throughout the pages of their work. A poignant motivating question might be, “What if a fictional character who ‘needs a meeting’ might influence a ‘flesh and blood’ reader to say the same?”

 So, how might “a meeting” be utilized by fictional writers?

A character-driven story focusing on alcoholism might be a place to begin. The growth, regression, or stagnation of affected characters, addicted or not, can be demonstrated as they interface with each other. Building tension that explodes in a dynamic scene or unexpectedly eases in emotional relief can depict the challenges wrought by alcoholism. In keeping with real life, the end of the story may be joyful or heart-breaking.

How deep or detailed writers may wish to go would likely depend on the information available as to time and place of the story. For contemporary writers, the AA organization has matured, and meetings are widely available in the United States and throughout the world. Just pick a modern-day setting and the story would easily unfold. Certain phrases associated with AA—”One day at a time”, “24 hours”, “higher power”—have become well known, even among folks not affected by addiction. Scattered throughout a story, they would surely help bring it to life.

Help signs

But what if the story is historical? Perhaps this snapshot of AA’s history will help one evaluate how a character’s struggle with addiction might be incorporated in a piece.

  • Founded by Bill Wilson and Robert Smith in 1935.
  • First meeting on June 10, 1935, in Akron, Ohio. Three to four people participated.
  • Fall 1935, Wilson began a group in Brooklyn, New York.
  • News of AA initially spread by word of mouth.
  • 1938: a fundraiser, along with publication of articles in several periodicals, increased public awareness.
  • May 1939, “Alcoholics Anonymous” published in book form.
  • 1941: experienced impressive growth spurt, from 2000 to 8000 members.
  • Between 1941 and 1949 groups had formed in many cities across the United States and spread internationally.
  • 1941: adopted Serenity Prayer
  • 1941: First all-women’s group, Cleveland, Ohio.
  • 1942: found its way to prisons.
  • June 1944, first issue of AA magazine Grapevine.
  • 1952: Al-Anon, a family support group, launched.
  • 1954: 130,000 members, in approximately 6,000 groups on five continents.
  • 1957: Alateen, a spin-off of Al-Anon.
  • Today, estimates over two million members.

If one’s story is set prior to 1935, an AA meeting would not have been available, but clergy, physicians, charitable societies, and state hospitals addressed the problem. Researching key phrases like “barbiturate and belladonna” or “purge and puke” should open a door of help.

Depending upon the plot and depth of character portrayal, further research might be required. The Internet can serve up an overflowing plate. The AA website abounds with information and includes a terrific timeline that would assist both contemporary and historical researchers.

Clearly the problem of alcoholism is both widespread and enduring—a compelling incentive for writers to weave the admission, “I need a meeting”, into their stories.

Jeannine

Jeannine Brummett lives in South Carolina with her husband of nineteen years, Don, who shares his three adult sons and three grandchildren with her. Reading is big on her list of things to do, but she also thrives on TV crime dramas, NBA basketball, and marvels at the critters and fowl life that live at the pond behind their house. She loves to sing praise songs, attend Bible Study, and help at a local food pantry.

Categories
Platform and Branding

Creating Your Launch Team: Tactics to Help You and Other Writers

Platform and Branding

Marketing your book can be as difficult as writing it, but equally as important. If you don’t write the book you won’t have readers, and if people don’t know about it, you won’t have readers. A book launch team is a great way to help get your book off the ground and also give back to the other writers helping you. Incorporating a few easy tactics can help your book succeed, while taking your launch team to a whole new level.

Invest in Social Media Ads

Create a short application process, target ads to those you want to help promote your book, and wait for the applications to come in. Side note, make joining your launch team free. You’re asking people to promote you, so it’s probably best not to ask them to pay to do so.

Offer Tiers of Investment

Tiers will help your members know what they’re signing up for as well as what they’ll get in return. For instance, if members join tier level one let’s say they commit to do seven activities to launch your book, and you give them the standard level of free content such as going live within the Facebook launch group, or sending them a free PDF of free book study questions.

Level two requires a bit more investment from members, but with their added investment, you provide additional free content: PDF’s that will help them on their own book, a workshop maybe you usually sell but provide for free, etc.

Tier three members get an all-access pass. Along with the benefits of tier one and two, tier three members could also benefit from special live Q&A sessions with you, exclusive content about your book, free gifts like t-shirts or bookmarks, and anything else you think would benefit them. But, to have this exclusive membership they also invest in you and your book with pre-orders, reviews, and social media promos. The more they help you, the more they get out of it.

Once your book is launched you can still use your launch group to give back to the writers within it:

  • Change the group description and create a writing community for these writers to connect, network, and perhaps promote their own books. (You can make it private or public, depending on the goals you have for the group. If you do decide to keep the group going, don’t forget to have someone monitor the page.)
  • Host monthly interviews with other writers through a giveaway that involves members following each other and posting about your book on their social media (you can track posts by asking them to use a specific hashtag).
  • Run a poll asking members what would be most helpful to them, and go from there.

Launch teams can help with presales and influence the success of your book. But they’re also a great way to invest in those who invest in you—have fun with it!

Sarah Rexford is a Marketing Content Creator and writer. She helps authors build their platform through branding and copywriting. With a BA in Strategic Communications, Sarah equips writers to learn how to communicate their message through personal branding. She writes fiction and nonfiction and offers writers behind-the-scenes tips on the publishing industry through her blog itssarahrexford.com. She is represented by the C.Y.L.E Young Agency.

Instagram: @sarahjrexford
Twitter: @sarahjrexford
Web: itssarahrexford.com

Categories
A Lighter Look at the Writer's Life

Are You Ready for Success?

lighter look at a writer's life

I read an article recently about actors that are great at what they do but not so great at being a successful person. They let their fame go to their head; they became entitled, hard to work with, and rude. More than likely, success found them before they were ready.

So, how will you be when you are successful?

Have you ever thought about it? If not, why?

You have prayed to be successful, haven’t you? If you have prayed for success, have faith that it’s going to happen. Be like the little boy who prayed for rain and went home to get his umbrella. Make sure you are ready when it comes.

I have had the honor of meeting quite a few successful writers, and I discovered that they are some of the nicest, most unselfish people in the world. They are willing to share their time and knowledge to help others on their writing journey. They love to sign autographs and talk to their fans about their books. They know how to win joyfully and lose gracefully. They celebrate the accomplishment of others even when that person wins an award they were up for too.

So, are you ready for success? You don’t have to wait until you reach the big time to find out. Are you helping others on the way? There will always be a newbie at a conference looking for a friendly face or someone who needs encouragement to keep plugging away.

You may not be where you want to be, but you might be the most successful writer someone knows. I was recently contacted by a lady who lives in my town because she saw my picture on the back of a book I co-authored. She said she had been praying for a writer to talk to about a project she was working on. She received the book as a gift, and when she looked at the back, there I was, a real writer in her own hometown.

I spent a few minutes on the phone with her, answering questions. When I realized that I didn’t have all the answers she needed, I contacted a writer friend and found the answers for her.

Writing is looking ahead for new opportunities and reaching back to help others when you are successful. After all, isn’t doing what you love and lending a helping hand a good definition of success?

Sue Davis Potts is a freelance writer from Huntingdon, Tennessee. She is mother to her beautiful adult daughter, Jessa.

Sue enjoys writing for both children and adults. She worked for years as a preschool teacher but feels most at home these days with other writers who speak her language. She has been published in local magazines, anthologies, Ideals, Southern Writer’s Magazine and Focus on the Family’s children’s magazines Clubhouse and Clubhouse, Jr.

She authored a children’s library book and her book of short motivations 101 Life Lessons from Uno (The One-Legged Duck) and the book she co-authored The Priceless Life: The Diane Price Story is available on Amazon. Sue can be found on Facebook and her website, www.suedavispotts.com

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Skill Set

The first thing I learned after my accident was every brain injury is different. You’ve probably heard me say it before but, this post should help you understand brain injuries better.  There are different factors involved in the life of a T.B.I. survivor:

  • Pre-accident status: this is our lifestyle before an injury.
  • Cause: not every brain injury is result of trauma; a hematoma is when blood clots outside of blood vessels, a hemorrhage is when a blood vessel ruptures and blood escapes, an cerebral edema is when fluid builds up around the brain and causes pressure, strokes occur when the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen from the blood, concussions are the result of trauma to the head.
  • Post-accident status: depending on the severity of the injury; there are varying degrees of side effects. Thus, each recovery is different.
  • Lastly, considering all the factors above, each survivor has different life goals and abilities.

Fortunately, I was able to walk with help within a few weeks of my accident, and there were no mental or cognitive deficits to consider. Being young, my main goal was to get back out on my own and achieve independence.

However, the effects of my injuries required me to tap into my creative side. It was in that season of setbacks I learned how to use the skills I had to survive. All of these years later I understand better about the gifts I have and how I can use them.

Gifts?

The dictionary gives two specific definitions for a gift and each is relevant to life: 1) A thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present, and 2) A natural ability or talent.”

We all have specific gifts or talents, skill sets that come naturally to us, abilities that not everyone can master. Often these gifts are passions, sometimes we don’t even notice.

A few years ago I interviewed my mentor for a book chapter about using our gifts. He shared about how he wanted to go into the medical field as the doctor, but after joining the Army, he was led into a business and administrative career.

Thirty-one years later he retired as a full Colonel in the Army with numerous business degrees. In  retirement, the military still contracts him to help with restructuring administrations throughout the military.

His passion was biology, but the Army saw that his gift was in business and administration. He was a born leader and didn’t realize it until after college.

Before my accident, I only worked out for superficial reasons. But afterward, I learned to concentrate on the health benefits of exercise, not to impress anyone, but do compensate for my physical impairments.

Now, years later I have the stamina of a twenty-year-old and the lab work to prove it. Exercising has become so natural to me that it doesn’t seem like work at all.

I have other friends who are great musicians, a fellow choir member is an amazing woodworker,   and I have a friend who is a computer geek who willingly works on my computers free of charge whenever needed.

And this brings me to the first definition of the gift: something is willingly given or done for others. Since our skill sets come naturally to us, we enjoy sharing them with others. This is why I often work with other brain injury survivors and even ordinary people seeking to improve their health.

Over the years I’ve learned the same is true within the writing community. Authors who have mastered the skill set of writing and the use of words to communicate are more than willing to help others on their writing journeys. I’ve been helped by countless writer friends, whom I could never repay for their generosity.

Within the writing community, we each have a specific area or genre that our skill sets help us excel in. Below are a few areas that fellow writer’s I know have expert skill sets. You may find yourself in one of these categories.

  1. Nonfiction
  2. Copywriting
  3. Devotionals
  4. Journaling
  5. Poetry
  6. Fiction
  7. Screenwriting
  8. Crime/Suspense
  9. Romance
  10. Songwriting

 I even know a rock star young adult author who lives not far from me. We tend to encourage each other on our respective writing journeys; occasionally pointing out each other’s strengths.

For me it’s like exercising, I like to focus on one muscle group at a time to help me get stronger. We each have our own strengths we tend to focus on. Have you learned yours?

Strengths?

Perhaps your passions aren’t just for writing. It is possible to harness the energy of your passion and focus it into your writing by applying the same principles to help you improve your skill set.

In the brain injury community, we call this lifestyle adaptation. If one body part is affected, then we learn how to compensate for it with what we can do. Again, each injury is different and requires an adaptation unique to our injury.

I’ve learned over the years that by focusing on my strengths, I am more motivated and passionate about what I’m doing, especially when writing. Focusing on strengths:

  • Builds our voice/perspective/brand
  • Gives us a sense of purpose
  • Feels more satisfying

When we focus on our gifts and skill sets, we become more confident in whom we are. We learn not to compare ourselves with others and that is a relief itself. Living with a disability has helped me see my skill set.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writer Encouragement

…. Be An Encourager

In a solitary profession like writing, sometimes the thought of being an encourager to other writers might not occur to us. After all, we are taught to be creative, get good edits done, submit to publishers, etc., etc. The list is long and, in most cases, self-directed towards “me, myself, and I.”

Encourage someone else, you might say? It’s all I can do to meet my deadlines, get book proposals done, sign up for conferences, get a few moments of sleep … We are truly self-driven humans with much on our agenda.

Stopping for a moment to look around and see the other writers in our circle of acquaintances and spend time encouraging them might seem like more than you can handle with your schedule of things to be done. But there is a simple phrase that might find a home in your thinking: What goes around, comes around.

I’m not saying that we should only encourage others because we think we will get something out of it, although you likely will. But think of all the unofficial mentors who have helped you along the way. Perhaps a fellow writer you met at a conference who gave a pertinent piece of advice. Or another writer who offered to critique your first chapter or a book proposal and give you feedback.

If you stop and think, I imagine you would come up with a list of several more experienced wordsmiths who have smiled at you and taken you under their wing in one way or another. I am so grateful for the numerous writer-friends who have taken even a moment’s time to encourage me along the way. I know they had better things to do. But they chose to help me in one way or another and I’ll never forget their kindness.

You may struggle with such feelings as, “what if I don’t know enough to be helpful?” Chances are you know some aspect of writing that will encourage another struggling author. If you don’t, try to find someone who you know can help them and connect the two.

You may honestly be at a point in your writing where your schedule is swamped with edits, deadlines, and toddlers that need to be potty-trained. If you are stretched to the max at the moment, be honest, especially if someone is requesting an endorsement for a book. That requires reading the whole manuscript and may push your “To-Do” list over the edge!!

Be truthful.  You might say you can’t help now but perhaps with their next book. Don’t leave them hanging without hope for help. Always try to encourage.

Conference season is here, so look around at that venue for wordsmiths that you’ve longed to attend. Be aware of those sitting next to you and be kind. They may have arrived at conference feeling discouraged and hopeless. You may be the one that can re-set their hope. But you need to look past yourself and become their encourager.

Carry on.

Elaine Marie Cooper is the award-winning author of Fields of the Fatherless and Bethany’s Calendar. Her latest release (Saratoga Letters) was finalist in Historical Romance in both the Selah Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She penned the three-book Deer Run Saga and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She freely admits to being a history geek. Look for her upcoming series set in Revolutionary War Connecticut. The 4-book series is entitled Dawn of America. You can visit her site at www.elainemariecooper.com