supporting other writers – Almost An Author

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:

Support
Feedback
Advice
Reach
Inspiration
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 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.

Writing is a solitary profession. Alone we sit at our keyboard and write words—maybe for a magazine or a book or a website. So why would you even want to support other writers?

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
Zig Ziglar (Bestselling author)

As you support other writers, your life will be richer and you will see remarkable and often unexpected results. I’ve been working with writers for many years.

In this article, I want to give you four simple ways to support other writers. While I personally practice these ways, I encourage you to pick one or two which you can do on a regular basis.

Write reviews of any book you read or hear. Depending on the book, it is often hard to get book reviews. It’s why I’ve written over 850 reviews on Amazon. Any book that I read or hear the audiobook, I take a few minutes and write a few sentences of review. As a writer, I’m always reading books and when I finish the book, it doesn’t take much time to write the review but other writers will appreciate your support.
Leave a short yet relevant comment when you read blog posts by other writers. Sometimes with blogging, you wonder if anyone is reading and your relevant comment will encourage the writer. The key concept is to make a “relevant” comment and tie it to the content of the blog post. I often get unrelated comments for my blog which are never posted and deleted as SPAM.
Use Social media retweets. When you read a solid blog post, magazine article, Facebook post or tweet, pass it onto others. Often there a simple buttons to facilitate this effort but you will help other writers when you pass on this information.
Introduce writers to each other. In the writing world, who you know is often as important as what you know. A simple email introducing a writer to someone else can help that person make the right connection. It could change the direction of their writing life.

As writers, we need each other. Our writing may be in isolation but taking these actions can be a difference maker in the life of other writers.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham.

Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook, his blog and LinkedIn.