READERS HELP CARRY THE WRITING LOAD

Readers help writers with comments on their work and it opens new doors.

Like this:

BoomerPDX – thank you once again for sharing your perspective in a way that almost always, no actually always, broadens mine.

Your humor, honesty, colorful language and passion make these blogs the most interesting to read.

I don’t get to them all but I do have to say your commitment to daily blogging is impressive.

This is a partial comment from this post: Old Age Screams, “Give Me My Reverence.”

That was yesterday.

Daily blogging opens doors? Like, “David, we’re sending an armored car full of cash and a contract to sign so you can write for us. We want you, need you, please work with us.”

Not that door, but one cracked enough to let a little of that dream light seep in.

My readers don’t wade through the sort of material designed to attract clickbait seeking validation. Personal validation is a good thing, but not to the point of writing about it forever. There comes a time to help others, and it’s closer than you think, closer than I think.

Laurien Hamilton knows how close.

If I were a self aggrandizing wind bag I’d probably be validated by higher traffic numbers. But those aren’t the readers I’m pulling, or want to pull. The subject of this post is the sort of reader I like.

Bot traffic? No. Hacker traffic? No. Thoughtful traffic that understands the writing life? Yes. Is the writing life about money and fame? For some.

I’ve dedicated my writing life to the reader at end of their rope, who’ve taken all they can take and carried it to the end of the line and wonder what to do next.

After a rather painful bout with cancer I have an idea of what to do next. But even before that eye-opener, I had an idea. After all, I’m an idea man with a side of hype man attached.

I post what amounts to what was called a column in newspaper days. An opinion. When someone locks in, then leaves a comment, it’s golden.

And that’s no hype.

An Author’s Comment

Every morning I get the timely ding that one has arrived in my mailbox and I say ‘WTFlip he never misses a day”!

This is funny because I read this comment the day I didn’t hit my personal morning deadline.

If you’ve ever read Writer Twitter you’ve seen some of their posts.

“I’ll be unavailable for the next three weeks while I work on the first paragraph of my new book.”

Followed by:

“I’m out all the rest of the month and maybe more working on my second paragraph.”

Writer humor.

Do I help anyone by writing, besides keeping out of my wife’s hair? To help, and make it real, you need credentials. These are mine, which I thought were a secret:

Passion, purpose and perseverance – the three Ps to success – you got them David, you got them and many more!

How did my reader know? Because she’s also a writer trying to help. And I’ll tell you straight up, she helped me with her comment.

This is why. Click the link and scroll down.

Your assignment, if you so choose, is to read one of her posts and review it in comments below.

Comments For Laurien C. Hamilton

“Working with Laurien has been a wonderful experience. She has touched my life on many levels while guiding me on a journey of self-exploration. Laurien is easy to talk to and she truly listened to me. This combination allowed me to relax and feel comfortable, which allowed me to be honest with her and most importantly to be totally honest with myself. 

If you are looking for someone to guide you into a new level of self-discovery, look no further, you found her and her name is Laurien Hamilton.”

LONNIE C.

OHIO

How can you be totally honest with yourself? Do you dare take the chance? One way is to write it out in a public format and expose yourself to an online phenomenon of ‘No one cares.’

Based on the engagement this blog generates from posting links to online giants like Facebook and twitter, I get it. No one cares.

At least that’s the opinion of self-centered writers who think things happen fast. Heads up, things don’t happen fast. Sometimes nothing happens. Ever. But readers help.

That’s when normal people move on, stop writing, and grow the fuck up. And I whole heartedly endorse this idea. Since I will never stop, never move on, and grow up just enough to keep rolling, I’ll be there when others flick it in and call it quits.

Don’t call me a quitter. I mean you can, but you’d be wrong. Readers help.

Laurien’s Last Comment

Can’t wait to read your book!

My book? The thing that came out of my sore throat cancer time?

Using writer’s humor, I’ve been working on it for three and a half years. It seems too long, but then someone talks about their ten year push. Another writer talks about submitting the same story for three years.

Too often it takes a long time for something to happen with writing. Sometime nothing happens. But, if we don’t do the work what happens?

My book has gone through three professional edits and left me with more questions than answers.

Since it’s a memoir, do I want to be known as a bitter man wallowing in self-pity? A man working to uncover the source of the cancer?

Look, I know the source, but it’s a universal sort of thing, not personal. Though it felt real personal in the chemo and radiation rooms.

Instead of harsh book of revelation and lashing out, I want a guide book that’s never been written.

That’s the story I’m chewing the wool on, cutting huge segments of story-killing anecdotes, my favorite parts.

Every writer knows the rule, the one BIG RULE: If a sentence, a paragraph, a page, or chapter does not serve the Gods Of Story, out it goes. Sad but true.

If I cut from 110K words to 110, and it helps the story, I’m doing it. If that’s my truth, then that’s my truth.

What’s your truth? Share it with me and Laurien Hamilton. Readers help with an awakened heart.

Leave a comment. You never know what sort of door it might open. Readers help writers, and this one gives back.