May 2020 Newsletter:
I hope you and your family are getting through these pandemic days safely and without too much distress. Past the initial apathy and shock, and with children also feeling anxious, you just want it to be over.
Encouragement for Your Writing
If you’ve ever shared your writing with a trusted friend, have you received positive notes from them? Perhaps, like me, you created a special file to save hand-written notes in a card or clippings of your work that people took the time to send. If you’ve saved positive reviews on your books, have you saved those as well?
When I launched my first book, Once Upon a Sandbox, I left a notebook open on my signing table and asked attendees to write a note for me. At several events for my picture book, Harry’s Trees, I also kept a notebook and pen ready. From time to time, I look through those books and smile as I read the messages within them.
There will be days when you need those encouraging notes, such as when rejection of a manuscript submission discourages you, or now when there are no gatherings or conferences where you might meet other writers. All the notes you have saved can encourage you when you might be tempted to stop writing or promoting, or quit altogether.
Let me share this most welcome reply that came in a slow time after the woman had read my picture book:
Dear Carolyn, Thank you for sharing this interesting book with Evelyn and me. It is the best children’s book about trees, the seasonal changes and farming I have read. As a landscape architect, I really appreciate the information about the different trees and how Harry taught you about them… All the best, Pearl.
You can also keep a computer file for notes that come in by email. I call mine “Warm Fuzzies.”
Reread some of the messages and affirm the reason you began to write and rekindle your passion.
Pick up the telephone and call someone who encouraged you in your writing and tell them how much that meant. Write a letter or send a text, expressing your thanks and what it meant to you. Celebrate and keep going. Extend that encouragement to your fellow writers and pass on the light. They will appreciate your effort too.
Carolyn R. Wilker is a writer, editor, writing instructor and storyteller from Kitchener, Ontario, with publication credits in articles, op-eds, devotionals, poetry and her books, Once Upon a Sandbox, Harry’s Trees, Les arbres de Harry, Piece by Piece and the most recent Travelling Light. She is also a contributor to anthologies including Grandmothers’ Necklace, Wisdom of Old Souls, Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon, and Good Grief People. She blogs at storygal.ca