The Rewards of Writing

If you read my post on Wednesday (“Why Write?”), you already understand that I don’t write for recognition or money. Those things aren’t important to me. Good thing. Neither is in sight.

Instead, I write because God has given me the talent and I want to please Him by using it. And by striving to keep improving. Good writers are never entirely satisfied with what they’ve written. They must accept it as the best they could do at that stage of their careers. That’s what I have to do.

It’s hard to turn a manuscript loose, though, knowing it could be better. And admitting that I haven’t reached the point of knowing how to improve it.

So, in a very real sense, every book published, every manuscript completed is an imperfect work.

As I explained on Wednesday, my goal is to both bless and entertain through my writing. How can an imperfect work do that? That takes some work on God’s part. But how can I know I’ve succeeded–at least in God’s eyes and with Him working behind the scenes?

Certainly the number of volumes sold is an indication of the minimum number of lives one of my books has had the potential to touch. Not every person who buys a book reads it, though. Yet because people often share their books, the original reader may not be the only person to read a particular copy.

Feedback from readers is what counts the most. I have a number of faithful fans–Tom D and Sally W are two names that come to mind immediately–and most of the reviews The Devil and Pastor Gus receives on Amazon are not just good, but enthusiastic. That kind of feedback helps me feel my writing is accomplishing something. That it’s touching lives. That it’s both entertaining and blessing readers.

Just within the last week, I’ve received unexpected feedback from two very different sources. The first came from a fellow writer who was reading The Devil and Pastor Gus. She wrote,

God is so amazing! I started reading your book and found myself amazed. I’m only on chapter 6 but so far it is exactly what I’m going through and why I’m on a sabbatical from writing.

The words you wrote about Gus’s IT touched me and clarified some of my own feelings about my writing ministry. I don’t know if that will hold true for the rest of the story but just reading those few chapters have helped.

I’m pretty sure God wanted me to read this book.

I don’t mind telling you that message moved me to tears.

Several days later, my wife and I went to Red Robin for lunch. The young lady who brought our food to the table recognized me. Not from a picture she’d seen on a book cover and not from seeing me at Red Robin before, even though she’d waited on us before.

She recognized me because her professor in a graduate psych class had referred to several of my blog posts in class and included my graphic head shot. That professor may not have had any idea who I was or even realized that I live in Richmond, but she found something sufficiently valuable on this blog to share with her students.

Those are two examples of the very special rewards I receive from writing.

Do you have hobbies or interests that provide special awards? How about sharing a comment?

NOTE: Various people have complained about not being able to find or leave comments. Go all the way to the bottom of this post, beneath my “Best regards, Roger.” On the very bottom line of that last section just above the previous post you’ll see “Leave a Comment” if yours will be the first or “X Comments,” where X denotes the number of existing comments.

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I’ll be back again on Sunday. If you’d like to receive my posts by email, go to “Follow Blog via Email” at the upper right.

Best regards,
Roger

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