While doing a little blog-keeping, I checked the link to The Enchanted Conversation, the one to my poem, "The Problem With Fairy Tales." I was completely stunned when I saw that the poem had 34 comments!
I remembered that quite a few writer buddies had stopped by EC to leave their thoughts behind, but who the heck were all these other people leaving comments? Honestly, I thought it must be some glitch in the system, like when a person leaves a comment and it gets stuck in some kind of loop.
But, no. I started reading the comments-and they were from different people, strangers to me and not loopy at all. In fact, these were long and thoughtful comments that touched my writer's soul.
Because here's the thing. Writers pour themselves, heart and soul, into their writing. Then they hope, somewhere, someone (preferably an editor) will read their words and say, "This is good stuff! I want to publish this writer's thoughts so that others can enjoy the good stuff!" And oh, happy days, we have affirmation!
So then your words are floating around out there, in a book, or a magazine, or a newspaper, and you are left to wonder if you made someone smile, or nod in agreement, or choke back a tear, or shout to the heavens that you're a hack who doesn't know what she's talking about. In other words, you dream that what you have written has touched someone, in some way or the other. But often, you never know.
Unless you happen to check a link where over 30 comments sit, waiting for you. And then it absolutely, positively makes your day. Here's wishing that someone makes a writer's day today. (And share if you like-I love stories with happy endings!)
