Good supporters will lift you up; have your back, stand up for you, and root for you to succeed. They will be on the sidelines pushing you to race faster and harder until you win. They’ll encourage you to dig deeper and do better. They will be upset and disappointed if you fail. They’ll encourage you to dust yourself off, pick yourself, and fight until you reach the finish line. They’ll remind you of where you came from and who you are. They believe in you that much. Now that’s good support.
It’s wonderful to have supporters. It makes you feel alive and relevant, important even. Sometimes these supporters will be family members, friends, or strangers. Whoever they are in your life, don’t ever let them go. They will be with you for the long haul.
Do you have this kind of support? If not, ask yourself, do you give this kind of support to others? Now ask yourself how you do that.
Do you ask your supporters how they’re doing and are genuinely interested in the answer? Do you follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, and whatever the hottest social networking site is at the moment? Do you ask them how their WIP is going? Do you read and comment on their blogs? Do you buy your supporters books, artwork, literary journals, and magazines? Do you believe they do good work? Do you spread the word about them on your blog? If you do, bravo! You are a great supporter. If not, well, you may have some work to do. I know I do.
In the meantime, be supportive to others, build them up, and teach them what you know because the truth is you get what you give. Things in life tend to have a boomerang effect.
Doesn’t matter who you are, everybody needs and wants support. There is room for everybody to be successful.
I owe my supporters a huge thank you, so THANK YOU! You know who you are and you are all golden.
My new motto is to be as supportive as I can to others.
When was the last time you thanked somebody for their support?
I want to give special thanks to Tegan Pratt for supplying these awesome images for my blog. As always, these images do not belong to me, so please do not use them without her permission. To view more of her work, please visit: http://trpratt.com.
9 Responses to “The Supportive Boomerang”
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Hi there,
I totally agree with you. In fact i agree so much that i started a new website and Twitter campaign called #AuthorLove not that long ago. The website is actually in the middle of launching now.
Basically I promote that if we want the writing industry to grow and improve we need to support the writers. So basically, buy that book, comment on that review, tweet about books that you have bought and loved…. and drop the author a line saying you loved their book.
Here is the #authorlove website. Which anyone can join and i will add their name and website to the pages.
Thanks for being so supportive of others. Hopefully Kama will be kind.
Sarah
Yeah, good post. This business of writing is so freaking hard that without support it’s really easy to give up. I think that’s why I keep blogging. I like keeping in touch with other people who do what I do. It helps motivate me to keep going even when I don’t always want to.
Thank you! This was a really inspiring post. Support is vital for every writer in every stage of their career.
Support boomerang coming your way! 🙂
Good advice! I thank all my followers regularly because they are important to me even if I don’t always follow them back. Although I can’t follow everyone back on twitter I do take the time to read and comment on their blogs and reply to all tweets as soon as I can fit it in between full time work, family and writing.
Agree 100%.
@Sarah – Thanks! I visited your blog and signed up. Sounds v. cool.
@L.G. – That’s a good reason to continue blogging. I find the support from other writers essential.
@Saba – Awww, thank you!
@D.J. Kirby – I totally understand.
@Jennifer – Thanks for reading and commenting. I appreciate it!
I’ve made some wonderful connections on the internet. They are people who I’ll likely never meet in the flesh, but that in no way lessens the impact they have on my writing journey. I do say thanks every so often and it’s even more meaningful when someone I’ve just met stretches out a hand to do a kind deed. Good food for thought here.
Thanks J.L.
Support is incredibly important, and i have found the online/blogging writing community to be wonderful. It’s great that we can all be there for each other.