What Happens When Someone Writes Back?

Sometimes the most encouraging part of sending your words into the world is discovering that someone has written back.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
— Proverbs 25:11 KJV

For a long time, writing is a one-way conversation.

You sit at a computer and write.

You create characters. You give them problems. You send them on adventures. You rewrite sentences that don't sound quite right. You change things. You change them back.

And eventually, after months of work, you finish.

Then you publish the book.

And you wait.

Sending Words Into the Silence

When I began writing, I didn't really think much about the person who might eventually be sitting on the other side of those words.

Of course, I hoped someone would read them.

But that reader was mostly imaginary.

Somewhere out there was a person I didn't know, holding a book I had written.

That was about as far as the picture went.

Then something began to change.

People started writing back.

Someone Answered

Sometimes it was an Amazon review.

Sometimes it was a professional reviewer who had received one of my books.

Sometimes another author read something I had written and took the time to tell me what he or she thought.

Then messages began arriving through social media.

Someone had discovered Mateo.

Someone wanted to know where the book could be purchased.

Someone had read about Mateo and the Secrets of the Eternal Word and wanted to know more.

Some of those messages came from places a very long way from Nicaragua.

And every time one arrived, something struck me.

There was actually someone on the other end.

The reader wasn't imaginary anymore.

More Than Numbers

It's easy to become fascinated with numbers when you're trying to introduce books to readers.

How many people viewed the post?

How many visited the website?

How many clicked the link?

How many read the blog?

I've certainly looked at all of them.

Probably more often than I should. 😊

But a number on a screen can only tell you so much.

Ten people viewed something.

Fifty people viewed something.

A hundred people viewed something.

Those numbers are encouraging.

But then one person writes:

I enjoyed your book.

Or:

Where can I find Mateo?

Or simply:

I like what you're doing.

And suddenly that one person can mean more than all the numbers.

Because now there is a name.

There is a voice.

There is a connection.

The Conversation I Didn't Expect

I used to think the conversation happened inside the book.

The author tells the story.

The reader reads it.

The end.

I'm beginning to understand that it doesn't always work that way.

Sometimes the story starts another conversation.

A reader sees something in a character that reminds them of someone they know.

A reviewer notices a theme that mattered to them.

Another author recognizes something about the struggle of creating a story.

Someone on the other side of the world discovers a twelve-year-old boy living in the mountains of Nicaragua and decides that they would like to know him better.

None of that existed while I was sitting at my computer writing.

I couldn't make it happen.

I could only write the story and let it go.

A Word Fitly Spoken

That is why the words from Proverbs seem especially meaningful to me now:

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

There is something valuable about the right words arriving at the right time.

Sometimes those words travel from the writer to the reader.

But sometimes they travel in the other direction.

I've discovered that a few kind words from someone who has read one of my books can arrive on exactly the day they're needed.

A review can encourage you.

A message can surprise you.

A simple comment can remind you why you started writing in the first place.

The writer sends out the words.

And occasionally, some words come back.

When the Silence Answers

Last week I wrote about what happens when a book leaves your hands.

You don't know exactly where it will go.

You don't know who will discover it.

And you certainly don't know what will happen when it gets there.

I'm learning that sometimes something wonderful happens.

Someone answers.

For months, I sat at my computer and sent words out into the silence.

Now, every once in a while, the silence answers.

Someone writes.

Someone reviews.

Someone asks where they can find Mateo.

Someone simply takes a moment to say that something I wrote mattered to them.

And each time it happens, I'm reminded that a story doesn't really end when it leaves the author's hands.

Sometimes, that's when the conversation begins.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
— Proverbs 25:11 KJVord fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
— Proverbs 25:11 KJV