You’ve Earned My Respect, Fellow Writers, So Let’s Get Engaged!
Age of Empathy prompt inspired by Melissa Bee
I spend hours reading other writers' stories on Medium. Why aren’t they reading mine?
And so began my self-induced pity fest last weekend when one of my articles I posted to a Facebook Medium group tanked spectacularly. Only one comment, a couple of likes, and out went my feeling of being one of the gang.
I support their work. Why aren’t they supporting mine? I don’t expect them to read everything I write, but come on!
I took a few deep breaths and after my anger subsided, I realized that continuing with this line of thinking was the way of madness. I saw a brief flash into my future: me — a bitter, old, lonely non-writer shaking my fists at the screen (or whatever technology we’re writing into at the time) yelling, “It shoulda been me!”
A genuine relationship between writers is not transactional. It’s not simply based on “I scratch your back if you scratch mine (and that scratch better include 50 claps).” It’s built on respect that’s earned, not cajoled.
When I think about the following writers, the first word that comes to mind is respect. They are masters of their craft — writing ingenious, compelling, entertaining, impactful…
