Kindness of Many Strangers and Writing

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

This past weekend, I was racking my brain to write something appropriate for the Thanksgiving blog. Scrolling through Facebook often gives me something of inspirational interest to writers and our blog readers. I ran across author, Sue Cox's, “Thanksgiving with Strangers” blog post on Facebook. 

Her blog post resonated with me especially this year. 

This year, my husband and I experienced becoming total empty-nesters, a very different experience. Our children are pursuing degrees and careers in states far from home. Thanksgiving is our family’s favorite holiday. It’s a time we all come together and unplug from electronics to enjoy being with each other. This year, our adult children will be seated again at our dining room table. It’s an exciting time for us all. We will reconnect and catch-up. As they travel to our home, I have to wonder how the “kindness of many strangers” may play on their journeys. 

Life is full of these opportunities. We just don’t tend to see them unless, like Sue, we assess a certain event. 

As writers, we all have a lot of success from those who are complete strangers. Most writers who author a book have a page of “Thanksgiving,” that lists a dedication and thanks to those who helped them in the process of writing a book. Those people mentioned are clearly not strangers. However, an author’s success often depends on the “kindness of many strangers.”  These strangers include the readers who read your book and leave a positive review; the bloggers, Facebook and Twitter users, who give you a shout out about your book; the fans you never knew you had, but they recommended your book to their book club. 

This Thanksgiving, enjoy your friends and family around the dining room table, but be ever thankful for the “Kindness of Many Strangers” who help you and your writing be a success. As playwright, Tennessee Williams authored in A Streetcar Named Desire, for his character Blanche DuBois, "Whoever you are I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." How true.

Happy Thanksgiving, 2017, y’all. I’d love to hear any “Kindness of Many Strangers” stories you might have had with your writing journey.