Connecting

Social distancing has changed our views on technology. Introduce a pandemic and, suddenly, those activities we’ve discouraged as not being real interactions become creative ways we stay connected to others when approaching those outside the walls of our homes is frowned upon.

Groups keep in touch through Zoom and Facebook Live. Grandparents are learning to use Facetime to spend time with their families. Musicians are posting online “concerts”. Television and movie stars are posting live video chats. Pastors record and post their messages on YouTube and Facebook. And authors are reading to their fans using video.

Everyone is doing their part to help others feel less isolated and alone.

We need connections. We were designed for connection, with God and other people. Even introverts want to be part of something bigger, though their ways of connecting may seem foreign to an extrovert.

Authors are no different. While we may have to put the words on paper by ourselves, we need connection. As faith based authors, I believe we need connection in three distinct forms.

Because our work is faith based, the most important connection we foster is with God. Through staying connected in our relationship with Him, we find His direction for our ministry. Time spent in His word deepens our understanding of His character and allows us to paint a more vivid picture of Him in the stories we write.

Through connection with other writers, our work becomes stronger. We grow. We find an outlet for our frustrations and fresh ways to solve our problems through differing perspectives. We spark new ideas in each other and encourage one another to venture out of our comfort zones.

Connecting with readers is incredibly important as well. After all, if we aren’t connecting with the readers, our stories aren’t fulfilling their purpose. We need this connection, and we need to understand that there are two types of connection happening at once when readers and authors are involved.

We connect as author and reader. With the push toward social distancing, authors are gravitating toward this connection with more dedication than previously seen. Their social media presence has increased. They’re interacting with their readers more consistently, though the interaction is virtual.

The reader gets the benefit of whatever the author is sharing and gets to be part of what the author is doing. The author, who may only put out a book a year, gets to continue the ministry God has blessed them with even after the reader has reached the last page of the book. It’s a win for both parties.

The other connection, the reader to story connection, is more difficult to see. Each author brings their own voice and message to their stories. Given the same prompt, five authors will create five very different stories with five unique themes.

We want our stories to entertain, but as authors of faith, we also want to encourage or challenge our readers in their understanding of their faith. We want readers to connect to the message of our story. We want some element of our story to reach out in a personal way, leaving a lasting impression on our readers.

Sometimes we don’t get to see this connection, though we pray it is there with each book that releases. Then, there are the days when we get the extra blessing of having this connection brought to our attention.

This week, my second book, Grasping Hope, was on blog tour with Celebrate Lit. For fourteen days, a different blogger read and reviewed the book. The process can be nerve wracking. You never know if the blogger will love or hate what you’ve written. Common sense says a poor review does not mean a poorly written book. But waiting to hear what people have to say about your book isn’t easy.

I’ve been there before, and I’ll find myself in that position again as my third book, Relentless Love, releases. But on this tour, something new occurred.

Blog reviews were written and shared through social media. But in addition to the expected reviews, one blogger went further. She wrote about her experience with Grasping Hope on Facebook in a post completely unrelated to her blog post. She shared about how the themes impacted her personally. She offered beautiful words of personal connection to the story.

As an author, I came away from that post encouraged that God had seen fit to use the story He gave me to touch that person’s heart. We may never meet in person, but through the story we are connected. And, for an author, isn’t connecting what it’s all about?