Good Deeds for Writers

We perform good deeds every day. Whether it's as small as holding the door open for someone, letting someone out of their driveway, and just saying please and thank you to larger acts such as volunteering to feed the homeless or giving a sum of your money to a charity. All of it all counts.

If you're reading this now there's a strong chance you're a writer. If you're not, well you're about to learn something about us writers. We love the small things in life, they greatly boost our writing ego and encourage us to delve further into the writing world. Here are a few examples of good deeds you can perform for writers;

1. Simply just reading our work

The smallest gesture you could possibly perform is just taking a few minutes to read our work. If your friend sends you a link to their recent article, read it. If you see a link on a social media site and that person is asking if you would take your time to read, then read it. You don't have to drop a comment or even drop a like, just read.

I can assure you for most writers it's not about the views and going viral, it's the sheer pleasure of someone actually being interested in your work that could make their day.

2. Leaving a comment or a like

If you're feeling ultra-friendly, you could even go as far as to leave a small comment under someone's work letting them know you enjoyed it and can't want to read their next piece (even if that is a lie).

On Vocal Media, it is not yet possible to leave a comment. However, you could tap the 'heart' button instead. When I see that someone has 'hearted' my articles it lets me know that they enjoyed it and the reader potentially took something away from it. It also encourages me to keep producing work and puts a cheesy smile on my face!

3. Leaving a tip

A lot of writers choose to write for free in their spare time because they enjoy it. Many have the aspiration to quit their soul-sucking, repetitive 9-5 and write full-time for a living. Unfortunately, this takes a lot of work, physical effort, and mental effort. Just ONE dollar could encourage someone to keep dreaming big and to keep writing, one day that one dollar could turn into one hundred dollars (I sound like a charity advert!).

I understand that money does not grow on trees and might be tight for most of us, but if you do have that extra dollar (or more if you want) then Vocal Media creators have the privilege of potentially getting a tip.

For me, this is the greatest good deed anyone could perform as money is extremely valuable to me in this current state of the world and most likely is for a lot of writers.

4. Reaching out to the writer

A few months ago, I read a piece of writing from someone but there was no option to comment, like, or anything. On the author's bio, they had their Instagram handle so I decided to be a bit of a stalker and reach out to them via Instagram letting them know how much I loved their work.

I think they were pretty shocked but the response I got was just them saying thank you. Surprisingly, a few minutes later I got another message saying how they equally loved my work. They took their time to return the deed and go and read some of my pieces, but I'm not sure which platform they went on. Either way, it doesn't matter because this small stalk-ish gesture made us both happy.

Us writers don't ask for much. In fact, most of the time we don't ask for anything at all and just write for ourselves expecting nothing from it. However, if you want to show your appreciation then just one of the four ways listed is just enough.

I do strongly believe in good karma, so whatever good you do will come back to you three times as strong. Have a blessed day.

"How far that little candle throws his beam! So shines a good deed in a weary world" - William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice