Ben Parris
The terrific thing about being a writer is when someone tells you that reading your work is a good use of their time, that it made them feel something. Then you think that writing it was a good use of your time.
Even better than that is if you can make a difference in someone's life. After a rash of teen suicides in my area, I wrote a short story to illustrate the mistake they were making. A lot of teens wrote to me to say that they were going to commit suicide but changed their minds after reading my story. Then a couple of churches contacted me and asked if they could disseminate it along with some of my other work they considered uplifting. I thought that was amazing and wonderful. Most of my writing is not trying to be in this category at all, but for some reason remains popular with many people of faith.
Even better than that is if you can make a difference in someone's life. After a rash of teen suicides in my area, I wrote a short story to illustrate the mistake they were making. A lot of teens wrote to me to say that they were going to commit suicide but changed their minds after reading my story. Then a couple of churches contacted me and asked if they could disseminate it along with some of my other work they considered uplifting. I thought that was amazing and wonderful. Most of my writing is not trying to be in this category at all, but for some reason remains popular with many people of faith.
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