Pen Friends ~ Anyone up for a bit more kindness in the world? The SP sure is! My fellow Pitch Wars Mentee, Tamara Girardi‘s awesome #Kindwriters contest is spreading through the virtual writing world on twitter and the blogging community, and well, I just had to share it with you because, you know, kindness changes things, and yeah, it is a superpower.
If you haven’t heard anything about it, read about it’s origins and rules here. (Basically, kindness rocks and by doing an act of kindness and sharing about it, you could win a free query or first 5 pages critique!)
To get an idea of what the experience is all about, we asked one of the first participants, Erin Craig, to share about how she got involved and which random act of kindness she performed.
SP: Welcome Erin! Thanks for being willing to talk about your #Kindwriters experience with us! As one of the first to participate in this awesome initiative, where did you heard about #Kindwriters and what was your first impression of the idea overall?
I was on Twitter, in the throes of hitting refresh during a Pitch Madness contest when I spotted Tamara’s tweet about doing a “random act of kindness” day and offering a free query critique to the first five writers to respond. I pounced on it, eager to have a pro look over my work. After I sent her the query, she wrote back with her notes and suggestions and explained she was offering this act of kindness in honor of her friend Janet whose newborn daughter, Gemma, passed away a year ago. I thought it was a really lovely tribute to Gemma, so many friends and family spreading kindness to total strangers and for that love to be passed on and on. One little ripple can make a lot of big waves!
SP: What compelled you to participate?
I have a seven month old daughter myself and Janet’s story really touched me. It’s such a cliche to say how much a mama’s heart expands with the birth of their baby, but it’s true. I can’t imagine how painful it would be to lose my daughter and I really admire Janet for wanting to channel all of that love into acts of kindness for others.
SP: How was your experience so far? What good deed did you do?
I live in Memphis and there are parts of the city that have a lot of homeless people, begging on street medians. I like to keep a ziplock bag helpful items in my car in case I come across someone while I’m out driving. They have granola bars, clean socks, little travel toiletries, etc in them. After I received Tamara’s email, I stocked up on the bags and took my daughter out for a drive to pass them out!
SP: What did you learn from the critique?
Tamara’s notes were so helpful! It can be very daunting when you’re first starting out- it seems like writing the book was the easy part! My query was a bit muddled in places and one of Tamara’s questions about the main character’s intentions actually made me reevaluate my opening chapters. I wound up revising a good chunk and it’s made the story a lot stronger. I’ve sent out the new query to a few agents and have received a couple of requests for fulls and partials!
SP: Would you recommend #KindWriters to your writing buddies?
Absolutely! Write well and be kind!
SP: Thanks Erin and Good Luck!
****For anyone else who wants to participate, start brainstorming ideas for random acts of kindness right here. More details below.
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