To The Ones Who Help Us Write

by Jeffrey Friedel @JeffersonRiede

Later this month, writers will arrive at the ACFW conference carrying laptops, business cards, carefully rehearsed pitches, and enough nervous energy to power downtown Memphis. We come ready to talk about protagonists, platforms, proposals, and plot twists.

But behind nearly every writer is someone who helped carry a load that never made it into the conference program.

Writing is solitary work, but it is rarely a solitary calling. Someone, often a spouse, listened while we explained the plot problem that made perfect sense only to us. A writing coach read the pages we were afraid to show anyone else, challenged us to grow, and reminded us not to abandon the story when discouragement set in.

Someone accepted reheated leftovers because we were finishing a chapter. Someone prayed over another rejection, celebrated a request for pages, or quietly took care of ordinary life while we disappeared into an imaginary one. Paul’s words to the Philippians feel especially fitting: “I thank my God every time I remember you” (Philippians 1:3). As we prepare for Memphis, perhaps we should pause long enough to remember, and to thank, the people who have helped us get there.

Some of those supporters will come with us. My wife Susan attends the conference with me each year. She is a voracious reader and seems to believe that meeting an author creates a solemn obligation to buy and read that person’s book. This is wonderful for the author, admirable in a spouse, and potentially catastrophic for our available luggage space.

Yet those who travel with us may discover that writers have their own dialect; one composed largely of acronyms, fictional crises, and questions about whether the middle “sags.” We are among people who understand our peculiar trials and dreams. They may be standing beside us while still feeling outside the circle. Let’s notice them. Introduce them. Include them. Thank them for all the unseen ways they have already participated in our calling.

Others will remain at home. We may worry about them, miss them, or feel the tension of pursuing something meaningful while leaving responsibilities in their hands. That tension is not necessarily a sign that we should not go. It may simply be a reminder that no calling is lived in isolation. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). Even when only one person’s name appears on the manuscript, the labor often belongs to more than one.

So, before the first workshop, agent appointment, or worship session, pray for those who made room for you to be there. Send the text. Make the call. Speak the gratitude that is too easy to feel but never express.

And when the conference ends, return home with more than notes, contacts, and renewed enthusiasm. Return ready to honor the people who helped you go. Listen to what happened in their lives while you were away. Give back some of the time they gave you. Encourage them as faithfully as they have encouraged you.

First Thessalonians 5:11 tells us, “Encourage one another and build each other up.” Writers know something about building worlds with words. May we be just as intentional about using our words to build up the people who stand behind our stories.

Our books may bear our names. But thank God, we do not write them alone.

Jeffrey Friedel (writing as Jefferson Riede) is an Atlanta-based author of Christian thrillers with a technology edge and vivid, far-flung locales. His debut, STRONGHOLD, reached the semifinals of the 2024 ACFW Genesis Contest, and his second novel has followed suit this year. A third thriller—where faith, truth, and quantum computing collide—is in progress. Contact Jeffrey at JeffersonRiede@gmail.com, www.JeffersonRiede.com, or X.com @JeffersonRiede