Comparing Yourself to Other Writers

Comparing yourself to other writers is a root-of-all-problems issue for authors, both pre-published and established. It’s horrifically easy to fall back into a groove where you think that others are doing it so much better than you are, saying what you want to say so much clearer, crafting description/dialogue/settings/worlds much better than your own.

My need to address this issue was inspired by this tumblr post by Diane Duane. Once I read her response, it really resonated with me and how I have grappled with this issue–and continue to grapple with it.

I often feel inferior to other people in response to any number of issues.  Perhaps it is a really conniving and devilish part of the human psyche that constantly works to depress us by shadowing ourselves in others’ skills and talents.

It takes a surprising amount of effort to not wallow. It’s easy to give up on developing our skills when we see how great others can be. It takes a lot of courage to stand up for yourself, against yourself.

But taking those first steps, pushing beyond that you view yourself as being “weak” in, developing your skills in areas where you don’t have innate talent, those are the most rewarding tasks. The reward when you overcome that negativity successfully for the first time overshadows all the effort it takes to fight off those negative feelings and gives you a high to push forward even more. Then, knowing that you have developed skills to offset your perceived weakness, gives way to self-pride, which makes it easier to maintain that new skill.

Comparing yourself to other writers, comparing your skills to theirs, your style to theirs, it can be helpful to see something you can work on–but you have to be willing to face that challenge, work on the issue, develop ways to move beyond it. Because comparing yourself to other writers just to halt yourself is ridiculous–but so simple if you don’t know how to take that first step to move forward.

Tell it like it is, de Lint!

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