Challenging or Crippling?

Comparing yourself, or your work, to someone else can be challenging (in a good way) or it can be crippling.  On the positive side, it might bring out your competitive edge and push you on to do better or achieve more.  Often though, comparison can quickly cause a whole gamut of negative emotions to come into play.   

One of the biggest obstacles I've faced recently is not being crushed by comparing myself to others - in this context as a writer, but I'm good at doing it in general too!  It's easy to forget that I can choose how I respond.

I’ve been re-reading some of the best kids’ books out there, in order to look at their openings, character development, structure, etc. so that I can get some hints and tips for improving my second draft.  It’s so easy to end up feeling seriously inferior in the face of that though and “How To Train Your Dragon” has been the worst culprit!  If I could write like anyone else then it would be Cressida Cowell (or JK Rowling or Suzanne Collins too, but let’s not go there).

I know that I need to let her impressive writing spur me on to write the very best book I can myself, yet it would be too easy to take the path of letting the comparison not only cripple me, but crush me to the point that I decide I could never be as good as her and give up completely.  

I even feel like that with this blog!!  A couple of friends have recently started new blogs and they're way better than mine already (imho), especially as they’re posting in and promoting their blogs much more than me - I don’t even remember to tag my posts or advertise their existence on Twitter most of the time!  I’d give you the links if I were a better person, but I’m not, hahahahaha*.  They’ve already caused me to wrestle with the temptation not to bother writing mine anymore.

So why do I bother writing this blog or books at all?  I guess I feel, like most writers, that I have thoughts and stories I want to share and, while at times they may be similar to other people’s, they are nevertheless unique because they’re told with my voice.  They may not be as good – that’s for a publisher and the public to ultimately decide – but they’re still something that no one apart from me can say.  I can't write like Cressida Cowell (my life is too boring for a start, compared to hers!) but even if I could then I wouldn't get published coz she already is and people want something fresh and new to read, not a lesser imitation.

I will always be second best at being someone else so I may as well just write my blog and my books, in my way and my voice, to the very best of my ability and see what happens :-)  And that holds true for whatever you do too!

*Oh go on then, here they are.  http://confessionsofanamerican.com/ is the website/blog of my amazing writing accountability partner Jeannie – full of funny cross-cultural comments, writing thoughts and powerful insights into human trafficking.  http://markrushworth.me/ is the new blog of one of my church elders – Ordinary Guy, Extraordinary God (The Musings of a British Church Leader) – and contains a particularly good post on Oscar Pistorius “Fallen Heroes”.  The one on "Freedom From Self-esteem" was posted while I was drafting this post and is clearly something I need to get more of a handle on, LOL!

Inspiration!

There are so many potential sources of inspiration around us all the time to stimulate and enthuse us for every area of our lives, no matter what you do or who you are. 

I’ve previously mentioned my love of encouraging soundbites on Twitter, and Instagram is another recent discovery of an amazing source of inspiration.  Having just joined, I was aimlessly browsing the site - trying to work out what on earth it was all about and how to use it - when I came across a photo that encapsulated a potential character and futuristic world I’d been musing over!

Numerous “how to write” books suggest ways of getting to know your characters (e.g. writing a profile of them) but I’m a very visual person and so having a picture of a character helping me to instantly “see” them is just invaluable.  I suddenly understood so much about them and their situation!  How amazing is that – to spring board off someone else’s creativity for the inspiration to write a story?!  Creativity is such a generous and self-perpetuating phenomenon :-)

In a similar vein I was thrilled recently to take a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my good friend Kirsten, a very talented photographer!  I’ve always found it interesting watching her work (and she’s the only person who’s ever been able to make me look half decent in photos) but spending hours with her taking photos on the most gorgeous of wintry days, I was totally fascinated to observe how she sees the world.  It is subtly but significantly different to my perspective.

Even when she takes some obvious shots, e.g. this lovely bridge (which I encouraged her to do, to be honest), she frames it so much better than I would.  Even more impressive is the fact that she’s made it look so good when there’s actually an unattractive green workmen’s hut hidden behind the log and a small JCB positioned behind the central pillar!

 

Then she got up close to the bridge and started snapping away, while I watched and waited and asked what on earth she was doing.  This photo shows you what she was seeing that I wasn’t!  

From that point on I started to look at the world around us in a different way as well – the reflection of tree trunks in a small un-iced part of the lake, the amazing colours and textures of a brick wall and the defining detail of a wire horse’s nose (I did remain on the fence about the beauty of a rusty knob on a metal bridge though ;-)).  But who would ever deliberately take a photo of someone's legs?  And who knew it could look so interesting?!

When you’re a writer you get the fun and privilege of seeing things through someone else’s eyes – learning to do that well is essential to writing convincingly!

But whatever you are and whatever you do, don’t go through life seeing things in the same familiar way or doing the same things again and again just for the sake of it.  Don’t let the busyness and difficulties of life make you glaze over.  Look at something in a new fresh way today and let it inspire you!