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!