The WIP project - comparisonitis
Hello writerly friends!
Look at that, six days passed without a post, I hope you didn’t feel too neglected. I’ve been terribly busy, which of course means that I’ve procrastinated expertly and then did all the things I had to do in a mad rush just before the deadline. ADHD who?
Anyway, what I did, though, was putting in more reading. I don’t always cat get into the writing mindset, but I can read instead. And then what happened? I got comparisonitis (there’s even a book with that name, who would have thought). Basically, I was reading, loving the story, loving the writing, and had this intense feeling of “this is so much better than anything I will ever make”.
That’s comparisonitis, at least how I see it. I tried finding some posts and videos to link to, but they all looked at it from a business perspective. Why is that author more successful than me? Why did they get the contract/price/shout out? But that’s not where my problem lies, maybe because I’m not yet actively publishing.
For me, the comparisonitis starts with the writing, the prose, the themes, the dialogue, the effortlessness of weaving it all together. I know, rationally, that I’m comparing my unfinished thing with a book that has been revised and edited possibly hundreds of times, but I still can’t stop that voice in my head saying “you will never write this well”.
Someone got a roll of duct tape to shut that voice up?
Comparing my writing to other books is stupid, I know that; you know that. But it happens. I can’t stop it. All I can do is stay stubborn, and write anyway. Maybe it will never be as good as those books, but it will be mine. It will be my story.
It’s my birthday today, so as a present from me to you, I want to give you the confidence and stubbornness to keep writing, no matter what.
Keep writing.
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