Big Mistake

So I made a big mistake today. One that I have consistently been told not to make (mostly on the blogs I follow).

As a writer one of the biggest mistakes to make is comparing yourself to other writers. Pretty obvious right? We all have different gifts, we are each unique and special and blah blah blah...

Well anything so obvious and logical when it comes to our selves is going to be bloody impossible to actually apply. When a girl walks past in those iddy biddy shorts with no cellulite, we compare ourselves to her. Unfavourably. Never mind that she's like eight years younger than us and a champion roller blader. We don't see the things that she doesn't like about herself (maybe her neck is too long and she thinks she looks like a giraffe).

So today I was casually checking out Janet Reid's blog, one my of favourites, and I blindly followed her link to Lauren DeStefano, not knowing that my heart and ambitions were about to be crushed.

DeStefano is only a little younger than me. But I am not upset she is getting published and I am not. She has written a book and I have not (well, no finished ones anyway). Yet after reading her (sadly sparse) blog, I almost wept in self pity and reverence. The feelings of doubt and inadequacy dug at my already tender heart.

She has an amazing voice, and a lot of confidence in that voice. She also has a clear imagination and an elegant locution that does more than "swirl around you", it pulls you into its own universe.

I'll continue to write. I will finish my current WIP. In tune with the tap tap of the keys, will be: "we all have different gifts, we are each unique and special and blah blah blah..."