Perfectly Imperfect: loving your imperfect writing

     As a writer there is one major thing I need to stop doing: comparing myself.

    If you're a writer, I'm sure you've struggled with this too. But today I am not going to tell you how to stop comparing, if you want to read an awesome blog post about comparison, check out Melissa's amazing post that she did a while back, The Comparison Trap

      Writers compared themselves way to much. We also tear ourselves down a lot.

I'm a bad writer.

I'll never write like them.

The haters are right.

I'm just not good enough.

          STOP. Listen, life isn't easy. No exceptions. Which means even the things you love in life with a fervent passion won't be easy.

        If you think writing is going to be perfectly easy always, well, you can forget it. Nothing, nothing, nothing, is ever effortless.

        Please get that fantasy out of your head now, we'll all be better off.

       Also, there will ALWAYS be someone better than you.

       Stop tearing yourself down over that. It doesn't matter if your writer friend can reach 50k with no sweat, while you can barely finish a novella. It doesn't matter if your writer friends can write “better” than you. There are always different levels of experience. Example of this: There are two writer friends, one is better at writing plot twists and dialogue, and the other is better at writing characters and settings.

       Does this make either of them bad writers? No. Does this make either of them better than the other? No. It just means that they have different things to work on, and different areas to grow in.

       Stop tearing yourself down, and stop letting others tear you down.

       Last week I got a couple of hate comments on my post on RW, they both targeted my writing. I had two choices that morning when I read those comments,

1. Believe them and feel bad.

2. Use them to fuel my writing and grow stronger because of them.

        I am glad to say that I chose number two. There will always be haters, guys. People who want to tear you down, because they're jealous, or they don't like your ideas. Sometimes people are just plain mean, for no reason at all. You can't let that get to you.

       There will always be haters, but there will also always be people who love you and support you.

        As for the voices of doubt in your head, don't listen. Just don't.

       My writing will never be perfect.

       Your writing will never be perfect.

       But you know what they will be?

        Perfectly imperfect, and that is a beautiful thing.

Happy Writing,