Beautiful People

I have noticed that us writers can be a bit worrisome by nature. We compare ourselves to other writers, not just our skill levels, but our personal lives. We also compare our work, our finished product to others, and it doesn't even matter if it is in the same genre. We compare our education levels, and job skills. We are fickle. We want attention , we want the praises of out work to be shouted to the heavens, and we want the royalties to roll in like high tide. At the same time we crave to be alone, to immerse ourselves in our work, we like to dive into a new chapter like a swimmer in the deep end of an Olympic size pool.

These traits make it utmost difficult to befriend a writer, marry a writer, or even try to have a positive working relationship with another writer. Our pay is sporadic, our hours are uneven (I have been known to be up for days at a time working on a plot twist), and we are temperamental. It is hard for us to realize that people in our real, non-book, everyday lives will not function as we think they will. A stranger might not help you after they knock you down, people will cut you off while in traffic, not all teachers will be open and communicative like in all the books and movies.

This aspect of life throws me for a loop. Sometimes I do not understand their motive, or even their thought patterns. I have often caught myself thinking, "How did they come up with that?" That is the beauty of people, of free will, something characters in my books do not have. I have the power over what they say, do, think, over their whole lives. I am their fate. It is a powerful thing.

The worst thing for a writer is to think that they are insufficient. You are not. You are a creative, beautiful person even if the only thing you have written is a very detailed grocery list in the past six months. It's just a book, or an article. There will be more. If it's not perfect it's okay, it's not meant to be. That's the beauty of creation, most things are flawed in some fashion.

If someone compares you to another writer in a good way, yay! Absorb it, love it, cherish it. Move on. If someone says something negative think on it for five minutes and move on. Life still goes on. It's only one persons thoughts. Then you can say, "How did they come up with that?"

For us writers to be social, to be out in the real world, we need to take a deep breath and put aside our fears of other writers. we need to get out there and interact. We need to query and meet people at conferences and workshops. We need to be ourselves. We are writers, the beautifully elegant authors of the world. Be proud, be smart, be yourself.