Writers Should Be Unique

You would not believe how long it has taken me to get the blog post started this morning. Computer woes of various kinds. I am no computer guru so it took awhile for me to figure out the problem, restart both computer and modem and more. I am a writer, not a computer tech. The odd thing is that I had said exactly that to a woman who is helping me with some photos that need to go on a website with information for a writer's convention I am helping organize. I cannot begin to compare myself to those who know so much about the tech world.

Nor can you or I compare ourselves to other writers. Look at the reasons below:

• we are all unique individuals
• we have various writing voices
• we pull from different life experiences
• we have numerous levels of writing experience
• we have a variety of writing goals
• we are moving at different speeds in our writing journey
• we write in several genres

As a poet, I would never compare myself to Robert Frost. I write totally different kinds of poems than he did, so why even try to compare? I cannot compare myself to John Grisham. I'm not a mystery-suspense-thriller writer. 

The point is that none of us should rate our own writing versus another person's writing. If you're in a critique group, look around the people who are in it. Do any compare to the others? Probably not. Each one of those people is one distinct writer. That's what is so beautiful about the writing world--we are individuals and need not compare our self to any other writer. 

When you submit your work to an editor, you don't want to tell him/her I write just like Willa Cather. That's why I know you'll love my work. The editor does not want another Willa Cather; he/she wants someone new with new things to say.

Don't compare--be your own writer. Be a committee of one. Be an individual.