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Hi, @dekreel
We can definitely relate!
Haley and I shot a video that hopefully should provide some encouragement, and help you finally kick that comparitis and self-doubt to the curb!
How to stop doubting your ability to write, and finally stop comparing yourself to other writers.
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OrpheusAudioAcademy.com@dekreel Amen, sister.
I wonder when I’ll stop doing that. Because I’m always doing it. Sometimes, I make myself higher than others, and sometimes I have to bury my head in a pillow.
*instead of petting you, offers you a non-melted chair*
Just remember, that God made you unique, special and loved. Writing does not become your identity. It’s who you are in Christ that defines you. So if you see your writing and doubt, just remember that this is Christ’s work. As long as you are doing your best for Christ, there is no need to doubt.
Pray. Seek God. Give it all to Him.
He won’t ever let you go. 🙂
☀ ☀ ☀ ENFP ☀ ☀ ☀
@dekreel I feel so sad that you’re feeling this way. I used to feel the same way. What I was gonna say is basically what dragon-snapper said. Our identity is in Christ, not our writing. If God gave you a passion to write, then write. If you’re not looking to get published, then write however you want. Just give it your all, and nobody can ask more than your best.
It’s always been hard for me to not compare myself to others (not just in the writing field). But I have to remind myself that everything I do is for God, not humans. Being focused on Him gets me to focus not on myself.
Hope this helps! everyone gave great advice 🙂 <3
I'm a Kapeefer 'TIL WE'RE OLD AND GREY!
www.jennaterese.comFirst of all, y’all are awesome. This helped me too.
@dekreel don’t let fear stop you. God gave you a gift that He wants to work through but He can’t use it if you set it on a shelf and let it get dusty. So write no matter how bad it is or how different it is. Just because your writing voice isn’t like everyone else’s doesn’t make it bad. Don’t let your talent get dusty just because its not the same as everyone else’s. God have you your own unique style just the way he gave you your own unique laugh or thumbprint. Embrace it.When you start comparing yourself to others you start thinking, “Oh man, this is so horrible. Nobody is ever going to like this.” If you do that in one area of your life then it makes it easier to do in another area as well, except now in your own mind you have proof. I hope that makes sense.
And I’m preaching to myself here. *Hugs* I’m praying for you.
HC
@dekreel It’s so hard to feel like that, sometimes. You pick up your pen, and you want to create things. And then the monsters come back, your doubts and fears, telling you that you aren’t good enough. That there’s no hope.
And suddenly, you’re paralyzed by fear. Comparing yourself to other writers can be amazingly painful. Know that God is there, watching. He’s in control, and He gave you the gift that is writing. He gave it to you just how he wants it. Know that God isn’t comparing you to other writers, or condemning you. God is there, watching you use the talent that he gave you, to the capacity he wanted you to use it.
And as you write for Him, God is smiling. He doesn’t rate the things you write. He’s not analyzing you. He’s glorified, even when you don’t feel special and you’re condemning yourself.
Writing can be really, really tough sometimes. Kingdom Pen is an amazing place and has encouraged me a lot, but there’s still days when Stan and I feel like we’re never going to get anywhere. Like maybe we should take our manuscripts and shred them from end to end.
Struggling with that isn’t unique to you, and you aren’t alone.
So I encourage you, if you want to write again, kick out your doubts and drive away your condemnations. Tell them they don’t rule you, and sit down and write. Write just to enjoy it. Give yourself a certain amount of words where you force yourself not make any comparisons or judgements on it. Say, “For this amount of words, I’m just going to let it wash over me. I’m just writing because I want to write, and because God gave me this gift to use, not to doubt.”
*Giarstanornarak tries to melt chair*
Also, Daeus has 22 turtles in his signature.@dekreel I don’t have anything to add to the many wonderful things said here already, but I’ll just let you know that I struggle with the same thing (doesn’t everyone at some point?) and I’m praying for you!
"Sylvester - Sylvester!"
I wanted to say something…but I’ve been feeling like this too. I’ve been reading books like Half Upon a Time, The Ilyon Chronicles, and @hope-ann’s books. And the sheer incredibleness of their writing makes me almost jealous. I’ve wanted to write a fairytale retelling for years now, but I can never figure out how to write an original one. And then I read Hope’s books, and I’m almost mad at her for thinking up such an awesome idea! And then I read over the first few chapters of Embers, and I think about the fact that some authors get rejected, and I panic. Because I can’t just say, “Oh, well, I guess I’ll try again.” because this is my book, and I can’t just ‘try again’, even if it comes out horrible!
And then I read stuff like this.
Thank you, everyone.
ENTP, Aether-borg Hero with cape obsession and fascination with swords.
https://forums.theaetherliI’m honestly getting so inspired reading encouragement for someone else. You guys are the definition of awesome.
INTJ ➸Your friendly neighborhood mastermind. ➸https://thesarcasticelf.wordpress.com/
Wow. You guys make me smile X’D
@dragon-snapper *looks at un-melted chair* *looks at you* *looks back at chair* Whoa. Thanks, Snapper!Also, when I read “He won’t let you go,” I almost cried. It’s so true. Have you heard that Switchfoot song, I Won’t Let you Go? That’s what came to mind. (Obviously HAHA)
@audrey-caylin Woww, I LOVE that meadow analogy.@everyone THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! I feel so much better! And I’m glad I’m not alone. God truly is good
You can pronounce it however you want.
@reaganramm I just watched the video.
I… I didn’t know you did this for me!! X’D BTW, it’s pronounced DEE-kreel XD (see signature)
Anyway, thanks SO much for the video! It was really good advice 😀
You can pronounce it however you want.
Wow, @dekreel . I can really relate to this. You know, KP is such an amazing place, full of encouraging people. But it can also be used against us when we fall into comparison- which I did without even realizing it. I started to think things like “you shouldn’t even be on this website, you’re not a real writer like they are” and “why do you even try? You’ll never be able to write that well”. I didn’t even think beyond my doughts to realize that God can use even an inadequate writer like myself- you know, like Paul who said he was “poor of speech”?
So I guess what I’m saying is don’t let your writing, good or bad, become what defines you. Or anything for that matter! You are created by God, for a reason. When the Lord put you here He had a specific purpose in mind, something only you can give to the world. So don’t beat yourself up for not being something you’re not! God has a purpose for you that no-one else can do!
I kinda think this song, “Details” fits.
The Kingdom has been torn asunder...
http://www.encircledbygrace.com/@kaya-young *blinks away tears* That’s such a beautiful song! Wow… It’s amazing. Thanks for sharing it! 😉
You can pronounce it however you want.
(Coming a bit late to this, sorry — hurrah for Spring Break and a chance to catch up on the forum! — but I sympathize with this a lot. So I thought I’d add my two cents.)
When I first started writing, I didn’t quite get that other living writers existed. I mean, if you’d asked me were new books getting published every year, I’d have said yes. But I didn’t understand that what I was doing was anything like that. So I didn’t compare myself to Tolkien (whom I loved and still do; he got me started on telling myself stories before I fell asleep at night, so you can blame him for my madness, I guess) or anyone else. And I was decently confident, because all I was doing was writing for fun. Then I kind of got the idea that this was what I was doing with my life, and — not anymore.
See, when you start taking writing seriously, you suddenly feel the weight of your responsibility, and you realize how high the standards are for good writing, and it’s overwhelming. Naturally you can’t measure up to any of this. (And you don’t know at the time, because you haven’t seen them, but the authours who now rank so high — they had years of solitary writing which will never see the light of day. It took a long time to get that good. You might be in that stage right now, but it doesn’t mean the mature stage won’t someday come. It may be twenty years. But it’s fine.)
So I think that doubt is perfectly natural. But since it stops you writing, it’s a bit counter-productive, so we do want to get rid of it. As someone else suggested, praying “Thy will be done” is very helpful. It makes you stop focusing on the exact way you think is best for things to get done, and forces you to trust God’s — as yet invisible — plan. (Also, I second Daeus’ suggestion of the Lord of the Rings. That book is awesome and may make you cry. I always get choked up when Rohan arrives, and I’ve read it easily a hundred times, and I don’t cry easily. But “I will not say, Do not weep; for not all tears are evil”.)
Another thing is, most of us on KP are young, and so there’s no way we can have the experience yet necessary to write great books. In a decade or two we’ll look back on our best writing from now — yes, all of us, even Hope and Daeus and I daresay even Josiah — and cringe a bit because now we know so much more than we did. We might manage a good book or two, or an amusing short story, or a decent poem. But the great works of literature are, frankly, a bit beyond our reach. Can any of us yet equal Homer, or Dante, or Milton, or the Gawain poet, or whoever composed the Song of Roland, or Tolkien? I know I can’t. In forty or fifty years, who knows? Keep at it steadily, remember some times call for throwing words onto the page so you can edit later, and others call for quality over quantity, and moderation in everything (thus say the Greeks).
I was going to post this in the Advice thread when I came here just now, but I can’t find it, and it may do you some good, so have this too.
Read.
Read books that make you laugh or cry, really well-written books and the occasional bad example, because you can learn from those too. Read in your chosen genre but not exclusively; avoid a narrow view of what can and can’t be done. Read Dr Seuss and the dictionary and Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God. Read books that seem old, because they were written in the slightly unfamiliar adjective-laden, longwinded eighteenth-century style. Read books that make those seem like mere infants: Plato, Chaucer, Beowulf, you get the idea. But most of all read books that challenge you. Read enormous tomes and thick philosophy and dip into a little theology (bonus points if it’s a translation from another language). (I’d also recommend learning another language, for the overachievers among us. Bonus points if it’s a “dead” language, or Koine Greek, or something.) You can’t learn if you’re never stretching and growing. Set yourself a challenge — not necessarily to read a lot of books quickly, but to go deep into books, thinking critically, analyzing (I know this comes easier to some of us than others). Read a lot of books which have stood the test of time.
You’ll look up from finishing a particularly satisfying book one day and realize that your brain is teeming with ideas again. Then go write them down.
I highly recommend, by the way, Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories” and his poem “Mythopoeia”. I’ll end with a quote from its end (well, end of the paper — the Notes go on a bit longer. Tolkien liked a lot of parentheses).
“But in God’s kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man
is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium has not abrogated
legends; it has hallowed them, especially the “happy ending.” The Christian has still to work,
with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his
bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with
which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he
may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come
true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give
them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.”You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation. (Isaiah 12:3)
Gaaahhh @Northerner “On Fairy Stories” and “Mythopoiea” are two of the most amazing things ever written. And YES. Tolkien liked his notes.
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