You Are Your Own Writer

Dear Writer,

This is a hard hobby isn't it? The range of knowledge and age is vaster than most other hobbies, possibly all. At least, I can't think of another one.

And with age and experience and knowledge, its inevitable that someone is going to be a better writer than us.

I got a dose of this first hand when I entered a writing contest a couple months back. Outwardly, I told my friends that "I probably won't win", but inwardly I fantasized with the judges calling me, exclaiming "This book is too good to not be published!"

But I didn't win.

I didn't come in the top ten.

After that, it was hard to not compare myself to the others. They started writing their first novels at twelve. I wrote ten horrible misspelled pages at twelve. They were on track to be published by fifteen. I hadn't finished my first novel at fifteen.

It's hard to compare ourselves to others, but writer, we can't compare ourselves to others because we aren't others.

We are us.

You are your own writer, Writer. You have your own time lines and milestones. You have your own life story.

God doesn't make mistakes Writer, God's timing is perfect. So maybe I didn't get published when I was fifteen. So. What? God's got a plan for me that is so much better than anything I could dream up.

But, sometimes it's hard to remember that isn't it? Like when a friend can't stand your MC or you have the worst case of writers block this century. (Not that either of those have happened to me...)

It's hard being a writer, Writer. I'm not going to lie, books can only teach you so much in this profession. It's hard, and daunting, and sometimes virtually miserable.

But it's so so rewarding.

Writer, writing is a part of you, you are your own writer. You are not JK. Rowling, you are not Judy Blume, you are not Timothy Shoemaker. (Code of Silence books anyone?)

As much as these people inspire us or as much as we want to be like these people. We cannot look at their time lines and milestones and be discouraged. Because, they are not us. 

Writer, comparing ourselves is something we do all the time, but it needs to stop. Your story can't come from Joan Bauer, Writer. It has to come from you. And I think that's pretty cool.

Don't give up Writer. God's got great plans for you.

-Libby

"I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139:14

ROUGH Drafts

Dear Writer,

When I looked at the rough draft for my first and only novel I thought to myself, wow. This stinks. I've grown up with these fantastic books that were on the eighth, ninth or tenth draft when I read them. I'd never seen a rough draft of anyone else's book, so I compared mine to theirs. Mine lost.

Do you ever feel like your writing is too sloppy? That your rough draft is too... well.... rough? I have.
The books that we've grown up with, that inspired us to write in the first place, are not comparable to ours. Theirs are finished, ours are not.

Writer, rough drafts are supposed to be full of grammatical errors, missing punctuation, and remnants that you wrote that scene with WAAAAAY too much caffeine in your system. Rough drafts are your story in it's purest form, as messy as it may seem. You know why? Because this is our story just as it came out of us, just as we breathed it into this world.

It's kind of like when a mother gives birth to her child. She's kind of messy and not the prettiest to look at as soon as she arrives, but no one in the room is saying, "Eww! Look at how messy that baby is". They're all saying, "That baby is beautiful, her Mama must be so proud." They all know that babies have to be cleaned up before they're introduced to the world.

Sounds kind of like your first draft, huh Writer? Messy, not the prettiest to look at, but it's yours. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into that draft, so don't give up on it now. Rough drafts are supposed to be rough,Writer, nothing within this world is perfect by default. It takes a lot of hard work to get it that way.

You've done the hard part, you've told yourself a good story. Now, it's time to do the hard part, making it ready for the world to see. This draft is your baby,Writer, it may be messy, it may be flawed. It may have no punctuation other than a couple of stray commas and quotation marks, but that's okay, it's your mess, and you can't abandon it now.

Writer, I know that rough draft looks so rough... it looks sooo rough Writer, but like with everything, with a little elbow grease, it'll get better. This is your story, and it's waiting for you to share it with the world.

-Libby

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." Proverbs 14:23