From The TypeWriter

One thing I found as a new blogger is that my site is constantly evolving and changing as it grows into what I want it to become. When I first started just a few months ago I imagined pushing out several posts a week on what it’s like to be a writer. That hasn’t exactly been the case.

I have only posted a few articles so far and am working on more to come. I hold myself and my writing to such a high standard that when some of my posts haven’t hit the mark I aimed for I chose not post them saving them for when they’re ready.

I also have drifted closer to wanting to write book reviews. I so enjoyed reading and reviewing that first book I was given and voice my own opinion to the public which is something I haven’t done before. To imagine that my opinion might have some influence now or in the future is an intoxicating feeling.

It has been a challenge to get more books to review because of the famous catch 22 “You need to have experience to get experience”.  I refer to my degree in English Literature and my passion for books. I have read more books than I could ever begin to count and since high school have developed my own tastes and opinions for the books that I love to read. I do love a variety of books, but I hold the ones I love to a high standard.

So when a new book comes along that does live up to that standard it can be disappointing but I can also tell you exactly where the book may have gone wrong and what I would have liked to seen from it. On the other hand when I find a book that I love! I want to scream it. I want to share it with everyone I know. “Hey please read this book….like right now!” I want other readers to share my passion and I know they will want to share it to which is an amazing thing about the reading community.

I’m enjoying the blogging community and becoming a more active member of the book lover community and doing it all as a writer!

Many book nerds like myself joke that their best friends are the characters they read about in books. Many people laugh at our joke, because those characters aren’t real, right? Wrong!

Those characters are absolutely real. They aren’t made up of flesh and blood like you and I are. They’re made up of ink and paper. However those characters do share something in common with you and I. They have real emotions, real goals, and real stories.

We listen to our friends talk and tell us their emotions and their goals in life. That isn’t any different to the characters that tell us about  their emotions and goals in their lives. We intimately follow them on their journey. We feel what they feel, we root for them, we get mad at them sometimes, we even believe we can talk to them because we know them so well we know what they would say to us.

The books we read and the characters in them have an effect on us as powerful as the people in our lives. To use one of my favorite quotes, “When you read a book as a child it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does” – Kathleen Kelly, You’ve Got Mail

I bet you can remember the books you read as a child and the characters you loved best. I started with the Tree House Series, and continued on to Narnia, The Island of the Aunts, The Indian in the Cupboard, Inkheart, and  now books like the Night Circus to name but a few. To narrow it down and to stop there is almost a physical pain because there are so many books and so many characters that touched me not just as a child, but throughout my short life time.

So yes characters are real and they are mine and every other book lover’s friend.

To be surrounded by people who share your dream can be validating. It proves that you are not alone on your journey. You can commiserate with your fellow writers and learn from each other, maybe share secrets of success. You can also count on them to read your work and give you honest feedback, and by returning the favor you can learn from their writing.

But how do you stand out in a crowd of writers all vying for the public’s attention. We all want our work to be recognized to prove that all of our hard work hasn’t been for nothing. That we are in fact a good writer, maybe even a great writer.

As you sit at your desk reading a colleagues work and realizing you don’t have much feedback to give because their story is good, so good that you might question your own work. Will your writing ever be this good? How will your stories stand out next to this one?

There will always be someone who is better than you. It is better to accept that now and stop comparing yourself to other writers no matter how much you want to. It will only scare you and shake your resolve. But as long as writing is the only thing you can imagine doing then you shouldn’t give it up.

Instead as you read that story that might be better than yours learn from it. What makes it better? Why do you like it so much? How can that knowledge improve your own story? Ask that writer to read your own story and see what they might suggest to improve it.

Don’t compare your first draft to their fourth draft. They went through several stages of revision to get their story to this point and you will too. Then you’ll give your work to someone to read and they too will wonder how do I get my work this good?

Once your writing is ready you will find a niche for your story where it can stand out and shine. Don’t worry about standing out above the rest because readers love many different stories. Instead stand out with the rest and your story will have its chance to shine.