Category Archives: Blog

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.

A few months ago I read one of my stories allowed…in front of an audience. I agreed to do this several months before the actual event. Long before I had considered what this would mean. It meant standing up before total strangers and a handful of friends and reading a story that I had poured my heart into. Not to mention the hours of editing and revisions I put my story through to get it ready to be read aloud.

At first I couldn’t even decide what story I wanted to read. For a few months I was sure I wanted to read one story about an old legend and an extinct Indian tribe. But the closer I got to the event the louder the voice inside my head said, “No, that isn’t the right story. Don’t read that one.”  No matter what my friends said to encourage me that voice wouldn’t be silent.

Eventually I decided on another story that needed quite a bit of editing but felt more like something I would be comfortable reading to an audience. It was a story about a young girl living on her own for the first time and being terrified. I was convinced that if I got scared during the reading everyone would simply attribute it to the character of the story. So with the help of one of my friends I edited the story until we both felt it was ready and sure enough there were only a few weeks until the reading. That’s when the panic set in.

Suddenly every time I thought about reading my story I got sick to my stomach, my palms became sweaty. All I could think about was that I had made a mistake and no one would want to hear my silly story. What if no one liked it? What if I couldn’t bring myself to read it? Or I became so nervous that I stuttered and couldn’t be understood?

However despite the fact that every fiber in my being told me to flee I didn’t. I practiced reading the story in my room. This reassured me that I wasn’t missing any flaws within the story. So on the night of the reading I showed up and read my story aloud to an audience for the first time. It was horrible and fantastic. I was so incredibly nervous but when it was my turn I stood up and I read.

I read perfectly every line. I fell into the rhythm of the story and almost forgot where I was. Not once did I look up at the audience. I kept my eyes focused on the paper afraid that if I looked away for a moment I would lose my place. The moment I was done I returned to my seat and felt exhaustion and relief pour over me.

Afterwards a couple of people came up to me and told me what a great job I had done. This made me feel great. I was relieved. I hadn’t made a fool of myself and no one had told me I should give up writing. In fact knowing I was going to read my story to people encouraged me to work on it. I would suggest that every writer read his or her story aloud at some event even if they only do it once.It is a great experience and will definitely help you in so many ways as a writer. Just know now it may be the scariest thing you do.