Yesterday our new home teacher came to our home. He was asking about some of our interests, and of course I said that I love to write short stories, and explained how and why I had started writing short stories for children. Alex told him I was thinking of getting them published. Rather than just wishing me luck, he started telling me about another couple in the ward that are professional writers and that they had several things published and had their own website. He asked if I knew them and suggested that they could teach me how to write so that I could have something published someday. I am sure that he was trying to be supportive however something about either what he said or the way he said it left me feeling as though he felt I was less of a writer than this other woman and her husband, and that if I would talk with them I could be good like they are.
I let the thoughts lie dormant until this morning, as I was busy helping several family members yesterday. Then the thoughts surfaced again as I was thinking of my own stories and wondering if my daughter had found a chance to read any of them that I had sent her to edit for me. So I did a quick search for this author whom I had already met a few weeks previously through my visiting teacher. What was the book she had published? What were her books about? She had talked at dinner the evening we were together about the importance of submitting your work to many places or agents if I really wanted to be well known or actually sell any of my work.
Well, I am glad I searched. For here I am, able to share with you that I know she is not necessarily a better writer than I, but she is a different kind of writer, with different opportunities and experiences.
I found that like me, she creates alot of short stories. It is some of these short stories that have won her an award (hence her suggestion that I search for contests to enter) several years ago. I was feeling bad because I have not created a novel or a long book. What I found out is that much of what she has had published are short stories included in another author's compilation book of science fiction stories. Yes she writes fiction, but her fiction is very different than mine. Her stories are all science fiction and fantasy, except for one piece she had published in The Friend. She has the support and assistance of a husband who has also co-authored stories with her. Her husband is a "world builder" which means he creates fantasy worlds and populates them for science fiction. While I work full time, and find only a few minutes to write early in the morning or late at night when my mind is already numb from the cares of the day, she works only part-time, has no children home, and has several hours each day to focus on her writing.
So as I left her website, and moved back to my own short stories, I left with a better attitude than I had started my search with. I had let the opinion of someone else put a doubt in my mind that I was a good writer, or that my writing was of worth. The reality is that neither the other author, her author husband or I are better than one another, we are just different. We write differently, we have had different opportunities to share our work. They have been able to share their work through magazines and compilation books of short stories, while I have shared my work with teachers, children, friends and other parents I have known, and am now ready to share it with many more people. They are blessed to have several hours each day to be able to focus on their writing, while I am blessed with many hours each day to focus on what I feel I believe I can share with others through my talents and abilities. They are able to support, encourage and even work together on their stories and writing. I currently enjoy support and encouragement from close family members in moving in a new direction with my writing and reaching out.
So I remind myself, and you my reader, to remember to balance our own opinions with those of others. Opinions are not truth. Someone else's opinion does not make us right or wrong, better or worse. In the light of knowledge, opinions just offer a chance to see difference.
we tend to be our own worst enemies don't we when we compare our self's to others.we are not the same we may do similar things but we are different...I have a reminder note pinned in my office that says "Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feeling and emotions." It helps if I can stop the emotions from getting to far off track. Good luck with your writing,.
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