On What Comparison Is Actually Doing

Of all the tricks the inner critic plays, comparison might be the most effective.

It's subtle. It doesn't announce itself the way procrastination does, or show up as obviously as the voice that says you're not ready. It arrives quietly, usually while you're reading something you admire or hearing about a writer whose work has moved you. And before you've had a chance to enjoy what you just experienced, the critic has already turned it into evidence.

Evidence that you're not good enough. Not talented enough. Not experienced enough. Not creative enough.

The result looks different from writer to writer, but it amounts to the same thing. Some writers go quiet. They step back from their writing, then further back, and eventually stop altogether. Others find their perfectionism suddenly running at full speed — nothing they write feels worthy, so they revise endlessly, squeeze every sentence until it can barely breathe, and produce less and less while working harder and harder.

In both cases, the writing suffers. In both cases, the inner critic wins.

So how do we move through it?

The first thing is also the simplest, and it begins with catching yourself in the act.

When you notice you're comparing yourself to someone whose writing you admire, stop for a moment and look at what's actually happening. You read something and it moved you. You heard a piece of writing and it made you feel something. A writer did something with language or story or character that you found beautiful, or true, or surprising.

That's not a threat. That's inspiration.

You don't need to turn it into a measurement. You don't need to add I'll never be able to do that, or that's the kind of writer I'm not, or what's the point of continuing if this is what good looks like. None of that is required. You can simply receive what you experienced — the pleasure of it, the spark of wanting to try something — and let the rest go.

You were inspired. The story ends there.

The second thing is a little harder but worth practising.

Instead of measuring yourself against the writer you admire, try being grateful for them. For the fact that they exist. That they write the way they write. That there are so many different ways to tell a story, so many different perspectives to bring to the page, so many different voices doing things no other voice could do in quite the same way.

Because here's what comparison conveniently forgets: the fact that another writer is not like you also means that you are not like them. You have stories only you can tell. A perspective only you carry. A way of seeing the world that no amount of talent or experience or credentials can replicate in someone else.

You are not behind. You are exactly where you need to be to begin writing the story that is asking to be written right now. With your current understanding of the craft. With your current experience. With everything you've lived and noticed and felt up to this point.

Will the first draft be perfect? No. But that's true for every writer, at every level, every single time. The draft is never the destination. It's the beginning of something you get to shape, refine, and grow into. There is tremendous growth available in the revision process — but only if you write the draft first.

And that's precisely what the inner critic is trying to prevent.

Its job is to keep you among the overwhelming majority of writers who never finish. Because if you never finish, you can never find out what your writing is capable of. You can never grow. You can never surprise yourself. The critic knows that the moment you complete something, its power over you diminishes.

So let other writers inspire you. They're proof that there is an infinite number of ways to tell a story, an infinite number of voices the world needs to hear.

You are part of that infinity.

Tell your story.

If you're feeling inspired and ready to start — or to get back into your writing — I'm running a Writer's Camp beginning August 3rd. It's a warm, supportive space to write, share, and grow alongside fellow writers, wherever summer finds you.

I'd love to help you get started.

Register here: www.ihelpyouwritethings.com/writinggroups

Wishing you and your stories all the best,
Trevor Martens
Founder, I Help You Write Things

P.S. The writer you admire most was once exactly where you are. They just kept going.