wip

I was neck-deep in revisions on the latest WIP when one of my beta readers said to me, “You know, this reminds me a little of another story I read.” I was then beset by apocalyptic visions of two months of work wasted, and a dawning realization that I’d read the story he’d mentioned, too. It made me intensely uncomfortable to think I may have inadvertently lifted anything and doubly worse to feel like maybe I didn’t have anything unique to add to any of those conceits.

I spent a few days moping, I’ll admit.

Then some friends and mentors shook me out of my stupor. Your voice is unique, they said. Even with similar conceits, your characters and your plot will be different. This is something I heard again and again at Clarion West: Don’t compare yourself to other writers. Write what moves you, no matter what anyone else is doing. Only you can tell that story, and you have a responsibility, an obligation to tell it.

So I stopped moping, opened up the laptop again and got back to work. Now I’m not saying that you should rip off someone else’s story (and I certainly don’t think I have), but you also shouldn’t let your fear of “not having something new to say” stop you from writing.

Maureen McHugh, one of my awesome Clarion West instructors put it this way: “If you write like yourself, you will write like no one else, and that’s enough.”

Words to live by.