A few years ago, I wrote that writing is thinking. You are better off writing to think, not trying to think before you write.
“But some people are just better at it,” Ant K writes in a comment (which Karolis recently agreed with). He compared his work with another author he held in high esteem. “He has it. I don’t.”
While there are different people with different talents when it comes to writing, it just doesn’t really matter.
Or, rather, it matters as much as you think it matters.
I used to think I didn’t have interesting life experiences to write about. While my grandparents and parents had all of the adventures (including immigrating from Hong Kong to Canada), I grew up in the suburbs in Canada. There were literally hundreds of thousands of kids who did the same thing. What could I possibly have to write about that people would consider interesting?
While an occasional English teacher would praise my skills, I had slightly above average writing skills at best. Certainly not comparable to the authors I held in high esteem, or anything that I thought would be worth pitching a traditional media publication.
These beliefs didn’t make me feel better, and it didn’t encourage me to write. After a long time—too long—I chose to see the world differently. You could say all of Creative Doing was me working through this belief and rewiring my brain. After I made that decision, I realized that I had a lot to offer. I have to keep practicing this decision by writing in my journal. I often turn to Byron Katie’s framework, The Work. Derek Sivers also wrote some great questions for reframing.
It was as if my brain started accepting that I had a story tell, and actually remembered these life experiences. How I grew up in church six days a week. How existential philosophy changed my life. How technology shaped my life. How I experienced my first kiss one random Saturday night. How lost I felt in business school. How determined I was to become a writer—even when I believed that I didn’t matter—that I started my professional writing career by writing for dollars per post. And so much more… (I’m writing some of these stories for my next book right now!)
If “Some people have it, some don’t,” encourages you to practice—then by all means, believe it. But if that narrative does not encourage you to practice, then you would benefit from choosing a more energizing, liberating, belief. You may be surprised at how your brain rises to the occasion.
While my original response to Ant was to focus more on the intrinsic rewards of writing, and not to compare his work to someone else’s, I’d certainly make the case now that when you write and publish, you are adding another option to the world—which makes it better.
Even if you don’t think your work holds a candle up to the author you admire, someone may be able to relate to your work in a way that they can’t to anyone else’s. They had to hear you say it your way. If it changes even one person’s life slightly, it would have been worth it.
It’s not about what you have, it’s about what you give. And in order to give more of yourself, you will need to accept yourself. What’s definitely true is you have something—everybody does. It’s up to you to decide whether you are willing to share it or not.