Karah Spahn
asked
Elizabeth Gilbert:
Elizabeth, how do you move past that feeling of "everyone else is more creative/ a better writer/ than me?" I always feel like my creations and writing are never as good as others'!
Elizabeth Gilbert
Well, here is my question, Karah — what if everyone IS better than you? (I mean, they aren't. But for the sake of argument, let's just say that they are.) If every single person in the world was a better writer than you, what would that mean for your life? Would that change your desire to want to write? Is that why you're spending time writing — in order to win the Best Writer in the World Trophy? I'm teasing you, but this is the same thing I ask myself, whenever I start to feel unworthy (and I do feel that way at times, because we all do.) I remind myself why I do this work — because of what it unfolds in ME, because of what it allows ME to become, because of how fascinated I am with the puzzles and mysteries of the creative process itself. I write because I love writing. Anytime I have a different motive, I've already taken the wrong exit off the highway. If I'm doing it because I want to be better than everyone, I'm doomed. There will always be someone better. There may always be 100 people better. I can even make it to the top — but then somebody will inevitably unseat me. There are authors so staggeringly talented out there, I will never be able approach their mastery. I don't care. Let them do them; you do you. As I always say, "I never promised the universe I would be a GOOD writer; I just promised I would be a writer. Period."
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