Ep 108: When Writers Compare The Good, Bad, and Ugly
As we seek out mentor texts to imitate or emulate, we encourage the mindset of comparison.\n\nWhen I suggested you search out writing you admire, you\u2019re going to be drawn to a writer you look up to, whose work dazzles when you compare it with your own. Naturally, this writer naturally seems superior to you in some way\u2014otherwise, why would you select this author to learn from?\n\nIt\u2019s appropriate to admire skilled authors, which is why Ben Franklin's method and straightforward copywork help us learn from the techniques employed by more experienced writers.\n\nBut as soon as we starting thinking in terms of better or worse, superior or inferior, more or less advanced, more or less prolific, more or less famous\u2026we\u2019re using the language of comparison to label who's better or worse than us at something. And that\u2019s when we teeter on the edge of unhealthy comparison.\nComparison: The Good\nBefore we get to the not-so-good, let\u2019s start with the good. The good news is that there are benefits to comparison. Really!\nAspirational Comparison\nWhen we read people we admire, we see what\u2019s possible\u2014we aspire to write as well as this author or that blogger, this poet or that novelist. One day, we think, maybe I could write something as sharp and clear and scintillating as that.\n\nAnd thanks to aspirational comparison, we might set a word count and get to work in hopes of improving and moving toward that level of excellence. That\u2019s a good thing.\nDiscover Ideas and Solutions\nComparison leads to another good thing: When we compare ourselves to other writers, we look to their text to figure out how they handle the very things we struggle with.\n\nWe get ideas and solutions from the mentor text we choose\u2014maybe they handle flashbacks with ease, for example, and know just went to end a chapter or stanza; they integrate ten-dollar words without sounding pretentious and make humor look easy.\n\nSo we compare their strengths with ours, spot their techniques, and decide if we can apply those to our own efforts and improve so that our own transitions seem more natural and our own chapters make the reader turn the page. By comparing their approach with ours, we see how to improve as a writer.\nCritical Analysis Helps Writers Improve\nComparison really isn't a problem when we see ourselves as students seeking to improve, as professionals taking our work to the next level. MFA students read and analyze mentor texts all the time as part of their study. They discuss the strengths and learn how to apply similar approaches to their own work.\n\nWe don\u2019t have to be in an MFA program to compare one short story or poem to another\u2014or to our own\u2014in hopes of improving. Critical analysis is essential to growing as a writer and represents comparison at its best as we learn from excellent texts.\nComparison: The Bad\nWhen you started thinking through writers you admire\u2014writers you\u2019d like to emulate\u2014did a range of thoughts and feelings squirm inside? Did you realize you don\u2019t just admire those writers\u2014you actually felt something negative as a result of reading and reviewing their work?\n\nMaybe you started to compare their work with yours and felt inferior, like you\u2019d never be able to write as capably as they do. You feel inadequate. You begin to doubt yourself and wonder why you even bother writing when others do it so much better than you ever will.\n\nThis is comparison gone bad.\nWhen Comparison Diminishes Us\nComparison that leads to self-doubt and an inferiority complex can leave us frozen, unable to put another word down on paper. With social media, we compare followers and likes and shares and feel very small and insignificant compared to that writer with a major following or that author with a bestseller.\n\nWhen we feel we don\u2019t measure up to the talent that\u2019s out there\u2014that our work will never be as memorable and beautiful as all the books and stories and poems that have already been written\u2014we end up veering off course, drawing ridiculous conclusions,