Writer’s block is not something I used to believe in. If you were stuck, I thought, it was simply due to a lack of effort; a block can always be navigated around.
Now at the quarter way point into my latest novel I am struggling to write more than eight hundred words in a week. It seemed the best cure is to seek inspiration, find a book that resonates with what I am hoping to write. So I turned to a classic: Flowers for Algernon. It was not that I wanted to write a similar book (my protagonist is brain boosted from an early age to fulfill a top secret project). But in reading this SF masterwork I was in awe at some of the writing – the depiction of a man who goes from ‘retard’ (yes it’s an old book with outdated terms) to ubergenius, and the interweaving of a tragic love story.
So how can I even hope to compete with such a science fiction classic, I wondered to myself. Well, for a start there is no point in writing something comparable that can only end up as a pastiche. I have to find my own voice, the one that distinguishes my style of writing.
And yet. I see the standard. I see the level of the bar and feel my limbs go weak at the thought of trying to vault it. This is the problem of when – as a writer – you encounter another writer who you know has set an example, one you imagine could be used by the literary agent that rejects your latest.
So somehow I have to not fixate on writing a classic. There’s maybe some analogy in sport, or academia; observing the star talent and thinking: why should I even bother to compete? But no one can know the effort, or the time, the greatest put in to become just that.
Then, be positive? Of course, but it’s always a challenge!
Links to my published fiction: The Captured (US) The Captured (UK)
I just don’t think about it like that. I challenge myself to beat the limits that I think are defined for me. If not, I use someone else being more successful than me as inspiration to aim to surpass the bar that they set or I just reinvent their great work but make it a slight bit better
Keep going, you’ll get there! Remember writing isn’t a competition – it’s about sharing a good story x
Thanks for your comment. It only feels like a competition when you’re trying to get accepted by an agent, many of whom cite authors they like, so it seems they are using those as template. Well, i guess they can afford to be choosy.