If you find a great work that questions your own talent, then maybe you should see about burning all the rest of the works in that library. Apparently, nothing will ever measure up to this heightened standard, so why bother? You should even swear off reading.

Not everyone wants to read a textbook, ER. Not everyone wants to read a technical journal. Not everyone wants to read the transcripts of Apollo Missions. Not everyone wants to read “Gone with the Wind,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Wuthering Heights,” “The Iliad,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Galileo’s Daughter”…

Not everyone is satisfied with just seeing Spot run, either.

The human population comes in gradients and there is an audience for everything ever written — “The Cat in the Hat” — everything that ever will be written — “Cydroid.”

To stop writing just because you found someone DEAD who you deem better is an even worse excuse.

Dig out your best manuscript, pull out all your resource material and get busy. Posterity is to be the judge. Judging oneself is the job of the timid artist who sits at home and does nothing, not the bold, the valiant, the visionary, the wannabe novelist.

JUST GO FOR IT.

One of my biggest pet peeves on writing, and the main reason I feel like other writers tend to quit, is attempting to mimic someone else’s styles and standards down to the letter, and then despairing on how they can’t seem to achieve this. Of course they can’t – they’re not the old masters, they’re themselves.

Inspiration by the writings of old is good and fine, but replication will only lead to ruin. Don’t be afraid to take things in your own direction – practice, experiment, and find what feels most comfortable!