DON’T GET INFECTED
There’s a virus spreading between writers and the infection rate is high. It has the power to destroy your creativity as it builds upon your fears and insecurity. It can contaminate you at any time, no matter where you are on your writing journey.
The major symptoms are jealousy, worthlessness, and despondency. We’re most at risk when our own writing projects are not going as planned. The infection starts when a fellow writer shares their latest good news. We congratulate them with genuine pleasure and joy, but then the virus takes hold deep inside our heads. Doubt thrives on it.
Why are they doing so well, and I’m not? Why did they get a four-book deal with that publisher when the same publisher rejected me? Why can’t my story or poem win a major competition? Why does publication come so easily to others, but not to me?
Thoughts like this can develop into a severe case of comparisonitis. It might sound
