Every best selling or successful author you can think of started out just like us. Just a person in front of a blank page with an idea and a desire to tell a story.

I am so sorry to tell you this but you are not special. I know all the amazing affirmations on social media keep telling you how wonderful you are and that you are strong, fearless, smart, capable and enough. They even have pretty pictures to go with the nice things they tell you about yourself.

You are all those positive things but so am I, the person next to you and that other writer in that FB group you hang out in.

We are all the same. Just trying to set our words free on to the world and make an impact for the better.

I am feeling lost in the crowd of writers rolling out books faster than doughnuts and with a catalog of several hundred titles. Many of them *Free or .99 cents on Amazon. Several things zoom in my mind,

How do they do that? Are they really selling books? What makes their books better than mine?

I think how can I show the world that I am special? Hey, look at me!

None of us are special.

What is special is the unique story you and I have hiding in out strong hearts, brilliant souls and smart brains. It is the story that only you or I can tell. It is the story that has to come out of you and me when it is time to tell it.

I can’t write a story with your characters the same way you could. I have my own crazy cast living in my head that you can only meet once I put them on paper. They indeed are special.

It is the element of truth that each writer brings to their writing that is the specialness regardless if you are writing fiction or nonfiction.

Your truth is what makes your story special.

Everyone’s truth is different. Everyone’s perspective is different. It is your unique point of view on the story that is special.

Any of us can write about a single parent and the struggles that go along with that life. You the author who is an actual single father, you can write it in a unique style that gives your character trustworthiness that mine would lack.

Any of us can write about demons, but those of us who have demons that we dance with and know intimately can write them into life.

Stop comparing yourself and your work to other writers.

Do not look at your form of writing in light of anything other than what you intend for it to be.

Write your own story. Breathe your own words on to the page.

Find your story and tell it in your voice.

I promise to listen to my own advice. I do not promise not to pout about it, stomp my foot and declare that I am special. Ugh, fine.

*Just for the record, I am not a fan of giving away novels for free. A plumber would not come to fix your toilet for free. I have given away galley copies, novellas, and short nonfiction. I get the why of it, but I am not a big proponent.

~Lori O’Gara