Feelings of competition with other writers?

DZara

DZara

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There's so much to browse through still, and I'm still pretty new here, but I do have a question for those of you who do write - would love to hear some of your opinions, or if you've heard other writers talking about it.

How do you handle feelings of competition with other writers who are more successful/more prolific/working in the same genre as you?

Is this ever something that gets better, or will I just have to mentally work around it forever? It makes it hard for me to make friends with and be in close contact with other writers for long periods of time, which is what I feel I need in order to improve my work. After reading a lot of these posts, I feel like I can ask this question openly here.

I want to have a feeling of camaraderie instead, but not sure how to achieve that. What say you?:unsure:
 
Firstly - I'm lucky as I have a good relationship with most writers I know - many - and find it a supportive one, even if they're outselling me a thousand to one.

Indeed, last night I found myself in the bizarre position of being included in a map of sff writers in the UK. @chopper was, as ever, first to say congrats, and admit a tiny tinge of jealousy (as I would have also had.) At which point I reminded him he's listed for a gemmell award. :)

Someone, somewhere will do better than you on some front every single day. For me, making it not a competition but recognising it was an individual journey helped.

Writing this blog(about that journey) helped me:
JoZebwrites: On pride

All I do know is this business works on contacts and other writers often open those contracts - so in being competitive with them, you hurt your own prospects. But also, it's a hard lonely road - without others who understand, it's even harder.
 
Be yourself. Write as well as you are able. Don't try to compete with others because you will spend all your time watching what they are doing and not doing anything yourself.

Honestly it is not worth it.
Just enjoy writing and any rewards it brings.
 
One of my favorite parts of getting into writing has been talking to other authors. I love reading their stuff, buying it, reviewing it, leaving amazon ratings, because I understand it's all necessary to help build other authors careers. Some of them don't need my support, but I like to give it anyway. We are not in competition with each other. I'm producing a series of anthologies now. The other guy out there doing the same thing, is doing a wonderful job. He is not competition rather a compliment to what I want to do. His success will help my success and vice versa.

I don't know a single reader who only reads one author. They read a lot.

I have been amazed by how supportive others out there are, and have quickly realized how small the writing world is. It's quite neat to see to be honest.
 
DZara said:
How do you handle feelings of competition with other writers who are more successful/more prolific/working in the same genre as you?
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I'll never be able to write the same as other writers, so all I can do is write to the best standard that I am capable of. In that way, I can't worry about whether other writers are publishing more frequently or selling more.

However - and here's the big plus - people who enjoy one author will sometimes seek out similar authors and buy their books. In this regard, other writers are your friends - especially in the same subgenre - whether they realise it or not. :)
 
I would say that I feel both a sense of competition with other writers, and a sense of camaraderie with them.

I want every writer to be the best they can be. I really really do. They're awesome people, by and large, and me being a writer wouldn't be possible without them being so helpful and writing the books that made me want to be a writer. Advice, promotion, emotional support - I'll do it. They deserve it.

At the same time, I want to be the best of the bunch. That's burning away in the back of my head. That desire is part of what brings me back when I'm not feeling it - the knowledge that being the best usually means being the hardest worker.

I see both as being compatible. I'm never going to seek to outdo other authors by doing them down. My plan is to do everything I reasonably can to help them sell a million books, then go out and sell a million and one. I should probably start by selling one before I declare such plans but hey, there we go. I envy the success of others, but I don't wish they didn't have it. I just wish to have it too.

I also firmly believe that you can't become the best without helping others. With anything in life, there is only so far you can progress a skill by learning yourself. Helping others learn will force you to understand what good writing means a lot more effectively. Its not just about making contacts and friends, its about being a better writer.

Likewise, there is nothing stopping you from being friends from someone who's more successful than you. I've been firm friends with people going for the same job as me, people who've taken my place in the rugby team, people whose place I've taken, captains who haven't picked me, everything... I like my sports metaphors so I'll say that being a writer is kind of like being on a sports team. The camaraderie of doing it together is more important than the competition of aiming for the same rewards. With the added bonus there can only be one goalkeeper, but there can be as many people selling a million books as can get there. We're not even in that strong a competition. As Brian said, everyone who makes your subgenre popular isn't doing you down, they're doing you a favour.
 
I find I don't care so much about other peoples work. I love my characters and my own stories. If no one else ever reads them I figure they're a great thing to hand down to my kids and I had a blast doing them. Also the few successes I have had wouldn't have happened if I was a bad writer.

Jo Zebedee said:
Firstly - I'm lucky as I have a good relationship with most writers I know - many - and find it a supportive one, even if they're outselling me a thousand to one.
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Absolutely - I've found a lot of support from other authors and wouldn't be where I am without them. Much more than among other creative groups I've met with my writing. I'm not selling any novels at the moment. I'm getting excited about getting really good blog numbers or when a fan sent me a picture she'd drawn of a cygnet and a peachick (Socrates, one of my characters, turns into a swan and his partner into a white peacock and she's one of the few to know about Little Chicks, a story I wrote about the day they met). I still get a huge buzz when I get retweeted or like happened a few days a tweet about a John Barrowman brought one fan to my feed but her sharing of Mayhem brought 40 people to my blog. Oh and I have my ebook cover which is really exciting (although not the one I planned it went down better with my target audience than the one I wanted)

I'm a review whore. The day someone wrote they spat out their drink and ruined their keyboard because of Mayhem, one of my stories, was a particular highlight. A wonderful review recently from an LGBTQ site gave me a buzz.

More recently Black's Nest got this:
I don't quite have the time to read this all in one sitting, but I just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying it! You've got a nice dry-humor sort of written voice, and you define unique and odd concepts (such as a wingectomy smelling like marshmallows :p) very well. I'm only to chapter four so far, but I'm looking forward to finishing up when I can. Nice work, quirky and funny without going over the top!

And it spurred me on to finish the book.

I find my own small goals are all I need to keep going and not care about others. In 2016 I don't think a writer can survive and succeed without a community of others writers.

Indeed, last night I found myself in the bizarre position of being included in a map of sff writers in the UK. @chopper was, as ever, first to say congrats, and admit a tiny tinge of jealousy (as I would have also had.) At which point I reminded him he's listed for a gemmell award. :)

r.
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That was a rare moment of jealousy when I realised I wanted to squeeze Emma Maree Urqhuart up a bit. Don't want to get rid of her but would have liked to have seen my name on it. But I noticed Barry Hutchinson was missing from round Fort William, so I'm in good company ;) He's got a contract with Harper Collins for his children's books and has won awards etc so if he didn't get on...
 
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I think your question makes me wonder why you're writing.

If you're writing in comparison to another writer - any writer - you're setting yourself up for misery and definite failure simply because we are our own worst judges. You have to write for yourself and no one else. If you don't like what you write, then it's likely others may not. If you do like your writing, then what does it matter?

There's no empirical, absolute standard of either good writing, or success. How happy was Amy Winehouse? Where is she now?

I've had feelings of embarrassment when people have remarked positively on my writing. I feel like an amateur hanging with pros even though there're no pros around me. It doesn't stop me feeling inferior though.

How do you measure success? Or, how do you measure failure? Go down that rabbit hole and you'll lose yourself.

Envy is natural but I wouldn't pay it any notice. We support each other and that quiet voice of envy that pops up now and again is part of being human. Having it confirms you're a self-aware, emotional living being.

It's even true that if you have people whose prose or advice you dislike or disagree with, you might feel pleased if and when they fail.

Just do you. You'll be fine. :)

pH
 
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If the jealousy drives you to get better, use it. If it exhausts and defeats you, you need to move past it. All I can say is that from the perspective of my teaching career, it is good to be at a place where you are new to something and can forgive yourself for your mistakes. The second you stop forgiving yourself is the second you start destroying yourself.
 
Cory Swanson said:
If the jealousy drives you to get better, use it. If it exhausts and defeats you, you need to move past it. All I can say is that from the perspective of my teaching career, it is good to be at a place where you are new to something and can forgive yourself for your mistakes. The second you stop forgiving yourself is the second you start destroying yourself.
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My goodness, that sounds like something from one of my sermons. Perhaps you are in the wrong business? (y)
 
I don't feel that it is a competitive thing. Surely if an sf writer does well, then they are also doing a favour to all sf writers, by advancing the genre. Maybe even encouraging more sf reading.
I certainly don't feel jealous, I say good for them!
 
May I tell you a story? (hush! what a thing for a writer to say!!)

I had the good fortune, earlier in my life, to work as assistant for one well-known SF writer, and to be the friend of a Grandmaster; and I can tell you that they both had the same attitude on this question: they loved their fellow writers!
Both of them would drop everything if one of their peers came to town and wanted to be taken out to eat -- or drink. (And their peers, if passing through town, would often call them out for exactly that...)
The first of those two, I think, explained it best: he likened being an SF writer to being a member of one of those clubs that used to be a fixture in stories that took place in London -- in this case, he said, think of it as the Explorer's Club, at a time when members would periodically go out to explore deepest Africk, and be gone for two years -- only to come back with hair-raising tales of their exploits.
SF writers, he said, were like explorers: both sorts made their lives (not just their money, but the things that made their lives worth living) by exploring unknown territory. And those experiences created some of the strongest bonds to be found in literature.
SF writers, I think he meant, were never in competition. They were collaborators, for all benefited from advancement of the genre.

(I'll admit that it may be harder to do this, these day -- there are a lot more writers floating around than there used to be. But no matter...)

Come, sit down -- what'll you have?
 
Phyrebrat said:
That's a great story!!

I just wish there were more horror writers I could go exploring with. ;)

pH
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In a lighter way, that's what we're doing here in Chrons...

Oh! and you, as a writer of horror (I just could not call you a "horror writer"!), are not restricted only to the comradeship of other writers of horror -- you already have a lot in common with all of us.
 
2DaveWixon said:
In a lighter way, that's what we're doing here in Chrons...

Oh! and you, as a writer of horror (I just could not call you a "horror writer"!), are not restricted only to the comradeship of other writers of horror -- you already have a lot in common with all of us.
Click to expand...
Actually I do think the chrons build a sense of mutual support.
 
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