Summary

The web content presents the "31-Day Ninja Writing Challenge 2019: Day Eight," emphasizing the importance of avoiding comparison with other writers to maintain joy and progress in one's writing journey.

Abstract

The article titled "Challenge Yourself to Stop Comparing Yourself to Other Writers" is part of the "31-Day Ninja Writing Challenge 2019" series, specifically focusing on Day Eight. It acknowledges the common struggle among writers to resist comparing themselves to others who may seem more successful. The author, Shaunta Grimes, encourages writers to embrace their unique journey and avoid the joy-diminishing habit of comparison. The challenge for the day is to adopt a personal mantra that reinforces the commitment to one's writing path, suggesting that consistent effort and personal growth are more important than external benchmarks. Writers are invited to share their chosen mantras in a Facebook group and to continue daily reading and writing practices. The article concludes with a call to action to subscribe to further challenge posts via email.

Opinions

The author believes that comparison with other writers is detrimental to one's satisfaction and writing career.
Shaunta Grimes asserts that every writer is on their own path and that it is crucial to focus on personal progress rather than the achievements of others.
The article promotes the idea that consistent writing, reading, and goal setting are key to advancing one's writing career.
The concept of a mantra is introduced as a tool to help writers stay motivated and focused on their individual journeys.
The author suggests that the practice of comparing oneself to others, especially those who are outliers in their success, can lead to discouragement and potentially cause writers to abandon their craft.

Challenge Yourself to Stop Comparing Yourself to Other Writers

31-Day Ninja Writing Challenge 2019: Day Eight

Photo by feliperizo.co | heart made on Unsplash

This Teddy Roosevelt quote really speaks to me.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

It really does, doesn’t it? It just sucks the happy juice right out of everything.

I know how hard it can be. You read about some 24-year-old selling the first draft of her first novel for six figures, or that one guy in your writing group gets an agent when you’ve been trying for five years longer than he has. Or an unlimited number of things, right?

Here’s a fact of life: there will always be someone a step or two (or ten) ahead of where you are.

For the rest of this challenge, I want you to practice not comparing yourself with other writers. Not published writers. Not the other writers in your critique group. Not your cousin’s best friend’s daughter’s teacher who just got a publishing contract. Not other Ninja Writers. Not anyone.

You are exactly where you’re supposed to be on your own journey, right now, today. You’re writing every day. You’re reading intensely. You’re setting your goals and sticking to them. You’re learning.

If you do all of that consistently for long enough, you will keep moving forward on your own path.

You can’t be on anyone else’s. And comparing your beginning with someone else’s middle or end (or comparing your perfectly normal progress with a phenom outlier) is a fast path to giving up on your writing career.

I know this might seem silly, but today I want you to pick a mantra that will remind you to stay on your own course.

Mine is the Ray Bradbury quote I shared with you at the start of this challenge: “Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens.”

You’re welcome to borrow mine. Or you can pick another writing quote. Or some sort of affirmation.

If you’re stuck, you could always try: I am a Ninja Writer.

ASSIGNMENT EIGHT:

Take a Sharpie and write your mantra boldly in your notebook. Maybe even on the cover. Say it out loud every day for the rest of the month. See where that takes you.

Come on over to Facebook and share your mantra with the class.

Don’t forget to read and write for ten minutes each today!

You can check out all the other posts in this challenge below.

31 Days of Ninja Writing Challenges: 2019

Spend the next month kicking ass!

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Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the original Ninja Writer.