Erin Albert’s Blog

Again, interrupting the alphahomage to America with this little tidbit that I’ve personally been working on this year, and thought I would share it with you, my awesome readers (and fellow writers), as you might be facing this challenge too. Here’s what I think could be the bane of existence to a lot of writers (and to me personally): trying to be everything to everyone.  You just can’t do it.  It’s not wise.  Here’s why.

It is an unsustainable model.  If you’re busy being liked by everyone, or if you’re trying to cover everything in a book rather than a narrow, specific, unique, never-written-about-before field or to a niche market–trying to be whatever each and every person wants you to be, you lose the very best thing about being a writer: you lose yourself.

So, while there are a lot of critics out there about other writers’ works, my own included, first off, thanks for your feedback.  It is appreciated.  And, I’m glad you’re paying attention long enough to critique my work. However, while I will certainly take your feedback into consideration, the last thing I’m going to try and do is worry about everyone else being happy with me and my work.  The person I really have to answer to about my writing at the end of the day is me…and trust me, that’s more than enough.  If you aren’t happy with my work, well, then, we shall agree to disagree.  But the world will not take a homogenized version of me - it is just too…bland!

And last but not least, if anyone out there is trying to get you to be a watered down, homogenized, everything-to-everyone version of you…just remember: what your purpose in life or purpose for being here just might be tied to your uniqueness - and if you get rid of that, what’s left?

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 17th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.