What (or who) is stopping you from writing?

I wrote for almost a week, edited content 6 times, finalized and published my blog, only to realize the next day that there is a video created on similar concept, already available on You tube. Not only was it disheartening for me, I also started developing self-doubts, fearing people will start thinking I have plagiarized someone else’s idea. After going through some hard moments of uncertainties and apprehensions, I realized how unfair I am to doubt myself every time on such a petty issue and worry about the judgement of people who most of the time, don’t even matter.

This moment of realization (or should I say, awakening) came to me when I comprehended the fact that two great authors writing two books on the same subject, usually end up inscribing similar ideas through almost similar words. They are too magnificent authors to be doubted that they would have stolen ideas from the other. This realization brought instant enormous relief as I was able to drop my unheroic idea of “never writing again”.

I realized that there should be no excuse to stop you from doing something you love to do (in this case, writing). You don’t stop writing just because you found a similar article already available on the internet, or you think people might not appreciate your effort, or you have naysayers pulling you down or you start questioning yourself if you are good enough.

I resolved each of the challenge one by one (thanks to my moment of realization). I realized that there will always be your thought doppelgangers, who will think like you. If you all are writing on the same subject, there will be chances your ideas and writing technique would be similar. There are millions (I couldn’t find the exact number) of people who are writers, or claim to be writers, or wannabe writers (in English language) and there are just 171,476 words available in the Oxford English Dictionary. Think about the chances of ideas getting repetitive!!! And you should actually be thankful that there are people who think like you and have similar thought process. And you can float the same existing idea again since neither the thoughts/ideas, nor the style of writing can be patented.

Coming to the fear of cynics around, I only have three words for them, “ignore their existence”. Remember, only the ones who pushed/pulled you up. These are the ones whom you have to acknowledge in your award acceptance speech.

Lastly, worrying about your writing competence is something you shouldn’t be doing if you have dared to write. There are enough of dreams which died just because the person who dreamt those, was not confident enough to pursue those. It shouldn’t be yours. Just keep writing, practicing and learning. Read authors who inspire you. Watch videos on how to develop writing skills. You need not have training or professional course to pursue a dream. Just pour your heart out cause the heart always materializes ideas in the best way possible.

So keep writing (or pursuing any other dream) and have fun!!!

To know more about the blogger Niharika Chaturvedi, visit www.niharikachaturvedi.com.