Why Oh Why Can’t I Write Like That?

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Ever read someone else’s writing and cringe?

Not because they did a hacked up job of writing and/or editing, but because they are SO good!

They are so good that you are suddenly reduced to the insecurities of a teenager.

And from out of nowhere you hear yourself saying (in a surprisingly high piercing nasally voice I might add), “Why oh why can’t I write like that?!”

Been there done that my friend.

I too, agonize over another writer’s perfect prose. The witty way they used that word or the colorful way they intertwined adjectives. I usually take notes. It all goes into my “words I wish to remember and use one day so I can sound brilliant too!”

Alas, like anything else in life there’s good and bad news.

I think you know the bad news.

Yes no matter how much you want to, would pay someone to do it for you, mimic it and try your hardest to, you can never write like that writer you put on a pedestal.

It would be like Oprah trying to mimic Barbara Walters. And she did try, really, she did.

But if Oprah was good at being Barbara Walters, she wouldn’t have ever been Oprah. She wouldn’t be so famous that she just needs a first name. Even Ms. Walters doesn’t have that.

And the same thing goes for your writing.

So here’s the good news.

You can’t write like someone else. Writing is kind of like your fingerprint. No one can write exactly like you. But that’s a good thing too.

Find your voice, what makes you special, what makes others read your words and wish they could write like you too, then you’ll be the best you.

And that’s actually something worth aspiring to.

So while you can spend your time reading and rereading that other author’s articles, you can also spend that time reworking your own.

Do it and one day you might even catch their attention or those of others you admire.

Do it and one day you might surpass even that write you’re crushing over. Because you’re being you.

And what could be better than that?