I’m not Shaunta Grimes

Though I’d love to write like her

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

I’d love to publish on Medium like Shaunta Grimes does. She writes such brilliant articles on the craft of writing, on making the best of the platform and I enjoy her pieces about her family life.

I’d love to be like her, but I’m not.

For a start I don’t work nearly as hard on my writing as she does.

I wish I didn’t have my job but I do. Yesterday I left the house at 7.25am to commute to London and I got home just before 8pm. I did write during the train journeys but by the end of the day my head is mentally shot to pieces.

I’d love to have more time and space to come up with ideas and write about vignettes of daily life. When I have tried the results are trite and boring.

Maybe I just need more practice.

Some people have this amazing capacity to put in the hours for what they want. Shaunta is definitely one of these people and has earned all of her writing achievements through sheer hard work and determination.

But here’s the thing. We are all different. We all have different lives, different circumstances, different physical and mental capacities.

We can’t write like anyone else because we are not them. We have to develop a style, a habit and a type of output which is uniquely ours.

I have to do the best I can, with where I’m at right now.

I have to write like me.

P.S. Thank you Shaunta Grimes and all of the Ninja Writers crew. I learn so much from you.