I sure do.

I just went to a Family Christian Store to buy a cd for my wife for Mother’s Day and I spent a while browsing. I found my friend Cindy Coloma’s new book entitled Ruby Unscripted (go buy a copy–she’s great!). I didn’t see any of my books (well, that’s okay, I’ve only eleven published so far–oh wait, that’s kinda sad). I saw endless copies of books by the big names. Even for a small store like that, it was enough to be overwhelmed by the amount of new titles vying for people’s attention. 

I remind myself that there are two unique things every author out there has: his voice and his worldview. 

Nobody has a voice like yours or like mine–each voice we have is unique. Some are beautiful and some insightful and some smooth and some hilarious. Whatever your voice might be, it’s yours. 

The same with your worldview. And I’m not talking about your religious worldview, or your view on politics or anything else like that. I’m talking about the way you see life. Everything about it. Yes, your views on faith and politics but also whether you like condiments and what sports you follow (if any) and whether you like walking barefoot around the house and if you’re a morning or a night person. Your worldview on everything. That is uniquely yours.

Those two things are what make any author (or any artist) unique. 

Doesn’t mean that a million people should necessarily go buy your book or mine. But it does mean that your book is unique just like mine just like the many others. 

Nobody’s going to tell a story in quite the way I tell one. That can be good and that can be bad. 

I tell myself this because there is a reason for me to continue to create and put books on the shelves with the rest of the literary world. Those books belong. 

And if you’re a writer, you need to believe that your books belong too. Tell yourself this the next time you’re strolling through a Barnes & Noble or a library wondering why bother. 

Bother because you’re you and because nobody else is going to write the book that you do.