First of all, I sincerely doubt that you “suck ass.” If it makes you feel any better, I feel like that all the time when I read, say, Bob Hicok’s or Sharon Olds’ or Richard Siken’s writing. That’s the last thing I want you to feel/do when you read my writing. I’d much rather you be inspired by my writing and decide to write even more than stop writing altogether.
I think it’s fine to compare your writing to others’, but eventually a certain amount of comparison is unhealthy. So I think you should look at my writing with a different lens. Look at it like, “I could use her work for inspiration and ideas,” rather than “I can never write like she does.”
In order to improve, my best tips would be to read as much poetry and writing as you can, and not just mine. Branch out and read others’ writing. Read it ravenously. And you know what? Maybe you should take a few days off from reading mine if it makes you discouraged.
Check out as many poetry books or short story books, etc from the library as you can and just spend a few days reading through those. While you’re reading, keep a notebook filled with short phrases that you liked, and then try to identify tips or techniques that you admired and could use in your own writing later.
It’s also totally okay to imitate other writers’ styles, too. That might actually even help you develop your own unique style.
Compare anything and everything. Make metaphors, similes, analogies, etc. There are so many similarities between the craters of the moon and the hollows and dips of someone’s knees. Maybe ribs climb up someone’s chest like a staircase or a ladder. Maybe the way the light spills through the window in the morning is like honey. Maybe you fall in love the way a tree falls: quickly and with reckless abandon, but always with a great crash at the end. But don’t, don’t, don’t compare things like the ocean to blue eyes, or hair to a cascading waterfall. Break out of the box and find something that isn’t cliché.
Fill your writing in with specific details; dig deeper into a certain idea than you normally would. For example, instead of writing “The sheets lie in a mess on the bed,” write “The sheets, cold with the absence of our bodies, lie tangled like the ridges of a mountain on the bed. They are full of rivulets and caves and crevasses where we haphazardly flung our limbs out to the side in sleep, full of some wild abandon we were not fully aware of when awake.” If you can really pull that idea apart and rip into it, sink your teeth deep into the meat of it, you can really give the reader the full picture of what you’re trying to convey.
Experiment and take risks as much as you can. Try something new. I find that trying something new is one of the best methods for improving.
But I really just want you to enjoy my writing and not look at it as if you need to live up to it or write like me. Just enjoy it.
I hope that helped. xo
P.S. Here’s a beautiful thought from another wonderful tumblr user: “For the writer that feels discouraged, I would say that they should spend as much time reading other people’s work as they do breaking it down. Writing is a process of art, not of simple conveyance of thought. They are the colors that you breath, the whispers of life hidden within valleys of expression. Do not feel daunted by the twisting cavern of another writers soul. Walk inside the endless maze and make yourself a map, so that you may build a garden for others to get lost in too.”