Musings of an Inefficient Writer

So I have this problem.

I get these ideas sometimes, really great ideas that I finally sit down and start to write. I write and I write and I finally start to feel like I really have something. But then I come across a book that I've really been wanting to read. It's finally available at the library and I check it out and it's really great. But what inevitably happens, every single time I do this, is that something about the book that I've chosen to read just happens to be very similar to something in my writing. A character or a plot or a setting, it's always something. And when that happens, I get so frustrated. I get to thinking that I'm really onto something, but then I find out, surprise, it's been done. It's always been done, and my writing just won't be able to compete with all the writing that's already out there, I'm sure of it. Maybe I need to stop being so hard on myself, or maybe I just need to stop starting books at the wrong time.

Anyone else get like this sometimes? Or am I the only one dumb enough to start reading in the middle of writing?



-M.