Writing takes a long time. A really long time. Sometimes it feels like forever. You take months or years to write a draft. Maybe that draft doesn’t get you any favorable responses from agents or editors, so you have to put the whole thing in a drawer and start all over again.

Sometimes it feels as if it’s only taking forever for you. Some writers seem to know the right people to get an agent’s attention without even sending a query letter—you hear about a young writer making news for a massive bidding war over their debut work all too often. Meanwhile, you’re struggling to string a few sentences together every few days and wondering why you have nothing to show for your years of work.

But no matter what things look like for anyone else, you have so much to show for your efforts. It’s understandable to get frustrated during the writing process, so if you’re feeling overcome with envy then maybe it’s time for a change of attitude.

Remember the Big Picture

Writing is a competitive business. There are lots of talented people, and sometimes it can feel impossible to get noticed. If you’re working as hard as you can to sell your independently published book, get agent representation, or sign with a Big Five publisher, you might just explode with envy when you think someone else is getting ahead of you in the proverbial line.

However, it’s good to keep in mind that a career takes place over a lifetime, not one single high point.

Next time you see something that triggers your envy of others, like a celebratory post on social media, remember that they often don’t reflect reality. Yes, it’s great for writers whose books become a blockbuster film adaptation, or the ones who get lucky and find fame at a relatively young age. But that doesn’t mean they’ll always have such good luck and success. The superstars of today usually go right back to struggling with the rest of us tomorrow.

Just because you haven’t been lucky yet doesn’t mean the tide won’t turn your way eventually. It also doesn’t mean there is something inherently wrong with your work. Try to keep the big picture in mind: everyone is on their own path, and all paths have a way of working themselves out in their own time.

Reevaluate Your Goals

You may have heard the phrase “we all have the same number of hours in the day.” For some people, however, that’s not strictly true.

If you have a busy day job, caregiving responsibilities, even just the day-to-day stresses of the average person, it’s not easy to find hours of time to devote to writing. While some writers are good at jotting down a paragraph or two in their spare moments, it can still be difficult to get in the headspace of your project without having big blocks of uninterrupted time.

So don’t give yourself the same expectations of someone who doesn’t have the responsibilities you do. Instead, set yourself up for success with realistic, personalized goals. Try adjusting your target word count for how hectic your day is; maybe have one number for days of the week you are busier, and another for your calmer days. If you’re getting stuck on day-to-day setbacks, set long-term goals instead of short-term ones.

Don’t forget one of the most important things every writer needs to remember: don’t overthink it. The more you get in your head about your timeline, the more you’re likely to agonize over every decision, which ultimately adds up to fewer words on the page. Just get your story out of your head. You can make it shine later.

Broaden Your Horizons

There’s no version of quality writing that gives you instant gratification. Even short stories and poetry can take a long time to produce, sometimes longer than the thickest novels. Maybe you’ve beaten down the green-eyed monster but still feel down when you can’t share your work with the world as immediately as you’d like to. It’s understandable to get frustrated with how long the writing process can take, which in turn can make moving forward more difficult.

When feeling stuck, a lot of writers, artists, and musicians have benefitted from engaging in other kinds of work. So if you’re feeling down about your writing career, it might help to dabble in something else.

Take a sketchbook to the park, dust off your piano skills by doing some scales, donate your talents to a community theater—it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you allow yourself to be an amateur and have fun. Because when you have a quick and relatively easy way to share your creativity, it takes the pressure off writing. By expressing yourself in a different outlet, you might find that your creative juices flow more easily when you sit back down to work on your draft.

Working toward a professional writing career can change your relationship to creative work. Having a separate creative outlet is a great way to remind yourself of what it feels like to make things simply for the sake of making them. Try and always remember the joy that first inspired your writing.

It’s Not a Competition

It’s not a fun answer, but it’s true: life isn’t a competition. External validation is all well and good, but it isn’t everything. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with frustration because you aren’t a famous bestseller, you’re probably not approaching your writing with the best intentions.

At the end of the day, we write because we love sharing stories, getting lost in words, and creating for the sake of creating. That’s something you don’t have to wait for a lucky day to enjoy.

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.