It was Patrick Henry who said that jealousy is the vice that gives no pleasure. Another oft-quoted definition was coined by the late Fulton J. Sheen, a bishop who gained prominence as a writer and broadcaster: Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.
I began thinking about jealousy a week or two ago when I noted a spurt in the number of “BSP” labels (or should it be warnings) on writing loops I read. Many of the posts passed beyond the realm of blatant self-promotion into the nastier neighborhood of self-congratulatory bragging. They trumpeted fast-growing Amazon sales… recent award wins… new contracts… even an impressive number of blog page “hits.” When one or two of the posts tickled my jealousy bone (I guess I do have at least one jealous bone in my body), I thought about a project I’d tackled back in 2006.
The director of a writers’ conference had asked me to develop a workshop about the “dark side” of writing fiction. He told me that a handful of recent conferees had complained (on their evaluation forms) that different aspects of the conference — in the words of the loudest complainer — “encouraged jealousy by making a fuss over a few participants at the expense of many.” This person singled out the “writing contest that seems to have arbitrary criteria” and “faculty members who clearly pick favorites.”
The director believed that jealousy is a common plague among aspiring novelists, although most are reluctant to talk about it. “We need a workshop that squarely addresses the problem.”
I quietly polled several experienced novelists I knew and asked a simple question: “Have you been “seriously jealous” of another author?
I offered the following definition: “Jealousy has been described as envy plus ill will. Envy merely ‘wants’ what someone else has. Jealousy combines “want” with the hope that the other person loses what they’ve achieved.” I didn’t explain what I meant by “serious,” but most folks immediately understood what I meant.
The novelists hemmed and hawed a bit — probably because it’s embarrassing to admit being simultaneously envious and resentful of another writer’s accomplishments — but I learned (anecdotally, but not surprisingly) that jealousy can:
- Cause sufficient inner turmoil to slow down one’s fiction writing process.
- End friendships among hopeful novelists.
- Tear a fiction critique group apart.
- Trigger spiteful behavior (for example, the posting of bad reviews on Amazon and B&N).
Novelists of all age can become jealous, but we late-bloomers may have a stronger propensity. Here are three tentative explanations I ran across:
- Many (most?) of us worked hard and built successful careers before we started writing fiction. It’s tough to remain magnanimous about other novelists when the hard work of building a novel hasn’t yet paid off for us. (We don’t mind when genius succeeds, but we are especially galled by someone else’s “dumb luck” success.)
- Because we know that we don’t have unlimited time to publish a successful novel, we become “overly sensitive” to success by others.
- Late-blooming novelists are more likely to treat writing fiction as a kind of zero-sum game, where one author’s success comes at the expense of other authors’ failure.
One fascinating aspect of my unscientific study is that the group of authors who fessed up about their pangs of jealousy includes successful novelists who’ve achieved significant prominence. This raises an obvious question: Why would writers who’ve “made it” ever feel jealous?
Robert Heinlein, a successful author himself, had an unhappy answer: “A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.”
Whew! I don’t know much about psychology, but I think that Bob ignored a reality that I heard expressed again and again by the respondents of my little survey: Comparison drives jealousy.
Comparison has long been rampant in the novel writing game. The inhabitants of the traditional publishing paradigm — agents, editors, reviewers, booksellers, contest judges, and readers — all held yardsticks up against novels and their authors.
The new publishing paradigm has actually increased the opportunities for an author to compare him- or herself with fellow novelists. These days we have new measures of success (e.g. Amazon Ranking), fully empowered reader-reviewers, and powerful new communications media (e.g. social media sites, reader/writer loops, and blogs).
IMO, novelists stand on a metaphorical ladder. There’s always someone on a higher rung: someone who’s a better writer, someone who wrote more books, someone who received better reviews, someone who have won more and better awards (so many organizations give awards these days that not to have one or two must mean something), someone with more Kindle sales, someone who benefited from an Amazon special promotion, someone whose latest book is being turned into a movie, someone who sprays BSP with a fire hose, ultimately someone who earns lots more money — even though his/her novels belong several rungs down.
It’s no surprise to me that well-adjusted novelists at all stages of their career occasionally become jealous.
I am enjoying so many of these blogs on fictionafter50, but need to express a disagreement on this one.
Jealousy, as I understand it, is closer to a polar opposite of envy, not just a more extreme version of it. Envy, as you state, is wishing you had something that someone else possesses. I would say that jealousy relates more to an unwillingness to share what you have with anyone else.
This goes against the conventional understanding, so I’ll illustrate by asking a question that shows how I see it:
What is the definition of a jealous husband? Is it someone who wants another man’s wife? No, it’s a man who becomes fiercely enraged if he thinks another man is pursuing his own wife.
A more elevated example would be God. The Bible says he is a jealous god, as many readers have discovered. But how can God be jealous? It’s because he doesn’t want to share his followers with anyone else (there is an analogy there with the husband and wife thing, but I’m not a minister and I am not preaching anything here other than proper word usage).
Bottom line, It’s a protective urge. Granted, there are many who wrongly perceive someone else to be pursuing his possessions, or wrongly perceive something to be their possessions at all, so I can see how it can be confused with envy.
I am enjoying this website immensely, and hope no one takes this post the wrong way. I myself am approaching ‘a certain age’ and hope to be published soon. I especially love the post on authorial voice
I believe that wrestling with the temptation to envy another’s work is woven into the job description of most creative people. I know that as I watch others receive book contracts or awards and wait my turn in the wings, my own insecurities and fears of remaining unchosen (along with the discouraging whispers of the evil one that I should just turn back) can lead me into temptation.
My usual answer to that is a) to watch a scene from Amadeus where Salieri allowed his own creative jealousy to consume him and b) to pray for the other writer and ask God to bless his/her work and its impact on building the kingdom. This reminds me that the other writer is my partner in the greater work and where he or she succeeds, the light of Christ shines more.
It’s good to be straightforward about this issue and open the door on jealousy and envy so that we cannot each be dragged off into the isolating dark when it appears on our emotional and mental horizon. Contests are not so much about comparing work but about allowing, especially unpublished writers, an opportunity to be challenged, stretched, and brought to light. But, I truly respect that conference director’s insight into making this a part of the discussion at any conference. It’s not only about making us better writers but also about making us stronger team players in the work of building the kingdom through our writing. This mutual respect for one another and collaborative support should be one of the marks that sets us apart more than not using foul language or other measures that seem to define Christian writing.
Thank you for writing about this and opening the closet door on our insecurities.
Great post! As a late blooming writer,[just published my first short story at the age of er, uh, late forty something] I’m just excited to be here! I like your thoughts about insecurity and comparison. I’ll have to remember that if the jealously bug comes a calling…
This was a great post, Ron. I too appreciated learning the distinction between envy and jealousy.
Jealousy of other writers is something a Christian author must struggle with their entire career. No matter how high “up the ladder” you climb, there will always be someone who sells more/wins more contests/gets bigger advances/gets more attention from agent/editor/publicist…yada, yada, until you can’t even stand yourself. Right now I am envious of authors who write faster than I do–who can finish a ms in 2 months instead of the 6 it takes me. What does it matter? The market/my publisher doesn’t need books any faster from me. Each day I pray: Please, Lord, let me compare myself to no one. Let me serve in a way that brings You honor and glory. Amen. Notice, Ron, I say this prayer each day, not once a week or a month. Human nature is the hardest nature to change. Blessings. mary ellis
This is a brave post. I think you’re right–that jealousy can be rampant among writers–but I also think it’s nearly always misplaced. The more great books out there the better, right? Readers never have enough to read, and vibrant material shines a light on the whole field.
This of course assumes the writer is succeeding, that his or her book is being read. I do think the stakes change when someone is still struggling to become published–although perhaps I am just defining the game incorrectly.
A great post, Ron. I too am interested by your distinction between envy and jealousy, as I would have thought the two were synonymous. If I apply your definition, then I am far more envious than I am jealous, but even envy, as you said, is basically destructive.
I was recently looking at Buddy Ebsen’s Wikipedia page (long story), and he had a great quote there that inspired me. “You get more negative reactions than positive reactions as you go through life, and the big lesson is nobody counts you out but yourself … I never have, I never will.” Isn’t he great? And isn’t that a great mantra?
Sadly, jealousy is a natural reaction when we compare ourselves to others who have done better than we have. Rather than being jealous of others’ successes, we ought to make it something to spur us on to improving our craft, that we might enjoy the same success in the future.
Sadly, envy and jealousy are natural reactions whether or not one is a Christian. Rather than comparison leading to jealousy, it would behoove us all to let other writers’ successes spur us on to better our skills, that one day we might do as well as he/she has.
Anyone breathing still battles human nature. It’s only natural to want to push down competitors and step over people to advance ourselves. Christians are not exempt from these feelings. However, a Christian has the internal restraint that gives them the power to overcome these feelings.
Unfortunately, having the power and exercising restraint aren’t always utilized. If we’re honest, each one of us feels at least a twinge of jealousy when someone achieves the goals we are still striving for. When we achieve something, it’s tempting to become the judge over others coming up. If someone has an easier time than I had, it’s a temptation to think they aren’t worthy of success. Then I have to remind myself that I’m not the one to evaluate others.
Even Christians have to push through negative feelings and make a conscious effort to rejoice with those who rejoice. It doesn’t come natural, but we can get past the mindset rooted in human nature and learn to rejoice as we would want others to rejoice over us. It isn’t easy, but nothing of value is.
This is a really good post. I especially liked the explanation of the difference between “envy” and “jealousy”. I would think envy spurs us on to become better writers, while jealousy stifles our creative flows with negative feelings. I like to think I am supportive and happy about the success of others, especially us late-bloomers in the fiction world, but sometimes it sure would be nice to have a slice of the success pie.
I’m never jealous of other authors … except those who’ve outsold me … which, alas, is pretty much all of them.
LOL, Christopher.