Jealousy and Writing

 Jealousy

and

Writing

The worst feeling you can have for another writer or anyone is jealousy. It can drive you to say and do things outside your normal behavior. There will always be better writers, athletes and coworkers than you. You just have to walk your own path and keep trying. This blogpost will cover two instances where I myself was the victim of jealousy. It will also give tips on how to hopefully combat people in this state of mind.

I was once part of a local writers group. We read each others work to aid in future publication and read aloud at out meetings completed chapters. It was with one meeting where I read a passage of mine that a person later held a full cup of water over my laptop. We all know what could have happened but this person claimed she was joking. The awkwardness of the situation was profound because she has several books out on the market. I was and still am unpublished which gave her no motivation. The moral of this story is if you already have a writing career going, allow others to work on theirs. Perhaps she felt my passage was better than her own writing. I've read her work and can say she is a good writer.

A more recent incident involved a now ex-friend. He didn't like that my writing was more polished than his own. I had been trying to help him improve but things got heated. He went to a publisher I submitted to and withdrew my manuscript as me. I sent the publisher a message that I was basically hacked. This person is no longer in my life, but what is sad is I tried to help him. You as a writer should try to help others no matter what stage your own writing is at. It may help in the long run.

I have been jealous of other writers myself. I keep asking what are they doing right that I'm doing wrong. After 2020, I decided thinking that way was useless and slowed me down. I didn't set out on this journey to beat others in skill or sales. I became a writer to see my stories in the hands of readers and make a hopeful career out of it all. The odds are familiar to me but no one can be at fault for always trying.

As far as combating jealousy there is only a few choices to be made. Place your self in a group of people you can trust. Become familiar with them as creatives and people.  You want to be courteous of other's time and mental health while being honest. And if you slack on being courteous to those in your life only bad will surface in your lake of life. I can say this for certain the people in your life only exist because you chose to have them there.