Has this ever afflicted you? It has me, I’ll admit. Many a times I’ve stared at a book on the store shelf and been envious of the author who managed to get it there. It’s a nasty little mood to be in, because while there are different types of envy, or even specific things you could be envious about, no matter what envy drags you down. It’s a bug that, if you don’t squash it right away, can burrow in and cause all sorts of rot and infection. It can lead to a string of bad moods, lack of motivation, or general disgruntlement and a belief that the universe conspires against your writing efforts. I’m sure this hits even published writers…in fact, I know it does.
How does writer envy manifest? Well, you can experience Better-than Envy, or Why-them Envy. Better-than Envy is what happens when you pick up a book and it’s so good your eyeballs melt in their sockets. You aren’t worthy to read this. The author has obviously got a direct line to God’s inner sanctum, with a little pixie dust thrown in for boot, because their prose is perfect, their themes sublime, and their characters and plot inspired by the wisdom of Solomon. You could sit for days, craving that you were as good as this author is, and knowing that you will never ever ever reach that level of success and writing genius makes you want to give it all up right now. What’s the point, right?
Why-them Envy is when you pick up a book and it is so laughable, so simplistic and shallow that any five year old could give it a scathing, gurgling review–but it’s a number one bestseller for weeks on end and the author got a seven-figure advance.
There are also other modes: Word count envy, Advance envy, Cover art envy, Bestseller list envy, Book review envy, Number of cities in a tour envy…basically any part of the publishing process and fallout can become a sore point. People obsess over the numbers and become so fixated on how it “could have been” or how it “should be” that they can’t get over how it is and move on to the next story asking to be written.
There will always be someone that is better than you, and there will always be someone who is worse than you, but achieves more than you. It’s a fact of life, and the sooner you get snuggly with it, the better. Don’t begrudge it. It didn’t want to be a rule of life when it grew up…that’s just how things happened.
People ask where writers get inspiration from. Now, you can say I have a Pollyanna complex, but I think even writing envy can be twisted into something that gives you an extra push. There is always higher to climb, another level of excellence to reach, and there will always be those writers whose mistakes you can learn from without having to go through them yourself. It’s motivation in its rawest form.
I see that smile.