WORDS FROM THE WISE/PART 5 – NICK MAMATAS

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WORDS FROM THE WISE

PART 5

(Be Jealous)

Nick Mamatas

Jealousy, reactive or suspiscious, can destroy a person. It can ruin relationships, careers and is generally associated with being weak of character. I imagine that to be a professional writer one would require a certain degree of motivation and resolve, right? To be prolific, to develop your craft, to simply keep up the habit. What’s the source of this hunger? Nick Mamatas thinks it might be a certain kind of jealousy…

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The question posed to each author is – “A young author comes to you seeking advice. They’re riddled with insecurities and completely overwhelmed by the publishing industry. What are your Words from the Wise?”

Writers are almost universally both envious and jealous of one another. Envy, of course, is the state of hungering for what another has. Jealousy, that green-eyed monster, is a fear of loss, or at least of the possibility of losing. Both are species of anxiety. Writers might envy some best-selling writer, or some award a colleague has received, while being jealous of another person’s success somehow serving to eclipse one’s own. Readers can only buy so many books. Better my friend is miserable along with me instead of becoming a success who leaves me behind!

As this column is about a notional young author who is “riddled with insecurities”, I suppose I should advise against envy and jealousy, but such a thing is not possible. A writer who isn’t anxious about something, who isn’t desperate to find out what’s at the end of their own story, is no writer at all. People with no anxieties simply don’t become writers. I am prepared to entertain responses from writers declaring “I have no anxieties!” but only because all the missives would prove my point.

A writer, however, can to a certain extent choose her anxieties. Between envy and jealousy, I recommend jealousy. This is counter-intuitive—wouldn’t envy be better? Wouldn’t young writers be best served by a desperate hunger for shelf space, big checks, awards, and acclaim? I say that envy is destructive; it is the enemy of art. The envious writer will abandon her aesthetic goals to write to fit what she perceives to be commercial imperatives, suck up to all manner of awful people in the hope of winning an award or gaining some publicity, make decisions based on proximity to power rather than ethics or even plain’ ol fellow-feeling for her colleagues. The envious writer is driven by feelings of inferiority, which will never do. A writer, hands on the keyboard, has to feel that she is master of the world. (Even masters practice and struggle, but they don’t feel inferior for doing so.)

A jealous writer will be anxious, upset, ever-betrayed by the universe, and ready to spit fire. A jealous writer sees the risks of failure and loss at every turn, feels it in her guts. The world has to pay! “All my fond love thus to I blow to heaven.

‘Tis gone.Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell!”
Now you have something to write about. Be jealous.

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