J Is For Jealousy

For the Blogging From A to Z Challenge I’m doing you all a huge favor and filling you in on the 26 Things To Hate About Writing.** I’m hoping by the end of April, I will have convinced all of you not to indulge in the wild insanity of becoming a writer. If I can save even one person from offering themselves up in sacrifice to the mad and fickle word gods, I will have done some good in this world.

Check out each letter’s post here.
[image error]JEALOUSY

You wrote a book. Awesome. But wait, Super Bestselling Author wrote twenty books. You published your book! But Super Bestselling Author published thirty books. You sold some books! Super Bestselling Author sold one million books. Super Bestselling Author lives in a mansion, writing books, being waited on by servants, and sleeps on piles of money. While you, lowly hack, still have to go to your day job to put food on the table because the revenue from your books can only buy beef jerky (unless you’re really into beef jerky, then I guess life is good).

One of the worst things about writing is jealousy. Consider these facts:

– Someone out there writes more than you, faster, and better.

– Another writer has sold billions of books and pays all their bills with their writing money.

– There are writers whose name everybody knows, and they’re well-loved, and adored.

– Some writers have so many books published they don’t know the number anymore.

I took a look at other professions and found out something interesting. It seems there’s doctors out there struggling through residencies and other doctors who have built successful, profitable solo practices. There’s lawyers who are mostly public defenders and some who have gotten hugely successful and famous for defending celebrities and notable people. There’s chefs who have their own TV shows and those who toil away, nameless, in small restaurant kitchens. It’s almost like…the love of the craft and the desire to excel in it to your own personal satisfaction is what’s important. That makes it sound like comparing yourself to others only stifles you and takes away your joy, and implies that it’s not a race or competition.

Weird.

**Disclaimer: If you haven’t figured it out, these posts are pure satire and simply a humorous way to vent my writing frustrations. No offense is intended to anyone. Please, become or continue being a writer. It’s awesome, I swear. It’s super…duper, awesome…heh heh.

Filed under: A to Z Challenge, A to Z Challenge 2017 Tagged: blog hop, funny, writing [image error]