Writing Jealousy

I'm still slowly making my way through Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird" and I find myself disagreeing with her on some points, even when she makes me laugh in the way that I wish I could make other people giggle with my own writing.

The last chapter I read was about jealousy. She writes about being jealous of other writers or friends who are writers who end up having very successful books.

I don't think the intense jealousy that she describes after her friend wrote a book that did extraordinarily well is something that I have to worry about. Maybe it's because I don't have other friends who are writing anything more than newspaper articles, that I know of, but I think it's because I deal with jealousy differently than Lamott.

I'd like to think that I would be happy for any of my friends or family members who might sell a book even if I was a little envious.

I do feel jealous of people like Lauren Conrad who go from being a wealthy socialite to a wealthy reality TV star to a wealthy fashion designer to a very wealthy best-selling author. I haven't read either of her books, but I don't have a lot of confidence in the quality of her novels, given her previous lack of writing experience (that I know of).

Then again, maybe they are well-written, highly entertaining and compelling stories and I just want them to be terrible so I can feel better about myself. Maybe one day I'll break down and read "L.A. Candy" to figure that out. Just what Lauren needs, my $10 or $15 from buying her novel when it comes out in paperback.

Hopefully I'll never get so invested in my writing that I'll need to see a shrink, like Lamott, to deal with my jealousy over other writers' successes. For now, I'll just let that kind of envy push me to work harder and write better.