100,000 Reasons Why You Probably Can’t Banish Envy (and May Not Want to, if You Write)
By Jan O'Hara | May 16, 2011 |
If there is a hive mind in the writing world, envy has received its share of recent buzz. Might I refer you to several blog posts I’ve enjoyed, then do a brief geek-out before bringing us back to writing?
- Seth Godin, on the Internet as envy amplifier.
- The Rejectionist, about it being easier to wallow in envy than take the hard risks
- Sugar, in a sweet and honest post about how We Are All Savages Inside.
Each of these articles contains different angles, solutions, and tones, but upon one thing they agree: envy is ubiquitous.
Did you ever wonder why? Why would something so uncomfortable and potentially divisive be a universal human experience? Well, if you believe the evolutionary psychologists, envy confers survival advantages, and so does its progenitor, comparison. (For more detail, read this.)
Now, ready to harness that primal force for the good of your fiction? Ready to transmute those roiling emotions into writing? Your friends and neighbors will thank you.
The Upside of Envy
100,000 years of breeding says we are built to:
- Stratify our society according to the person’s skills and abilities
- Gather another’s social standing with minimal cues
- Become alerted and energized by envy if we’re falling behind
- Hide our envy – sometimes even from ourselves, because to acknowledge it is to volunteer for a lower place in the tribe.
We can take each of these bullet points and use them to enhance theme and conflict in our works-in-progress.
For instance, we can ratchet up story tension by putting a character in a position where their skills are grossly under- or over-estimated? We love these kinds of stories. We have the:
- Comedic or tragic/cautionary tales when a low-ranking person aims to be a #1 and gets their wish. (Think Bruce Almighty)
- Stories about the underdog, where the real leader is unrecognized by self or others. (Many traditional romances feature this component, where the hero learns to recognize the heroine’s unsung qualities, and becomes willing to sacrifice his own rank to ensure his peers see her the same way.)
- Stories about people who don’t accept their society’s measuring stick – either by birth, intellectual choice, or pre-emptive rejection – and who teach us to evaluate one another differently. (Think all wild-child stories, including Crocodile Dundee; To Kill a Mockingbird.)
Here are a few more envy-related questions to prime your writing:
- At the beginning of your story, what status does your main character have within their society? How do they feel about it? Why?
- How about at the end? If there’s no outward change, do they have a different understanding about their place within their world?
- Who do they envy and why?
- Must they cope with another’s envy?
- Repeat the above for your antagonist.
- Notice all the ways that status is signaled within your fiction – names, possessions, titles. Is there one you can use as a symbol of change or threat to a character’s status?
In the end, if we’re not careful, envy can be the cause of much personal and societal heartache. But we have a choice in what we do with our feelings. Why not use them to inform our fiction?
If we do, in another 100,000 years and 100,000 novels, maybe the green-eyed-monster gene will be short a few amino acids.
If so, I wonder which lucky writer will get there first…
Does envy play a meaningful role in your fiction? Does rank? Does your main character excel at pegging another’s social status, or is that their Achilles heel? Speak to me of envy.
A USA Today bestselling author, former family physician and academic, Jan O’Hara (she/her) left the world of medicine behind to follow her dreams of becoming a writer. She writes love stories that zoom from wackadoodle to heartfelt in six seconds flat: (Opposite of Frozen; Cold and Hottie; Desperate Times, Desperate Pleasures). Her latest Christmas novella, The Cowboy’s Comeback Christmas, is part of a 9-author-strong anthology (A Cowboy This Christmas: A Sweet Romance Anthology). She also contributed to Author in Progress, a Writer’s Digest Book edited by Therese Walsh.
Hi Jan,
Thanks so much for shedding light on one of the darker corners of the writer’s experience. I particularly love the point about envy spurring you on to work harder and be more inventive.
The MC in my current project is forced to acknowledge her envy of her sister, and until I read your post it never occurred to me that perhaps I was projecting my own writer envy onto my character.
Thanks for giving me something to think about on this rainy Monday morning!
[…] Hope you’ll join me at Writer Unboxed today for 100,000 Reasons Why You Probably Can’t Banish Envy (and May Not Want To, if You Write). […]
I agree: we do have a choice in what we do with our feelings. You can use envy as fuel, or as an excuse. I love your suggestion of really examining it to add depth to your novel!
I think envy plays a role in EVERY character’s motivation and personality, though some may not be outwardly direct. I think it’s useful to ask “What is this character envious of?” because there HAS to be an answer even (or especially) if it wasn’t planned ahead of time.
Thanks Jan!
Never really thought of these emotions as envy, but as I think of the characters I’ve written, yes, they’re all driven to some extent by things you’ve described here. Good thinking points, especially about social standing. I’ve used that as motivation for my bad guys more than once.
It’s funny that you wrote this today — I’m grappling with a scene in my WIP that’s all about envy. I find it a tough emotion to write about because it is so powerful — I’ll be going through your questions a few times in the hopes of getting it sorted!
Oh heck yeah. I’m a sociologist by training, so I’m all about class and social stratification. I’ve been addicted to Jane Austen’s underdog heroines and her biting social commentary since ninth grade English.
Your exercise on examining envy in our work is priceless! Will be printing off and adding to my notebook of writing tricks!
I’m envious of your excellent post. ;)
Excellent post! I think the best part about envy for me is that it pushes me to do more and to do it better.
Ditto what Terry said. I think envy is the negative nancy cousin of some really positive traits — ambition, determination, aspiration, etc. In my personal life, I like to stay on the sunny side of things, but I like your point that in writing, we might do well to see what dark under-currents run through our characters’ dreams and thoughts.
Love this. Like Liz above, I am also dealing with characters’ envy! Great help thanks for posting Jan!
Smart post – and the psych major in me loves the More Geeky Details at your site too, Jan. Thanks for this!
Rosemary, envy is a dark subject, so I appreciate you being the first person willing to stick her neck out and comment. Also, can I just say that I LOVE the title of your blog post. :)
Cathy, composing this post helped me in my writing. Glad if it does you.
Sara, I agree. Envy can shine a light on our characters’ deepest desire, or where they might allow themselves to be lead astray.
Terry, because it is an uncomfortable emotion, I can definitely see envy motivating an antagonist. A lot of YA goes there, doesn’t it?
Liz, good luck! It’s not particularly comfortable to write these scenes, is it?
Stephanie, LOL! Now there’s a subject for study: who enjoys fiction about social status and their occupations. Wouldn’t that be neat? /geek-out
Kathy, absolutely. I think where we can get into trouble is to nurse envy and a sense of victimhood, but the minute we use it to inform outselves of a proactive action, then we have won.
Kristan, I would agree. And that’s an excellent way to think of characters, too. Where are they in the spectrum of desire?
PI Barrington, oh, my pleasure. Glad if it helped.
Therese, ha ha. Only you, sister Virgo, would have the diligence to check out that link. ;)
Jan–I think you solved the ending to a story I’ve been struggling with. I’m serious. Thank you!
I think envy is a byproduct of lots of people wanting the same thing, and not everyone getting it at the same time. :) If envy is used to examine how to do things differently, and perhaps more effectively, then it’s a good motivator. But too often it’s used in a more destructive fashion. It’s all great research for the writing though. :)
Nina, well how cool is that?! Good luck.
Donna, yes, envy acted upon is almost always destructive – for self, even if not for another. Thank goodness we have the ability to choose our response. :)
Courageous post, Jan – envy is definitely one of those things we don’t like to admit to ourselves, and it takes a tremendous amount of… something to make it productive. What’s that something? I’m not sure. Self-awareness? Directed motivation? I love your take on what it means to admit it though, the acceptance of a lowered place on the food chain. I do have a character who I thought struggled with envy in my latest WIP – turns out it’s more isolation, but I’m not sure I realized it until I read your post yesterday – so thank you :)
Excellent. I just snipped this out and added it to my novel notebook. Something to think about!
Rebecca and Shannon, I’m very glad if it helped! Happy writing.
How about letting envy also play a positive role off the page in driving motivation and ambition (without getting in the way)? Those evolutionary theories would suggest it can.
:-)
YES! I think envy and ambition (or aspiration) can live together in a somewhat friendly manner.
Great thoughts, Jan~
Interesting and thought-provoking post, Jan. I was surprised I could quickly come up with answers as to who my hero and heroine envy. Good grief – don’t tell me I did something right?!
I loved these comments, especially Donna Cummings’ note that we can use envy in a positive, constructive manner. When I feel envy regarding other authors’ writing, it forces me to do an even better job and to try harder. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. In fact, for me it isn’t really a negative emotion. I funnel it down a positive path. Thanks for this blog.
Patti
Sharon, are you referring to a writer using it to create a challenge for themselves, or a character doing the same? Either way, absolutely. Envy can alert us to what we most want and drive action, if we’ll let it.
Becke, LOL! You do many things right, chica. Envy and jealousy play a significant role in my WIP, too.
Patricia, it’s a very North American view to categorize emotions as good or bad. Many parts of the world look at them as informative. Sounds like you’ve already hit that understanding. :)
“The MC in my current project is forced to acknowledge her envy of her sister, and until I read your post it never occurred to me that perhaps I was projecting my own writer envy onto my character”.
Same here, Rosemary. In our novel, envy partially motivates one MC to fake his own death, but I didn’t even consciously realise we were using envy at the time.
“Oh heck yeah. I’m a sociologist by training, so I’m all about class and social stratification. I’ve been addicted to Jane Austen’s underdog heroines and her biting social commentary since ninth grade English”.
Indeed, Stephanie. If Mrs. Bennett isn’t at least partly motivated by envy then I don’t know who is.
I think understanding envy and constantly living in it’s shadow are different things… Don’t you?
Envy paralyzes me or tricks me into trying to have someone else’s voice?
Celebrating others success is hard but a necessary and good experience in humbling the soul…
Geoffrey, oh yes. Envy is a painful emotion. I don’t know what others find, but when I resist my darker emotions, they seem to gain strength. When I become curious about them and use them as a tool, the suffering decreases.
I’ve also found I can simultaneouly celebrate another’s success and envy them. But then my middle name might be “paradox.”