The Tenth Commandment

 The Tenth Commandment (Exodus 20:17) reads like this… doesn’t it?

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor thy neighbour getting his/her book being published.

 This is going to be a difficult post to write, because it’s a painful subject. 

 

You long, with all consuming passion, to have your book published.  You’ve laboured over it for (probably) years.  You’ve lived with the characters and they are as real to you as your own family.  You’ve strained after authenticity.  You’ve edited, waking up in the middle of the night thinking about how you could phrase a piece of dialogue better.  You’ve submitted your book here, there and everywhere and you’re starting to believe that no publisher will ever accept it.  Then you hear that a publisher has accepted a friend’s book.

 Let’s not mince words. This is gut wrenching.  We’d be saints not to be tempted by the green-eyed monster at this point.  But you’re a Christian and you’re not supposed to feel like this.  

 In Romans Chapter 12 Verse 15, we are urged to ‘Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.’  But, while everyone else on Facebook is pouring out joyful tributes, all you can manage is a one word ‘Congratulations’, and that from the Facebook predictive text.  Of course, writers who have just managed to get a book accepted for publication have a right to their moment of excitement and glory, in person and on social media.  It is a great moment in their lives.  Would you expect a footballer who has just scored a goal not to leap about and cheer, even though there are eleven players on the field to whom his/her ball in the net is very bad news? 

 I wish I had ready answers to the green-eyed monster and those who presently feel consumed by him, have been in the past or may be in the future.  I’m afraid we have to acknowledge the ugly green monster for what it is and that it’s pure evil.  Understandable evil, but evil nevertheless. 

 Practical advice?  

• If you can't cope with your successful friend’s rejoicing, keep away, physically and electronically.  
• Soothe your wretched soul by doing some more writing – anything.

What Not to Do?

• Give up writing altogether.
• Attempt drastic overhauls of your WIP while you’re feeling gutted.  Maybe your writing does need editing, but this is not the time.
• Similarly, don’t attempt submissions of your work all over the place. 

Practical Advice for Christian Writers:

• Pray!!! For guidance towards quenching your jealousy and what to do next with your own writing.
• Read Ecclesiasticus 44, in particular verses 9-14 (abridged here):

But of others there is no memory;
they have perished as though they had never been….
Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on for evermore.