THE JEALOUSY MONSTER

First Samuel eighteen shows the jealousy of King Saul. He heard the people praise David for his conquering of tens of thousands while they only credited Saul with his thousands. Saul became angry and watched for an opportunity to kill David. There was fear mixed with the jealousy Saul felt toward David for he knew that the Lord was with David.

Jealousy is defined as covetousness, envious, and resentful. It implies a hostility toward a rival or of one believed to enjoy an advantage.

Writers aren’t supposed to name the emotion a character is experiencing. This is known as telling. A good writer will show the emotion through the actions and words of the character. In other words, we avoid this: The girl was sad. We try to show it like this: The girl’s shoulder’s slumped and shook. A low whimper escaped and tears dripped off her chin.

Now for your writing challenge: Write a scene showing a character’s jealousy. Avoid using the word jealous in any form.

Reread your scene. Can you sense the jealousy? That’s what our readers want. They want to feel that emotion not be told about it.

How are you with jealousy? It can be difficult to see other writers get their break into publication when you feel you are stuck on the sidelines. Do you have difficulty congratulating those who are successful in publishing and selling their work?

Take a moment to write down all of your jealous feelings. Now, ask God to remove those feelings and give you a new outlook and attitude. Then, if it helps you to get rid of those feelings, crumple or rip up the page and throw it away. When you start to feel that jealousy rear its ugly head again, remember you “threw” them away and replaced them with godly attitudes.