1. Sloth
The definition of sloth has changed over time. At one time, it was known as the sin of sadness and despair. Dante described it as the "failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind and all one's soul." Today, it is generally considered synonymous with laziness or indifference - the failure to use one's God-given talents and abilities to their fullest. So what does this mean for a writer?
It means that we should stretch beyond our comfort zone and challenge ourselves to hone our skills and learn new ones at every opportunity.
It also means that we should approach each day's work with enthusiasm and joy - joy that we have within us the ability to communicate clearly, to educate, to entertain, and to provoke thought and discussion among readers. Joy that we are able to see the world in infinite and interesting ways, and that we are able to transform that experience into words that we can share with others.
It means that instead of practicing avoidance when it's time to write, we ought to look forward to applying butt to chair and crafting the words that will touch another person's mind.
2. Gluttony
Gluttony is described as overindulgence and waste. Did Emperor Joseph II's accuse Mozart of gluttony when he criticized his work, saying, "Too many notes, my dear Mozart"? Perhaps. Perhaps we commit gluttony when we indulge our passion for words and wordplay and waste the reader's time by failing to engage, enlighten, or entertain anyone but ourselves.
3. Greed
Greed - as a sin - refers to obtaining or hoarding wealth, in particular. And some writers are very good at eschewing greed, saying, "I don't write for money, I write for the sheer love of it. I write because I can't not write. I write for art. I write for myself, alone." This last bit, "I write only for myself," could be seen as a form of hoarding. While ideas and words may not be material objects or wealth, they have value and should be shared - particularly if you accept the notion that writing is a God-given talent.
Shared, yes - stolen, no. Plagiarism would be a form of greed, coupled with envy. Steal someone else's words? I must have sensed this was a sin, given the number of times I've told rip-off artists to go straight to Hell. Whoops... guess I should re-read that section on "wrath."
"I write because I must," might be a form of pride - also one of the seven deadly sins. The implication in the tone is that anyone who doesn't feel that same compulsion is a lesser being, a "non-writer." We all have gifts; where would we be, after all, without the astute readers who buy our books or the skilled laborers who built the cold-water flat in the corner of the garret where we writers notoriously gravitate to do our work?
To write only for money would be a joyless thing (see "Sloth" above), but it is no sin to earn a comfortable living. One could argue that a comfortable living allows one to turn one's thoughts from gluttony and greed; knowing where that next meal is coming from tends to take the focus off of food.
4. Envy
Schadenfreude. Isn't that a fun word? Envy isn't merely wanting what someone else has, but wanting it to the point of feeling sorrow or resentment at another person's good fortune, and feeling a little gleeful when they are deprived of it. My mother once said that it is easy to find friends with broad shoulders to cry on when you are miserable, but hard to find any to come celebrate your good news with you. We do well to celebrate our colleagues' success - it can't help but earn us good Karma points. When another writer announces a sale, it doesn't mean there's one less publishing opportunity in the universe to be scooped up by us. When someone reports a six-figure advance, we should take that as a sign that there is abundance in the universe, and resolve to apply butt to chair just a little more diligently so that we might be next.
5. Lust
Ask the spouse or lover of any writer, and I'll bet they'd say there's just not enough of this sin going around...
6. Pride
Too many people confuse "pride" and "self-confidence." It's a confusing word, too: On the one hand, we are told that pride is a sin; on the other, we are told to "take pride in [our] work." Pride - the sin - equates to narcissism or excessive self-love. Dante defined it as "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor." So how does this apply to us and our writing? Most of us are our own harshest critics. We could do with a little more self-love, and few of us are prone to excess in that department. But those of us who are published - do we ever think of those who simply write for the love of writing, with vague dreams of being published "some day," as "wannabes"? Do we dismiss the typo-ridden scrawls out of hand - and thus the writer who promulgated them? Someone helped us, when we were young and nave and just beginning to find our voices as writers. It's a debt marked "payable to the hopeful novice."
7. Anger/Wrath
Interestingly, wrath encompasses anger directed inward - so the next time you are tempted to bang your head against the wall, muttering, "Stupid, stupid, stupid - this reads as smoothly as a pig walks on stilts!" consider that you may be committing the sin of wrath. On the whole, though, writers have an excellent outlet for anger and wrath - they can sublimate the urge to kill and torment others who dearly deserve it by letting their characters damn themselves to Hell.
Holly Jahangiri is a professional writer who claims, tongue-in-cheek, to channel the spirits of Edgar Allan Poe, Erma Bombeck, and O. Henry. Holly is the author of the popular children's book, Trockle http://trockle.wordpress.com For more information, visit her blog, "Do I Have to Spell It Out?" at http://blog.jahangiri.us
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