Tag Archives: inspiration

Monday Morning Ramblings

January 23, 2012 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

Dear sons, here’s another lesson I want you to learn from me. Life doesn’t owe you anything, and you are not entitled to a free ride. Anything and everything you strive for in this world will come with a price, and every choice you make, good or bad, comes with consequences. If you make good choices, those consequences can benefit you for a lifetime. If you make poor choices, they can hold you back from reaching your potential. If you make terrible choices, they can haunt you for the rest of your life. I know this from personal experience and from watching others live with the consequences of decisions they made in haste or short-sightedness.

Too often, people fall into the delusion that success is a given. Too often, people believe that all they have to do is show up, and the world will be so enamored with their charm or genius that riches and fame will be theirs for the taking. In my youth, I suffered from this delusion. I believed at 18 that my writing ability would be so astounding, so original, so authentic, I would be granted the keys to the walled city and live on easy street for the rest of my days. By 22, I had learned my folly. I had to hone my craft, had to get knocked down multiple times, had to get back up, and had to earn every iota of success I’ve achieved. The world taught me quickly and succinctly that it owed me nothing.

I’m sharing this lesson not to dampen your spirits or dash your dreams, but rather to prepare you for the reality of just how difficult life can be. I want you to be ready for those times when you do get knocked down to get up, brush yourself off, and brace yourself to fight again. Just as I tell you whenever you lose at a video game to practice more and try harder, in life, you must do the same because it has a way of being relentless, especially when you’re down.

You both have unlimited potential. You both have intelligence, creativity, and personality. You will have opportunities to achieve great things with your lives, but you will have to earn that greatness. You cannot wish for it; you cannot hope for it; you cannot dream it into reality. You must earn it, and it can be a long, hard road. I will be there for you as much as possible, but in the end, you will have to do it for yourselves.

For Collin and Finn

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

January 21, 2012 D.A. Adams Leave a comment

I’m starting a new category here on the blog. It’s called “For Collin and Finn” and will be a place where I can share thoughts and ideas that I’d like to share with my boys but can’t because of circumstances. Some of these posts will be public and some private, but they are here so that one day they can know me. I have so many regrets about the last four years, regrets of time lost with them, of those special firsts that I didn’t get to share, of not having the financial resources to do more for them. In a way, these posts are my effort to make up for all that we’ve lost and missed out on, and while nothing can ever give us back the time, my hope is that one day when they are old enough, they will read these entries and understand how badly I miss their presence, their laughter, and their energy.

Sons, the most important lesson I want to teach you, if you learn nothing else from me, is that there is no substitute for hard work. Regardless of what path you choose in life — artist, musician, director, doctor, plumber, or carpenter — there are no shortcuts for success. You will have to dedicate yourself to learning your craft, and you will have to spend countless hours practicing to hone your skills. If you want to be great at what you do, and my hope is that you’ll strive for greatness, you cannot get around that simple fact. Be prepared to study and struggle and fail and relearn and try again.

This world is a competitive place, and whatever path you choose, there are thousands out there who want to achieve success in that field. If you want to stand out from the crowd, work harder than they do. Set your will to achieving your aspirations and let nothing hold you back or slow you down. You will learn that if you give your all and fight with everything inside you to reach those goals, even if you fail, you will feel pride in knowing you gave it your best. I’ve learned this one firsthand because I’ve had more than my share of failures, but when I lay my head down at night, I know in my heart that those failures were not from lack of effort. When life has you down, and it will knock you down at some point, having that sense of pride to hold onto is important. It will give you the strength to get back on your feet and try again.

So please, guys, don’t go through your lives searching for shortcuts or hoping for windfalls. Good luck and fast bucks are too far and too few between, as the Outlaw once sang, and if you wait for life to give you anything, you will find yourselves bitter and disappointed. Work hard at whatever you do; commit yourself to pursuing excellence; and never quit. I learned that from your grandfather and great-grandfather, and I hope you can learn it from me, too.

General Posts

Friday Morning Ramblings

January 20, 2012 D.A. Adams 6 Comments

The other day, I wrote on here about the 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards through Tor, and how there has been major backlash against independent writers for openly requesting their readers vote for them, to the point of accusations of impropriety. Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that the backlash had spread to another website, where several “professional” writers were openly and viciously denigrating a close friend of mine, insulting everything from his prose style to his professionalism to his ethics. It took a considerable amount of restraint on my part to restrain from joining that thread and defending my friend, but I recognize that no good could come from arguing with elitist fools in their arena.

So I’ll post my thoughts on the subject in mine.

Reading their comments took me back to graduate school and reminded me of why I had such a terrible experience there. In the name of defending the gates of the literary world, these so-called professionals publicly and truculently assaulted not just his writing but his very character, all without knowing anything about his works or him as a human being. That was what I witnessed and experienced throughout graduate school, a level of pettiness and vindictiveness that is truly sickening. Anyone who claims to know “the right way to write” is completely full of shit. In literature, the only right way to write is what appeals to your audience. If enough people enjoy your writing style, you get to keep doing it. If enough don’t, you fade into oblivion.

And here’s my biggest problem with those particular literary snobs. Yes, on a technical sense, they may be talented writers, but most of the writing they produce is geared to impress other writers with their skill and style, not to reach a broad cross-section of society. Then, those writers complain about how dumb the masses are for not “getting” their work. Whenever someone comes along who does appeal to the masses, those same jackasses rip into the populist writers for not being as technically skilled as they are. I’ll admit that to some degree I’ve had that reaction to a work like Twilight because I see it as superficial, but guess what? I’m not the target audience for that series, and Stephanie Meyer has tapped into her audience in a way that engages them on a deeply emotional level. While I may disagree with her themes, I recognize and respect that she knows how to reach them.

The literary snobs would have you believe that they and they alone know what “good” writing really is, and that the masses are just mindless hordes feeding on bubble gum. Well, I say that when a writer such as John Grisham or Stephen King can engage millions of readers and keep them riveted through several hundred pages of a book in a time when TV and movies are a much easier and convenient option, maybe, just maybe, populist writers know something about writing the snobs don’t. And that something is first and foremost, fiction writing always has been and always will be about entertainment, and there is a vast audience out there starved for good literary entertainment. A good story isn’t always about having perfect POV or a perfectly stylized narrative voice. A good story is about touching people’s lives in a real and tangible way that makes them want to read more, about giving them either an escape from the drudgery of their daily lives or hope that maybe one day good will triumph over evil.

And one more point about this contest and the backlash against the independents. It’s called Readers’ Choice not Writers’ Choice for a reason, so to anyone and everyone out there who believes that an independent writer doesn’t deserve consideration, maybe you should take a long, hard look at your own career and ask yourselves why you don’t have an energized and enthusiastic fanbase that will take the time to vote for your literary masterpieces. When the Writers’ Choice Awards are being voted on, then you can have your say, but until then, shut the fuck up and listen to what real readers in the real world are saying. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll learn something.