Family Support

Not everyone can be born into a family that completely supports their creative endeavors. Ivan Moody from Five Finger Death Punch regularly expects that his mother will bury him when the topic of musical careers comes up. And yet, if it wasn’t for Ivan’s mom being an oppressive jerk, we wouldn’t have songs like “The Devil’s Own” and “Remember Everything”. Ivan Moody made a fortune off of his life experiences. Not everybody does that. In fact, the stresses of life often keep artists from achieving their full potential. If a teacher insults a child’s poetry, the child may never write creatively again for fear that the horrible memory will haunt him in the middle conceiving a poem. Emotional trauma is a powerful thing, especially to a small child who has a hard enough time determining which pieces of advice are useful and which ones are bullshit. I have a message for both adults and children of all ages. Adults, if you see a piece of art you don’t like, don’t tell the artist that he sucks and should never create again. There’s always somebody else out there who will enjoy the piece of art, so your opinion isn’t the only one that matters. Hard to believe, right? And kids, if somebody tells you that you’ll never make it in a creative field, don’t listen to them. Filtering out negative messages is hard, I agree. Sometimes that message will haunt your mind relentlessly until you finally do give in. The secret is to never give in. If you’re writing something and the negativity is turning your brain to primordial soup, keep writing until you’re finished with the poem or prose. Success is the best way to prove your critics wrong. But then comes the question of what defines success. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make millions of dollars and have swarms of horny women gathering at your front door. It doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes all you need to be successful is a happy attitude. If you’re genuinely happy with your work, that should be the only thing that matters. If one other person is happy with your work, that matters too. That doesn’t mean you should avoid constructive critique, because that can actually be helpful. Keep the compliments, keep the critique, but filter out the negative vibes. The secret to success is finding the right support system. It’s out there if you look hard enough. Someone out there likes you, that much I promise. Ivan Moody’s mother didn’t support him, so he found band mates and audience members that did. There is hope out there somewhere and there is life after emotional trauma.

　

***PROVERB OF THE DAY***

“You don’t stop laughing because you get old, you get old because you stop laughing.”

-Unknown-

Vilification

On my Deviant Art page, I told everyone that I was going to do a blog entry on author vilification and mentioned that Stephen Chbosky wasn’t vilified himself. I was wrong. Dead wrong. The main complaint about “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” was the way the author portrayed teen sex and drug use. He made it sound so prolific that it normalized it in a way. Well, I hate to break it to his critics, but that book they’re complaining about is a cult classic. It’s been that way since its publication in 1999. But even though he’s riding a hype train that isn’t going to derail anytime soon, I’m sure Mr. Chbosky would love to get away from it all and let the dust settle. I’m sure there are authors out there who would love to do the same if they’ve generated too much controversy. Controversy isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it makes your anxiety level rise beyond normalcy, then you’re knee deep in shit. There are several things you can do if you as an author are vilified and it’s ruining your life. Firstly, it doesn’t hurt to stay away from the internet for a few days until the dust settles. If you’ve got a Twitter account, it may blow up with hateful remarks. If you’ve got a DA account like I do, it may also blow up with a nuclear strike of loathing. The dust will eventually settle and the wave of comments will sooner or later become old news. When that time comes, do not under any circumstances Google your name. I made this mistake when I Googled by Deviant Art username at the time Cybador and found a hideout, I repeat, a hideout of trolls in a website called Portal of Evil. Behind my back, they’d been trashing my drawings of animal warriors and for the next few days, I had a combination of depression and anger going on. There were times when I felt like I didn’t need a DA account anymore, especially in December of 2009 when I was vilified for an educational black comedy routine I wrote called “Class of ‘13”. I wish I could have taken my own advice of staying away from the computer for a few days. It would have brought the combat level and heartache to a bare minimum, that’s for sure. Thankfully, I’ve had many years of peace and quiet ever since those bad days and it continues to be that way. I hope you, the controversial author, can find your own peace simply by abstaining from internet combat. It’s not worth it. Take it from me. I’m battle-tested, but brokenhearted.

　

***LYRICS OF THE DAY***

“I feel like running away. I’m still so far from home. You say that I’ll never change, but what the fuck do you know? I’ll burn it all to the ground before I let you win. Please forgive me. I can’t forgive you now. I remember everything.”

-Five Finger Death Punch singing “Remember Everything”-