Put Some Shine On It

So Christina Aguilera got into a little bit of trouble recently. Not, like, Lindsay Lohan trouble or even Charlie Sheen WTF-ery, just a little drunken mayhem. Still, the mug shot that was released makes her look like a fifty-year-old drag queen, which has to be tough for a diva to take. But hey, we can't all be perfect, right? Even multi-talented genies in a bottle have a bad day every once in a while.

As far as bad days go, Adam Lambert has had a few of his own. The day after the AMA performance in which he "shocked the world" by kissing another man onstage probably is the first that comes to his mind.  Talk about a shit storm. Some of his appearances were canceled in retaliation. Pearl-clutching conservatives across the country were flailing about the moral fabric of society being torn to shreds. Nearly every talk show compared his kiss to that of Britney and Madonna's, only for some reason they showed a picture of the women kissing, but weren't allowed to show Adam kissing his sexy as hell bassist, Tommy Joe Ratliff. And this, all the day of his first album release.

Yeah. It's a pretty crappy day when you've got to defend your right to expression, your talent, and your sexuality (nay, your WORTH as a human being) when it was supposed to be a day celebrating a lifetime of hard work.

But you know what's awesome? Adam's a huge fan of Christina's. Yesterday, in his downtime, Adam Lambert watched Christina Aguilera's movie Burlesque and tweeted about how wonderful her performance in it was, how talented she is - all praise praise praise. As a guy who understands just how sucky life can get sometimes, maybe Adam tweeted what he did because he thought she needed some kind words now. But you know what? I'm a huge fan of Adam, I follow his career very closely, and whether he intended for her to see it or not, Adam is an absolute KING of positive thinking. Just take a look at his twitter and you can see it. He's always gracious, complimentary, kind, and encouraging. Heck, look at his charity projects, like Charity Water and the Trevor Project, and you can see it too. As a true believer in karma, he's always putting as much light into the world as he can, and goodness knows, with top selling records and a sold out tour around the world, the Universe seems to be thanking him.

What, Laura, does this have to do with writing?

Here's my point: Whether we're divas, celebrities, millionaires, or poor nobodies, we all have our bad days. As writers, these days come around more often than not. There's always criticism to contend with, rejection, frustration, and lots of sweat and tears as we strive to get better. So when you know a fellow writer who is having a hard time, tell them how awesome they are. Tweet them, Skype them, comment on their blog, email. Become a fan on their Facebook. Whatever. Cheer them up. Help them understand that they are talented, even if they're going through a tough time.

In other words, if they've been arrested for public drunkenness and a god awful mug shot leaks to TMZ, focus on the positive and tell them how awesome they were shakin' it and singing their lungs out in Burlesque.

The thing is, yeah, it's going to make that person feel so much better, but it's also going to make YOU feel better. Whether you believe in karma or not, helping someone else find the positives about their work will also build you a network of people who...guess what? Are going to tell you that you're awesome when you're having one of those bad days in the future.

Be kind to your fellow writers because surely, what goes around comes around.