Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve ever used more than one computer at once, you know that juggling extra mice can be kind of annoying. Logitech thinks it doesn’t have to be: the company has just announced a new mouse designed specifically for folks who use more than one com…

I don’t usually search out particular stickers to express myself on Facebook Messenger (I’m a 💯 or 🔥 emoji kind of guy) but recently people who do, have noticed some strange results. VentureBeat points out a tweet by Serena Ehrlich showing the vomit…

As the author of over fifty works of fiction, people have asked me why I don’t concentrate my work and pursue a single genre. They point out that genre writers, especially those who specialize in serial genres, reap the greatest commercial rewards. They have a point and the evidence is clear.

I have never been singularly focused on writing traditional genre novels and by that I mean adhering to the formulas that underline their production. I cite here stories that are told primarily within specific subject matter and for specific age groups. In that category are science fiction, horror, fantasy, zombies, young adult, erotica, historical fiction (by specific periods and conflicts), and on ad infinitum. This is by no means a put down of all those extraordinary writers who work solely in those creative vineyards.

Each of these has different rules and boundaries, but they are essentially dubbed by the publishing industry as genres. Publishers categorize certain descriptive material like suspense, for example, as a “genre.” But the very term “suspense” can be construed as a definition of all well-told stories. Without suspense, there is no motivating force in any story. It is not a category by itself. What happens next is the reason all people turn pages or watch movies/TV shows without turning away.

With the exception of my Fiona Fitzgerald series, which on the surface does slip into the category of the mystery genre, I strive to avoid writing to genre rules of the road. My agenda was and continues to be only to use the format as an opening wedge to hone in on the inner world of our nation’s capital. When I wrote the first book, American Quartet, I had never tackled the mystery genre before. My agent at the time persuaded me to take the plunge and, since I lived in the Washington metropolitan area, I decided to use the police department that covered the nation’s capital as my venue. In casting around for a knowledgeable female who could give me some insight into the inner workings of the department and her own psyche I was lucky to find an experienced homicide detective, Judy Roberts, who led me deep into the entrails of the mindset and procedure of police work as seen through a female perspective.

Fiona is different. I have fallen in love with her. She has become my eyes, ears and throbbing brain that assess the characters I have observed in our nation’s capital where I have spent more than half of my working life. To me, she is the voice of truth about our capital’s hardcore power junkies, sinister manipulators, three-faced politicians, uncaring and inefficient bureaucrats, discouraged idealists and hardcore believers in the goodness of man. The Fiona series allows me to dig deeper into the complexities of this ménage.

In some genre formulas like romance fiction, the plot, however formulated by period, occupation, age, country, occupation, environment and other considerations must always end in parity between the characters, especially in heterosexual romances. The same is true in the mystery genre where every denouement in all the various forms of mystery fiction must end in revelation whether in a single book or series where either the main character or supporting characters must interact to find the perpetrator. In that category I have expressed myself in terms of the Fiona series.

Of course, my definitions are not precise, and there is lots of room for conflicting views. Nevertheless a vast number of readers have been acclimated to accept the premises of specific genre formulas and can be disappointed if the rules are not followed to the letter.

The fact is I do not believe I am suited or have the capacity to apply myself to any of the aforementioned categories. Although my mind is always buzzing with story ideas, the obsession does not extend itself to anything but reality-based stories that don’t seem to fall into any one traditional genre category. I am often amazed at the breadth of imagination employed by writers who can turn out stories in so many of these categories.

As for the readers I know, I have one friend, a highly educated and enormously successful high-tech executive addicted to novels about zombies. I can understand a science fiction fan but I am truly baffled by, for example, an assertion by the late lamented Anwar Sadat of Egypt who was cited in a newspaper clipping saying that he is a self admitted junkie of romance fiction. Go figure.
I have other friends and acquaintances, some with acknowledged super achievement in science and the arts, who proudly admit to spending their precious leisure time pouring over graphic novels and some who confine their reading choices only to horror stories and novels depicting dystopian themes and super heroes as well as a smorgasbord of fantasy genre offerings.

Believe me, I am hardly a snob about such obsessive reading choices. The stories of Sherlock Holmes were and still are my choice of sickbed reading and my mystery reading habit goes through periods of great excess.

As a boy, I admit my own addiction to such series as Bomba the Jungle Boy, The Boy Allies, The Hardy Boys and many other series produced by writing factories that churned out these books en masse for its young readership. They truly enhanced my love for reading and probably helped plant my obsession for writing that led to a lifetime career that continues to occupy and enthrall me on the cusp of my dotage.

But as an obsessive, full-time, seven-days-a-week writer, I have shied away from the conventions and restrictions of any genre. I have talked to other writers of equal obsession who are totally immersed in formulaic genre and have made a spectacular living out of the practice. I congratulate them for their discipline, persistence and focus. It’s just not, as they say, my cup of tea.

Perhaps I am conditioned by the influences of the great English, Russian and European novelists and certain twentieth century American writers, which motivates me to find ways around genre restrictions. To do so is definitely a handicap commercially, but it is hard to beat in creative satisfaction.

Note I have avoided loftier explanations of why I write, why I must write, and what motivates me to penetrate, through storytelling, the complexities of the human condition. After all, I am only one half of the equation. The other half constitutes the reader and their engagement in my work.

Warren Adler is the acclaimed author of The War of the Roses, a masterpiece of macabre divorce adapted into the BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated hit film starring Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. Adler has also optioned and sold film rights for a number of his works, including Random Hearts and Private Lies. Adler’s works have been translated into more than 25 languages, including his staged version of The War of the Roses, which has opened to spectacular reviews worldwide. Adler has taught creative writing seminars at New York University and has lectured on creative writing, film and television adaptation, and electronic publishing. He currently has a number of film/TV adaptations in various stages of development with Grey Eagle Films including The Children of the Roses. His novels are now available as audiobooks through Audible.

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We all have bad habits, whether we like to admit it or not. Maybe it’s something simple, like biting your fingernails, but maybe it’s something more dangerous, like driving without a seatbelt or never proofreading the emails you send out. In any case, your bad habits are putting your life, your health, your career, or your relationships in jeopardy. You know they’re there, and you want to get rid of them–but you also know from experience that it’s just not that easy.

Fortunately, there are some strategies that can make it easier.

Why Breaking Bad Habits Is Hard

First, let’s take a look at why breaking bad habits is hard in the first place. Habits are, hypothetically, a good thing. They’re our mind’s way of putting our bodies on autopilot, enabling us to go about a specific routine or a specific task without dedicating the mental or physical resources to navigate that routine as if it were new. From an evolutionary perspective this is advantageous; if we’re able to repeat an action under similar circumstances (i.e., eating breakfast at the same time every morning), this action is considered “safe,” and it’s worth repeating. It’s one problem in your life that’s solved, and you no longer have to think about it. It’s why hitting the “snooze” alarm feels so automatic, and why the drive home from work is something you often forget about.

Unfortunately, this habituation isn’t always a positive development, especially in the modern world, where the threats faced by our long-ago ancestors of predation, starvation, and poisoning aren’t nearly as common. But because habituation is evolutionarily hard-wired into our brains, it can be hard to break free from something that’s already ingrained in our heads as “safe” or “worth repeating.”

4 Techniques That May Help You Break Free

Any one of these four techniques, or some combination of them, could help you wrestle free of your bad habits:

1. Substitution.

The first method is substitution. Rather than focusing on trying to break your bad habit, this method involves gradually replacing it with a new, good habit. For example, let’s say you have a smoking habit and you’re trying to cut it out. Rather than trying to “quit smoking,” start a habit of taking something up that’s more positive, such as jogging around the block or eating raw vegetables. When you get a craving to engage in the bad habit, engage in the good habit instead–every once in a while at first, but gradually expanding to become more frequent. Because the bad habit is so ingrained, it’s often easier to replace it with something than to get rid of it altogether.

2. Cold Turkey.

Most people’s instinct is to phase out a bad habit gradually, but there’s some scientific research to support that the cold turkey method can work even better. Why? Because engaging in your bad habit, even in a limited capacity, reinforces some of the neural structures that made it a bad habit to begin with. So quitting cold turkey, all at once, might be exceptionally hard when you first start out, but it could lead you to a faster elimination of the habit.

3. Consistency.

There’s a brilliant productivity strategy sometimes referred to as the “Seinfeld method” of productivity, due to its popularization by Jerry Seinfeld. The goal of this method is to avoid “breaking the chain,” by engaging in a certain behavior or taking a certain action every day, without fail. This level of consistency helps you remain committed, but it has one obvious fault point; if you break the chain, you’ll have to start all over again. Try either breaking your bad habit or substituting a new one by taking this one-day-at-a-time approach.

4. Refocus.

Bad habits consume us because they steer us, almost automatically, in the direction of the undesired behavior. Rather than fighting against this autopilot-like steering mechanism, it can be advantageous to simply refocus its direction. In the metaphorical sense, this could mean steering slightly further to the left than usual. But in a practical sense, it could mean restructuring your morning routine to become more efficient–such as creating a task list instead of merely freaking out about how much work you have on your plate.

There’s No Single Best Way to Break a Bad Habit

When I introduced these four techniques, I was careful how I defined them. They aren’t techniques that “will break your bad habit;” instead they are techniques that “may help you” break a bad habit. That’s because, despite all our scientific advancements and general understanding of how bad habits work, habits are still a deeply personal and subjective experience, and there’s no single tactic or strategy that will work the same for everyone. Some people may find that all the above techniques work well; others may find that none of them do. Some may break their habit in a matter of days; others will take months.

If you’re going to be successful in breaking your bad habits, you need to adopt the mindset that it isn’t going to be easy, that it won’t work the same for you as it does someone else, but that it’s also completely possible to overcome. Stay committed, and don’t be discouraged if the first strategy you try doesn’t pan out; it takes a lot of work to get rid of a bad habit, no matter who you are.

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Sometimes I close my eyes and wonder what my parents’ first date looked like. I imagine a snowy day in Philadelphia, my dad picking my mom up in his one-day-old, cherry red, Toyota Forerunner, a ‘sports utility vehicle’ as they used to say. As I was told, he wore a pink sock necktie knotted lopsidedly around his rather thick round neck. It barely reached his belly button. My mom always said she fell in love with my dad for his brains and heart, not his sense of style. His large neck was, like a soft cushion that was the perfect place to rest your head. His hair was jet black, thick and wavy, just like mine. Two things I remember clearly: his rosy cheeks and gleaming eyes.

________

I’m seventeen now and only my mom is alive. Sixteen is an odd time in life where it’s acceptable to be as much of an adult as you want to be. No one seems to acknowledge, but while there are broad allowances made for recklessness there is, at the same time, immense pressure to be ‘promising.’

A few months ago, in late June in the afternoon, about four PM, when the bells of Rockefeller chimed, and graduation caps were thrown into the sticky air, I made a speedy, uncontrollable, transition. My body suddenly morphed from junior to senior. From nematode to top of the food chain of the University of Chicago Laboratory School, the home of old fashioned leftism and for thirteen years, my home.

It was an odd transition. I had ended my academic year after finishing a surprisingly doable physics final. When I got home, the first thing I heard was my mom calling “Where’s my little senior in high school?” I immediately remembered Mr. Fetch, our high school principal had said as he welcomed our class of 128 freshman to our first day of high school. “Blink,” he had said. “It will be over in a minute.”

I also remembered that his voice was so deep and his suit so dapper, certainly more than any middle or lower school principal, that I suddenly was inspired. And, looking back, what he said was ultimately true. Where had the time gone? Angsting over who I would sit with at lunch. Establishing myself as part of the Lab School world. Ultimately wondering whether people were constantly aware that I was that girl whose dad died. In those early years of becoming part of that world, the college, and the process for admittance, was only a faint concern.

Now, here I am at the end of the summer before my senior year. I still have another year in at Lab School. And most of that year, the part in which I will be the most focused, will be spent filling out applications, trying hard to encapsulate myself into 650 words. Another large part will simply be spent waiting.

My goal is to be admitted to a school that will give me a strong foundation in my academic interests, my career goals, and especially challenge me. The college seminars combined with a level of pressure about college admission college pressure at Lab School make college admission, especially where one is admitted, seem like an ultimate lifetime goal. Sometimes, when I’m thinking about where I want to go and I let my mind creep to a ‘good place’,,,,therefore, of course, potentially jinxing it….I imagine getting accepted into the school of my dreams. It’s like a great hallucination. The light is overexposed, my hair is flowing and my smile is fluorescent as I jump up and down with joy, waving my letter of acceptance. Definitely a hallucination since I’m pretty sure they send emails now. My happiness is like a Crest Toothpaste commercial: unrealistic and minty. But it is also a fantasy somewhat based on truth, since, somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain ingrained the idea that getting into a “good college” is the key to happiness, An endpoint in itself. It’s not really a fair fantasy since college acceptance does have an element of unfairness. And I know that lives and success are not really school dependent. That wonderful careers are person, not necessarily school dependent. Still, when I think of the process, what I want, what I think I can get out of a particular school’s education, I am nervous. It’s that wonderful hallucination that helps me get through the angst!

Why do people get so enmeshed in this process? And why is the process so painful? Without question, to me, there are three main reasons: peer pressure, family pressure, and the unknown.

Let’s start with the peer and familial element. Which is basically, college-specific peer pressure. In the word of academia, where so many kids parents got into an Ivy League school for being unparallingly brilliant or because Harvard’s acceptance rate was 20% instead of 4%, pressure is high for adolescents. More than simply fearing that they are not ‘as smart’ as their parents or praying for the legacy gods will kick in, they also have to face their peers; a group of individuals who have been told one thing but trained to think another. We are all told “it’s what you make of it,” and that is absolutely true. No school can promise timing as a tuition benefit. But simply by the fact that we are told to apply to one school early as a “reach” and others as “safety,” blatantly insinuates that one is a better choice. That competitiveness and higher acceptance rate means better. It’s impossible to generalize all students. I have some friends that are truly cut throat about the process; some recklessly spread word about their test scores like three year olds with pinkeye and some hide their GPA’s under lock and key. I also have some friends whose outlook on college is entirely healthy, that accept chance and embrace the aspirations of their friends. Even at Lab, it is impossible to categorize. But for myself, who is highly competitive, like many others, it is impossible not to sink under your perceptions of your friends’ perceptions of the process and you.

Now let’s touch on intimacy.The college process is incredibly personal and private. Imagine, writing and rewriting an essay for months about the most profound experience of your life or an extremely private moment and then to be ‘rejected.’ It’s hard not to wonder whether your experience wasn’t ‘good enough’ for the school you wanted. The college counselors are wonderful, and try to reassure you to write from the heart and to leave flowery language at the door. But there is a little piece in everyone’s mind screaming ‘sound smarter!’ What’s a more impressive synonym for “also?”! Even arbitrary things, like test scores, feel like a reflection of your intelligence. Even though theoretically you’re being judged based on ‘fit,’ a more accurate word feels like ‘worthiness.’

The hardest part is the unknown. I always say, if I could have a crystal ball and just ‘know’ I’d feel a lot better. There is a lag time between the beginning and end of junior. You are left to you own thoughts to ruminate. But the truth is, waiting is a fact of life. In life, my mom says, there are always going to be periods of time that are so uncertain and uncontrollable that all you can do is sit back and wait. I personally hate waiting, but it’s something that I’m going to have to learn. I don’t think I’ll ever be a patient person, but the fact of the matter is that in this situation, it’s only going to help me.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.