Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Road Trip Wednesday: Inspiration

And it's Road Trip Wednesday time again!  Woo!

Check out YA Highway for RTW and tons of other great features!


This Week's Topic is: Tons of writers are in the midst of NaNoWriMo, trying to stay inspired as we reach the dreaded middle. Share your most inspiring and/or motivational video, book, or quote on writing!

Today's Road Trip Wednesday asks for inspiration.  Friends, I present to you my hero, Amy Poehler.



When I saw this video for the first time I was sitting in my living room in New York, surrounded by eight-foot-tall piles of all my earthly possessions. I was packing for our impending move and contemplating what it would mean to leave behind the only place I had ever lived as an adult.  I was thinking about my blind leap into (hopefully meaningful and temporary) unemployment.  I was wondering, along with Mr. S, if all the studying he did over the summer would result in him passing the bar exam.

Yeah, this video made me cry.

Because there's Amy Poehler, sitting in her bathtub, imprecisely retelling the titular anecdote from Bird by Bird.  When I was little--really little, but already a sloppy disaster--my mother invented her own take on this idea called "The Story of the Little Girl Who Wouldn't Clean Up Her Toys."  In this story, a little girl (who bore more than a passing resemblance to me, and who I for some reason decided was named Kellogg) never cleaned up her toys.  Like, ever.  And then one morning she came down the stairs and realized she couldn't get into the downstairs rooms at all because all her toys were in the way.  So she yelled for her mom, who said, "Just start with one thing at a time.  Find the pieces to one toy, and put them away.  Then find the pieces to another toy and put that away.  One at a time."  And eventually, one toy at a time, the downstairs got cleaned up and the little girl could get to the kitchen for breakfast.

This is the single most useful piece of parenting my mother ever did.  I have this conversation with myself pretty much daily, especially now that I am doing all the housework.  But even when I was teaching: "Get all the Period Six essays together in a pile, and just get them graded.  Okay.  Now pull together the middle school theater packets.  Good.  Grade those."  And CERTAINLY when I'm writing.  2500 words a day?  Ok.  But before you get sucked down the rabbit hole of checking blogs and Tumblr, write 500.

And you know what?  Our stuff got moved (well, except our couch, but I made peace with that pretty quickly).  And I do miss New York (and can't wait to go visit my students and colleagues and favorite places!!!) but I also love Buffalo--new restaurants, new friends, closer to family, about a million times more space.  I am getting exactly what I wanted out of my time away from work--writing time, rest, relaxation, mental health, time to think hard about my next move--and I've been putting my feelers out and I'm starting to track down leads on some really exciting job opportunities.  AND!  AND!  AND!  Mr. S passed his bar exam, because he's a rockstar and worked really, really hard.

So pals, when you feel stressed, I urge you to listen to Amy Poehler and the wisdom she dispenses from her tub.  Look at all the amazing things she does, and realize, it's ok to feel this stressed.  Just take one thing at a time, work at it, and slowly but surely (bird by bird, one toy after another) you will get through it.

And if you don't need inspiration but you do want to laugh at something really, really strange from this week's Saturday Night Live?  (AND see the exact spot where I caught the F Train every day for three years?)



See the thumbnail shot?  It's from about 0:34 in the video, if it's not showing up, on a subway platform by some stairs.  Right there where he is dancing, that exact spot, is where I waited in the mornings. (I miss a lot about New York but I wouldn't be too sad if I never waited for a train there ever again.)

...I can't stop watching.  Enjoy.

17 comments:

  1. Ah! I love the SNL video - so great! Awesome post too, I love it

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    1. I just wish it had aired before Halloween! What a great costume that would have been...

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  2. Whoa, that video. you know, I heard a lot about Bird by Bird but never got to it. Now I want to, like right now!
    And I agree, one thing at a time is the way to go.
    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Yeah, I still haven't read BBB but I've read this chapter and had it recounted to me so many times that it's become my mantra :) It's on my TBR shelf, though!

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  3. Love Bird By Bird...and who knew your mom figured it out first;) Great parenting story. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Yeah, that story is definitely getting passed down to my kids. It's so genius! (Sadly, it took me a LONG time to learn to apply it well. But now it works!)

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  4. Oh SNL, always inspires! Lol Thanks for sharing!! ;-)

    http://wordsareinnermusic.blogspot.com/2012/11/road-trip-wednesday-nanowrimo.html

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    1. Yeah...unfortunately, sometimes it inspires me to revise by dragging sketches on for three or four times longer than it should...but this one lands, I think :)

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  5. Great advice from both Amy and your mom! Your mother really should have tried to get that story published. So nice to hear that you're enjoying your new home so much. :)

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    1. Yeah, if I could draw at all, I would try illustrating it--because if it doesn't look the way I pictured it when I was four, I'm convinced the magic would go right out of it :)

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  6. Love that! Bird by Bird is one of my favorite books on writing. Such a great message. :)

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    1. I love the way Amy tells it, too--she doesn't get hung up on not remembering all the details; she knows she has the important part right. As someone who occasionally takes 4-hour internet detours in the middle of writing because I wanted to look up one little fact and then decided to instead consume all recorded human knowledge on the topic, that focus is a lesson in itself.

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  7. I'm still kind of in shock over that Mokiki thing. Seriously strange. So I'm wondering, when I'm in NYC in February, do you think anyone would look at me weird if I started doing the Mokiki dance on the streets? :P

    This is the second mention today of Ann Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD. I think this might be a sign that I need to read it, what do you think? :)

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    1. SCBWI SLOPPY SWISH FLASH MOB. Let's make it happen.

      I'm thinking about either designating January as craft book month or trying to read one craft book per month in 2013 (maybe both.) A lot of people have been talking about wanting to read that one--book club, maybe? Anyone else want to read BIRD BY BIRD in January?

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    2. Yes! BIRD BY BIRD in January sounds like a good idea. We should get others on board.

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  8. I also have been meaning to read BIRD BY BIRD. And great advice here for coping with stress--I know I have a bad habit of trying to comprehend everything I have to do at once...which, clearly, is not a good idea. You have to just calm down and do one thing at a time. It's true.

    (Btw, Save-a-Word Saturday is happening again this week. :) )

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    1. Ack, sorry I missed Save-A-Word Saturday! I actually did think of a word--I'll try to get on board next time!

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