Bird by Bird

So I've finished reading our required textbook, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing & Life written by Anne Lamott. It was wonderful and I loved her honest, somewhat snarky writing style.

I was fascinated and intrigued by the beginnings of her career in writing. Her adoration and passing shame at her father's profession as a writer was interesting. Her writing career, while it began as something she was good at and an admiration for her father, brought her full circle as it's the very thing that eventually gave her some notoriety in the literary community as she saw some success with the publishing of the book she wrote about her father.

For me, camp was the fuel for the 'scrapbooking fire'. I needed a place to keep all those photos and memories, the names and the good times so as not to forget them. But, there was a similar adoration and shame that I associate with that first summer at camp. That first summer was fantastic but I learned a lot of hard lessons and made some mistakes along the way to the 'end of summer' bliss that I experienced. I wouldn't trade that first summer for anything but it was probably one of the most pleasantly difficult two months of my life.

Similar to Anne, I have always had a knack for my talent. I have always been a creative soul-I loved arts and crafts as a child so it was a natural step to make a 'scrapbook'. I never anticipated that it would be a force in my life and a label that I am proud to identify myself with. I am a published artist. That's something that I am very proud of and it's another thing that that first summer at camp introduced into my life.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Anne's style and what she has to say about writing and life in general. Her tips throughout the book are universal for the common artist. Anne has a few 'rules' or 'guidelines' for honing your craft which I think apply to all artistic endeavors, or for that matter- all life endeavors. There's a few that I particularly enjoyed.

She states simply that we must take time to practice every day. Even when we don't feel like it. Even when the words don't come. Sometimes we need to just sit there with our supplies whether that means paper and paintbrushes or the computer.

Even more importantly, you have to be realistic. You aren't going to 'published' overnight-and you might never get there either. This makes it all the more important that you ENJOY what you do. The layouts-if you could even call them that-in that first scrapbook will never make it into print. In fact, even layouts I completed 3-4 years ago will never make it into print. I have had to read, research and practice to get to where my style is today.

One thing that I loved in the book was her use of index cards. Brilliant. I am forever making lists. I love to write down my ideas and sketches and whenever I see something I like I add it to my notebook entitled 'Scrap Crap'. It's a great catch-all for all of those ideas. I've recently joined a community online as well called 'pinterest' which has enabled me to gather and clump my online inspiration as well. I find these tools useful for 'slow days' at the scrapbooking table and just in general to get the juices flowing or get out of an artistic rut. Inspiration is as critical as vision for an artist.

Just a few initial musings on Bird by Bird.

Krista