Nerdalert!
Oh my lord, just thinking about this post makes me feel like I’m about 10000 years old, and should be churning my own butter on some unfortunate public broadcasting show about re-enacting the 1800s, but whatever. I know that nowadays incubators for business, among other things, are super trendy. All the cool kids want to have their start-up accepted by a business incubator so they can get approval mentoring, coaching and funds. And that’s fine. You’re starting a new project, from a business to a web-series, you need to find the environment that will nurture and support you…so what about the library? Oh, I know: NERDALERT. Seriously. Even my inner 14-year-old is rolling her eyes and thinking, “Gawd, when did you become so lame? Gross….”
When I was about 15, 16 and 17, and first writing plays, I read through pretty much all the thousands of plays at the New York Public Library Performing Arts location :http://www.nypl.org/locations/lpaNY Public Library Performing Arts branch. I read those plays, wrote plays, read more plays, in order to understand more about was working in my own writing, as well as what wasn’t. Then, I’d write more plays, read more plays, rinse and repeat…and one day, I submitted my play to the Young Playwrights Festival and won. So, sad as it may seem, NYPL was my very own incubator. (PS: Did I mention that when I was 18, my play was being performed, professionally, off-Broadway, and was very positively reviewed in the NY Times, New York Magazine, etc.? I’m just suggesting that before you call me “sad,” um,what were you doing when you were 18? Exactly. #Shutup)
So much respect for the NYPL where, as a teenager, you could request any play, dealing with all sorts of controversial subject matter, from drug use to pedophilia to rape, and never be condescended to, or judged, or asked, “Do you parents know what you’re reading?” You had a library card, they had the book you wanted, end of story. Respect!
My point being, if you’re in the process of changing your life, or of starting something new, before you get hung up on the latest gadgets, the latest apps, before you worry about being cool and following the trends…have you visited your local library and seen what resources are available for free? Have you asked your local librarians for advice? They don’t just become librarians, you know, a ton of education and training goes into that esteemed title, you know…
“I spent three days a week for ten years, educating myself in the public library…At the end of ten years, I had read every book and I had written a thousand stories.”-Ray Bradbury
If you’re part of some incubatory process that is working out for you and your goals, awesome: keep on keeping on. But as a coach, I frequently run into people who have–to me–very realistic goals, and yet, these same people are not engaged in the hard work to achieve their goals. Instead, they’re waiting on some magical app, or workshop, or article, or loan to make everything work. In my opinion, those people are making huge mistakes. They are wasting time they don’t have. If you’re passionate about something, anything, you’ll build it with whatever you have at hand. The time you spend waiting for someone else to help you out is lost time. For me personally, being a teenager and reading other people’s plays, as I worked on my own, was very powerful. I’d read the diaries of famous playwrights, and notice, over and over again, that before these men and women became famous, they, like me, were in their local library reading other people’s plays. I couldn’t help noticing that the more they read and learned, the better their own writing became. Hmm….
Maybe my point is about something bigger than the public library? Maybe I’m just reminding you that you have to be hungry to create what you want? “Maybe.” Your passion has to come from within, not from whatever is cool nowadays. If that passion is within, you’ll use whatever tools are within your reach to craft what you need. Bells and whistles are fun, sure, but give yourself and your goals the approval necessary and get to work. It’s only #nerdalert till it works…and then you’re a genius. #gettowork