Writing songs is a cyclic process.
Sometimes a song apprears with the greatest of ears and sometimes writing songs is like pulling teeth.
If you find yourself entering a period where nothing is coming out and your motivation is low, the first thing you should do is stop worrying about it.
We have all been there haven’t we? No matter how hard you try there is still a blank page staring at you. It makes you feel all angry and stressed inside because you think you should be doing something.
Early on in my music career someone said to me that instead of forcing a song that doesn’t want to come out, sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing at all.
So thats what I do. NOTHING.
I just do something else, go for a walk, visit a friend, clean the bathroom, read a book, anything that will take me away from the songwriting.
The last thing I want to do is to get all frustrated and upset that nothing is coming out. Doing that will just make the problem worse.
How can you be motivated if you’re all stressed out?
Give yourself a break. Take some time out to do other things and don’t set a time limit to it. You don’t want to pressure yourself back into the songwriting process. If writing songs is your passion, you will automatically come back to what you love most.
Sometimes other things in your life need your attention and taking a break to sort those things out is probably just what you need to do at that time.
As John Lennon so eloquently put it in his song “Beautiful Boy”:
“Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
So, if life does get in the way, don’t try to resist it. Just let it pass and go with the flow because once you are clear to write again, you will do it with gusto.
I guarantee it.
Until next time, happy writing,
Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician
Keywords: john lennon, songwriting, songwriter, writing songs, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart
Filed under: Songwriting Zen | Tagged: Corey Stewart, creativity, john lennon, music, Songwriting, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing
Hi Corey,
I just came across your blog via Lorenzo Policelli’s ‘My endeavour to be published’ site.
I like the point you’re making here. the best of my songs tend to turn up when I’m doing something else. The subconscious works on them when I’m not paying attention.
Hi Tom,
My apologies for the lateness of my reply. As a performing musician I was gigging all day for our St. Patricks Day celebrations in Australia (any excuse to not go to work and drink lots of Guiness I suppose).
Thanks for taking the time out to let me know how you got here. I noticed that Lorenzo Policelli has a link to this blog. Fantastic!
You’re right about the subconscious mind working on songs while you do something else. It happens to me all the time.
I now make a real effort to frame a songwriting idea that I’m having some difficulty with in my mind before I go to sleep. Sometime it doesn’t work but, when it does, the results are pretty freaky.
We are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for.
Corey
[...] When Doing Nothing Is Doing Something « Songwriting Zen [...]
“We are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for”
I dunno, is it power
Because I often find that songs write themselves whether I want them to or not…
“… I often find that songs write themselves whether I want them to or not”
Yes, but do you write them anyway
? I’m pretty sure you do.
A lot of songwriters would say “I’ll wait until later”. By that time the idea is long gone.
It’s a good point that you bring up Tom. I guess I was buoyed by my enthusiasm when I was writing the reply. I get that way sometimes.