Don’t get too excited, this isn’t a post encouraging you to be yourself. If anything you should always ignore that advice. There’s probably way cooler people you could be.
I sat down to journal today for the first time in about five months. The vacation wasn’t purposeful or planned. I simply forgot, was too busy or just didn’t feel the need to capture anything. I find that I often abandon my journal when things are going well. My personal writing often consists of irrational complaints or stale lists of current and recent events like what band I saw last night, what friends haven’t called in months or which comedian I heckled off the stage. It’s not a place for elegance or legible handwriting, it’s a place for unfiltered thought, as any journal should be. But even as I sat down to write today, nothing really showed up. I forced a paragraph to the page but it was of little substance, mostly explaining how I didn’t really have much to say.
Yesterday, I did an interview with one of my all time favorite artists Chris Carrabba. Something we often discuss is how he can’t force songs for any of his projects. He can’t grab his guitar and say “I’m going to only focus on writing Dashboard Confessional songs today, then tomorrow it’ll only be Twin Forks songs” etc. The songs show up when they please. The writing happens when the writing decides it will. If you don’t like this idea then you definitely need to read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, something I reference constantly.
If I could live inside this book I would.
I was writing a few album reviews this past week and was really stuck. One in particular was an EP by a more gothic style band covering some more mainstream hits. It wasn’t that the content was difficult to describe or assess, I just couldn’t come up with a starting point. This year I’ve made it a goal to eliminate certain overused words from my writing vocabulary. With that in mind, I knew I should just start rambling and I could always go back and find better ways to restate my thoughts without using those tired words or phrases. I sat down I still had nothing! I took a lap around my kitchen and the word “rip” came to mind, no idea why. I sat back down and busted out the review in about ten minutes with minimal reworking.
I guess this is all to say, don’t be so hard on yourself when creativity isn’t flowing. I do love the idea of a golden hour or the perfect writing setup and environment. All of these are important to a creator, but ultimately the ideas will show up when they’re supposed to. Every review or article I’ve ever written, I’ve worried that I was going to miss my deadline because the words just weren’t coming to me. And every time, they showed up. For me, it’s always in a flurry, all at once and at a rapid pace. Even in school I would write papers this way. Were they A papers? To me, yes. The teachers just didn’t recognize talent so far beyond their mainline educated zombie brains. Overall, the idea that your creativity is it’s own energy, deciding just when to strike, should really take the pressure off. I’ve talked to seasoned veterans, people who have been writing music, books, comedy etc etc for decades and none of them have a formula for creativity. Isn’t that a relief!? You can’t force it to happen but you can find ways to jump start the process. More on that in another post. Happy writing.
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