Making With The New Learnings

IanM, that rascally scalawag, posted a good question in the comments here, but I didn't want it to get lost in there, so I'm reposting:

"I find that when I'm trying to write/record something, I get so tired of hearing it that it never gets finished!! Apart from starting a new tune, do you have any other way of getting over that?"

I'm not sure if I've had quite the feeling you mention, IanM, if I understand you correctly. That is, if I have an idea I like, I don't get bored of listening to it. What does happen is that I get stuck, because usually one idea isn't enough to make a song. What happens to me most often is "Now What?!?" Syndrome.

I think the way past this involves a lot of things, and since I'm sitting here, I'll try to type some of them up. But I want to make sure everyone is aware that I am no freakin' expert about nuthin'. I'm just going to share a few things I've learned that work for me, and that I've heard/read have worked for others.

The first thing to realize when you get stuck creatively is that it happens to every creative person, everywhere. In every medium. I read a lot of blogs by writers, musicians, filmmakers, etc., because I find creative people to be interested in the same things I'm interested in, and I like reading the perspectives of these folks. What I see, over and over again, are posts that say things like Oh my gawd, I have no new ideas, or I have a deadline in two hours and I don't know how my story ends, or I can't think of what the third verse should be, do I even NEED a third verse?!? And on and on.

So. The thing is, to try to remember that this is part of what generating something via creativity is all about. It's the game the Universe is playing with you - so, you want to make a song (film, book, video, painting), eh? OK - but you didn't think it would be EASY, did you?

So the first response in this situation is to try your very best to ease up on yourself. Give yourself some slack.

Actually, I take it back - the above is really the same way you want to respond to EVERY creative challenge - be excellent to yourself. This means, no self-flagellation, no judgments before the damn thing is finished. No one knows better than me how freaking HARD that is. But it truly is the only way forward.

Another thing to remember about creating is that the reason for YOU to create is so that you can share YOUR point of view. So: stop comparing your fledgling idea with those Giant Classic World-Changing Songs that we all know so well. The worst thing you can do when you're stuck on your song is to start thinking about how it will never be as cool as "Kashmir." Remember, there was almost certainly a moment when Jimmy Page got done playing that "Kashmir" riff for the rest of them, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Yeah, that's all I got." Lucky for him he had John Paul Jones in the band to write all that mellotron and horns stuff. The people who wrote those world-changers didn't know they were doing it at the time. They were full of insecurity and second-guesses. But they knew that the only way to know if it was good or not was to finish it. To do that, they just kept showing up and working on it.

I have a common problem where I fall too much in love with an idea, and then when I try to add new things to it, nothing measures up to the original part in my mind. Back around week 8 or 9, I was working on "Esther" a lot, and I had that main groove and about five different ideas for melodies to sit on it, and then I had that descending guitar part that ended up being "the chorus." But I got really stuck trying to figure out how to structure the song. What was a verse? Was there a chorus? Did I need more stuff? What kind of bridge should I do, or should I even do one at all?

I got so frustrated that I went off and wrote something else for week 9. And then I had already finished my work for week 10, so I had a little breather. It's a good idea to not underestimate the usefulness of time away from something you're stuck on. At the same time, make sure you come back in a reasonable amount of time, or else risk putting the thing aside forever.

When I did come back to "Esther", all those structure issues were still there waiting for me. I finally decided that the idea that I had been running away from, i.e., letting that main groove be the bed for 80% of the runtime, was something worth at least trying out. So I tried that, and varied the "sections" by superimposing different ideas at different times. Which then lead me to the question, "Well, what happens if ALL of these ideas are happening at the same time?" Which led to that "build up" right before the bridge comes - where it got so crowded that you couldn't understand the lead vocals anymore. Which led me to ask, "Am I OK with not being able to hear the words there?" And I realized I absolutely was, that the point at that moment was NOT what the words were SAYING. So then I realized if I was going to have information overload there, then I should REALLY GO OVERBOARD with it.

This was just an idea that occurred to me. I could have argued the point with myself. But I decided not to judge the idea before I heard the results. It was just an idea, a statement, as simple as "Well, maybe this could happen next." What it was NOT was any kind of rumination as to the world-changing nature of what I was up to.

So now I had total cacophony. What's next? Well, what's the total opposite of total sonic anarchy? As Steve Buscemi says in that Coen Brothers movie, "Total fucking silence." And that's how I got to that bridge.

I find if you just start saying "yes" to the little innocuous voice that pipes up in your head in these moments, instead of the typical knee-jerk "NO", you find yourself in flow. Be open to literally ANY idea that comes to you, no matter how silly, pretentious, stupid, funny, ridiculous it may be. Also be ready to throw out the ideas that you had previously fallen in love with. I don't care how much you love some idea you're attached to, if it's preventing you from finishing something, throw it away.

And at the end of all of this, you will generally find yourself with a different song than you expected to make.

That is so OK with me.

Especially when I've got a deadline to hit.