Creative flow challenges and tricks!?

A couple thoughts. Randomly on and/or off your topic....in no particular order......

I will now try my hardest to NOT let songs pile up high again. I had to spend close to 2 years mixing 15+ albums worth of material after finishing up production, and continuously going back into writing mode - multiple times. It almost killed me to have to mix for that long and finish stuff up. Never again. Hopefully. LOL

Second, I absolutely do everything in my power to finish WRITING everything on my plate before moving on or letting them sit dormant for too long. For me at least, there's a creative energy - a line of songs / music waiting to get out - and not finishing up what's already at the front of the line impedes getting to the good stuff down the line. Not sure if that makes sense, but for me, hundreds and hundreds of pieces in, it's a very real reality. Stuff gets finished even if I find it not the greatest. It's become a cardinal rule for me. Which leads to :

KILL the feeling that every song has to be as good or better than the last song you did. Again, that is a huge creativity killer. One that I see all the time that stops writers creativity. It will stop you dead in your tracks. Slam em out and do the best you can, then move on to the next. Somewhere down in that creative que inside your soul/brain awaits a genius song, and IME it often can't get out until you finish off what's in front of it.

On the break / recharge / lay fallow thing..... I don't personally believe in it. A runner runs, a cook cooks, a lawyer argues, a writer writes. Writing is the essence of who I am at least. Something I find helpful is to have folders of differing styles, types, etc. of music - and the sparks of ideas go into the appropriate folder. Then if I'm feeling a bit blah on one thing, I'll switch to a completely different style of music. Also, getting a song "finished" takes a lot of hats and if writing isn't working today, I'll go off to mastering, or mixing, or do some overdubs, or organizing the catalog, inputting titles into BMI, or whatever. For me, there is always something to do to keep the flow going - even if it's not the essence of writing itself.

As for being pessimistic about a particular song - I've done this long enough to know we really can't judge our own works. That's up to others. The stuff I thought was the best I had sometimes never resonates with others. Other things that I figured were just mediocre that I just had to finish off to get them out of the way have had good success. You never know. That's another reason why I finish everything.


Hope you get past your creative malaise quickly. bp

I go through periods of great productivity, where I’m very high functioning and hustling my ass off. It usually lasts a few months...and then it’s followed by a down cycle where I’m worn out, mentally tired and it’s hard to find enjoyment in it, much less get things done.

Over the last year or two I’ve started looking at these up/down cycles differently. Instead of fighting the “down” times I’m learning to embrace them. I’ve been asking myself, “how can I use being down, introspective, tired, etc to my advantage”.

What I’ve found is that, for me, the “down” times are when I’m at my most personally creative, when it comes to song writing. Writing music has always been an outlet, a way to purge feelings of negativity, depression, sadness etc. So when I’m feeling the cycle shift from high to low I embrace it and start writing more music. I pick up a new instrument and learn what I can. I listen to more music for enjoyment. I should clarify that during these times I’m writing music for me, not for others. I dive into my personal projects at these times.

Anyway, my point is that you shouldn’t try to fight the tides. Don’t swim upriver. Just figure out how to get the most out of every mind set. Now, If you’re doing this professionally you still need to have a good amount of discipline. Dr Bill said it nicely, a writer writes, a cook cooks. But even a master chef benefits from leaving the kitchen from time to time, to go out and enjoy other people’s recipes for example.

Another point: IME, when your brain unlocks its creative side, it doesn’t care so much how it’s channeled, only they it is. All creative endeavors are intertwined. So make sure you’re feeding your creative side, but don’t limit that to music or to a particular instrument. To stay creative sometimes I need to spend time reading a good book. Or watching a great movie. Or building shelves for my closet, or sanding/staining and refinishing a piece of furniture for my living room, or writing shitty poetry in my journal etc etc. Anything they keeps me “creating”, that keeps me figuring out how to do something.

Hope that helps in some way.

Sometimes, life gets in the way of my writing. I have to do my taxes, for example, or paint a room, or deal with an illness. Over time, I’ve figured out an ‘idea capture’ system that works well for me. During those times when I have to put other activities ahead of creativity, I make a point of continuing to capture ideas, observations, lines, melodies, titles and quotes; pretty much anything that strikes me. It only takes seconds or minutes, and I feel a little bit better knowing that when I finish whatever task was keeping me away from writing, I have a bundle of raw material to work on. At this point in life, I’ve done it enough to know it’s part of my process; the ebb and flow of creativity, as it were.

I went from a period of relatively finished songs, to an album release. Now I'm in this period of a bunch of songs with 2-4 tracks maximum, really short time lengths. Two minute tracks.
Not sure if it's a good idea or not, but it's what I'm doing right now.

Kind of goes with what Tbone was saying. If you don't have an opus in you, write a ditty. Who cares. Or like dr Bill said, mix today, write tomorrow, etc.

Or like Martin said, if you can't get up off your ass, take a gig, make an obligation.  That will get you going 110%.

If you can't figure out what to do on the guitar, pick up the bass. Gets some electronic drums. Play a synthesizer. Having all these different instruments and interfaces at my disposal keeps the ideas coming regularly. Not sure if you're there yet, you might be already. If you're totally comfortable on every instrument you own, buy a trumpet or a flute, start again there.

Also agree not to fight the dry spells. Just do other things. There's more to life than music, sometimes you have to come up for some air. Sometimes this passion can feel like an addiction. Usually not, but it's there sometimes.