It’s been a month since i went to Nashville for the writing seminar. Yesterday i pulled out the notebook from the workshop. I read over all the clinician interviews. Those are always so interesting to read and full of so much great advice….so many tidbits of wisdom. I mean here are the top writers in the business talking about how they got started, what things they wished they’d known when they were new writers, and stories of their greatest moments in writing as well as some of the low moments.
I highlighted several things as I was reading that were “aha” moments for me. I don’t know why it surprises me when i read something and just really identify with it. After all, aren’t we more alike than we are different? Don’t we all experience the same emotions? Should we be so shocked when someone says, “i know just how you feel?” It seems easier to believe that what i’m feeling or experiencing is “new”….no one in the universe has ever felt this way/or done this before. How COULD anyone really get it? But in reading what some of the writers experienced, it made me realize again that although my journey won’t be in the exact same steps as another writer, the road we’re traveling on is shared. Does that make sense?
One writer was talking about the writing process and how you couldn’t “force” the song…..you had to just let it develop. I love that! I totally agree and totally get that! In my limited writing years, i’ve found that the best songs are the ones that almost tell you where they want to go, and i just have to get out of the way. It reminds me of something i read in “Bird by Bird” about the creative process:
“I wish i had a secret i could let you in on….some code word that has enabled me to sit at my desk and land flights of creative inspiration like an air traffic controller. But i don’t. All i know is that the process is pretty much the same for almost everyone i know. The good news is that some days it feels like you just have to keep getting out of your own way so that whatever it is that wants to be written can use you to write it.”
I have been there. I have felt like i couldn’t write fast enough to catch all the inspiration that i felt was just flying at me. And it felt like i was writing on holy ground.
In one of the interviews, the writer talked about the craft of writing, but said they never wanted to lose the passion that they wrote with when they were 17 years old.
That passion, that holy ground, that moment of inspiration is magical.
But there’s also the comment i read over and over……”i show up and write”. That’s what it takes to be a writer. Just write. Sounds simple? Maybe. But it takes guts to write. It takes guts to show up at a blank peice of paper and let the thoughts just spill out and hope that something will make sense, that in the middle of all the lines of grey pencil lead, a tiny speck of gold will shine through and something will let you know that THAT is the lyric you need, THAT is the next great hook, THAT is the beginning of a great song idea.
But i’ll never find it, if i don’t just show up.
