Guest Post: Mandy Thompson On Songwriting

Songwriting:

I started writing songs about twelve years ago.

Up until recently, the process has looked the same every time: wait for the muse – wait for the moment – wait ’til I can “feel” a new song/thought/melody – then RUN to the guitar and get it all down.

This, I’m learning, is not the most productive way to hone my creative skills.

Discipline of Creativity

New to me, and new to many of us, is the discipline of creativity. Being disciplined about being creative.

(Ugh. Seriously – could two more OPPOSING words be put in a sentence?!)

I’m learning now, that the songwriting process can occur a number of ways, and I’m familiarizing myself with each of them.

Practices of the Discipline of Creativity:

1) I might have a great song idea. I need to latch onto it and do some brainstorming, then set it aside for later.

2) I woke up in the middle of the night to a catchy new melody line. Don’t forget it. But don’t stay up all night hashing it out.

3) I have the time and I want to write, but I have no idea what to write about. I’ll go back to the resources from #1 or #2 and see what happens.

4) I don’t feel like it. I don’t have the energy. I hate my life right now and it feels impossible to write anything…. WRITE ANYWAY. I’m learning that I can write about how crappy I feel. And, viola, I’ve got a song.

Employing all of these practices keeps the creative side of my brain at work constantly… It keeps me going, it won’t let the creative Mandy check out for too long. And this has greatly increased my ability to write more frequently.

Whether you’re an author, a photographer, or a scrap-booker, I’m sure you can find ways to adapt these creative “disciplines” to your own life as well.

Mandy blogs regularly over at mandythompson.com and is a member of Our Creative Community (a blog community dedicated to creative discipline).