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Finding inspiration

SpiderFingers	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 11:21 AM Hi Everyone, Just wondering what you guys use as inspiration for writing. I'm very much an emotional writer, I write what I feel. But that can be a problem as I'm currently bored with life and have 0 inspiration. What's your inspiration - What makes you write?
moam	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 11:32 AM There's your inspiration right there! Make a song relating to how gray life can get. I bet there's a lot more you can dig up than even just that. And that's exactly what I use for inspiration...emotions. I write what I feel, every time. It's like putting a piece of me into every song I create.
SpiderFingers	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 11:36 AM But if I write when I'm bored I'll end up writing a boring piece of music. Do you find that you can write anytime? I find that I go through phases of writing a lot then nothing and the nothing can last for ages.
moam	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 11:40 AM not anytime, mostly times of high, intense emotion, which happens frequently unfortunately... Recently I started recording another album, but I'm kind of forcing myself to stop because sometimes I get so wrapped up in making music that I forget other things in life that are ACTUALLY important. And right now, there are many other things I need to stay focused on besides music But I know how you feel dude...that has happened to me quite a bit--the phase you are in. Just wait 'till something really hits you though. You won't be able to stop writing. To me, making music is almost like a drug. In my world, it's just as...if not more--addicting.
SpiderFingers	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 11:43 AM I hear ya. Anyway, I'll just keep plodding along waiting for the next wave.
vilifiend	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 12:38 PM heh. i was going to say the exact same thing moam did. maybe you could channel the energy of where youd like to be through the mundane and have subject matter on both the now and the hypothetical. for me, i can always find some kind of angst that will express. the only times i cant write is when i get way too saturated. i write a lot of stuff and sometimes after cranking out 5 or 6 tracks i get so up in my head about what im doing i take it too seriously. my neck hurts like im at work... headaches... tunnel vision... and in the end i start making something that feels synthetic. for me the key is learning to not take it so serious. i know that sounds weird, because it is a serious thing and it means a whole hell of a lot to you. but for me if i reserve my seriousness while im actually writing and just focus on enjoyment, i end up writing something much better. it took me a long time to learn that/be able to do it. the subconscious has some deeper stuff than whats on the tip of your mind, and if you dont take yourself so seriously and do it for enjoyment, you may find you start expressing the deep you anyway. like when i do vocals - i rarely write down my lyrics. ill just play the track, and improvise. and its always freaky as hell what comes out. i close my eyes and just feel my track... and without even thinking i will express stuff that i have been hiding from for a long time, and i cant change the subject. how often do you work on your music? you could maybe just be saturated. because personally, if life was absolutely mind numbingly mundane, it would be a perfect place for me to find my inner darkness and it probably wouldnt be a boring track - IF i wasnt overly saturated.
SpiderFingers	Date: October 6, 2008 @ 1:03 PM Interesting. I've been a musician for many years and every time this happens I get depressed and freak out that it will never return. I do push myself for excellence and judge myself harshly over everything I write. But I believe in what you have described and that is just letting it out and seeing what surfaces even if it's dark. I think maybe I put too much pressure on me to write some brilliant every time (not saying my stuff is brilliant, but you know what I mean) acceptable even. Writing music is very much a drug or a real form of meditation for my soul would be a better way of putting it. I have a dedicated music room which I am in every day, but I try and write every couple of days, sometimes more then once a day when I have a good flow coming. Lately I'm just bored with everything and probably need some outside inspiration so this site has been a great help in aiding my thirst for getting with other writers.
zedsalt	Date: October 7, 2008 @ 3:38 AM Interesting that the first responses would involve pain and angst as impetus... In Practical Concerns class back in art school, we talked about the idea of adversity as inspiration. We pretty much reached the consensus that the only negative stimulus without potential benefit for us was the pressure to create, do something NOW, meet a deadline. Of course, had the class been any bigger, there would have probably been someone there who thrived on it. I've had a few incredible bursts of artistic prolificacy after feeling as though I'd been very close to death, but that's not exactly a practical method of getting out of a slump. Y'know, not a switch that I'd like to throw. Involving myself in nonmusical creative pursuits, immersing myself in others' work (some musical, mostly not) usually does the trick...as long as I look on it as something to do while I'm waiting for my muses to return and NOT a method to force them to.
SpiderFingers	Date: October 7, 2008 @ 10:30 AM True. If we had to wait for pain to write music...well let's just not go there shall we? But, you would have to agree that writing music when in an emotional drama does bring about some very expressive and heart felt melodies. Let's not forget as well that powerful emotion called LOVE that can bring about and has brought about some of the most beautiful music ever written. So, is our emotional state the reason why we write music?
zedsalt	Date: October 8, 2008 @ 3:46 AM For me, I think it's more a matter of a constant, frantic attempt to establish and maintain some sense of purpose and self-worth. I've never been able to come up with a worthwhile expression of any particularly strong emotion...positive or negative...while I'm in the thick of it. One of the things...perhaps the thing that makes artistic endeavor an emotional outlet is that it requires a certain amount of objectification. Whether we're tranlslating what we're feeling into brushstrokes or just framing it into words, whether we're carefully analyzing every aspect of medium and process as we go or we're working intuitively, some amount of objectification is intrinsic to that process. And that's part of the real beauty of it, because it effects different feelings differently. Or as the proverb goes, "Shared sorrow is half-sorrow; shared joy is double-joy". But for me, the times when I'm in the greatest need of objectivity, when either negative or positive emotion is effecting my effectiveness, creative endeavors help...as long as the subject matter is something I have some distance from and NOT whatever has me in that state.
joycedavis	Date: October 9, 2008 @ 10:48 AM thanks for this discussion. i've had my own 'lil writer's block going on about 3 months now. i've written a few songs, but none that match up even close to what i have been able to squeek out in the past. it's true that in times of adversity we seem to feel more, thus, it may follow that we write more - but with me, with adversity comes time - more time to fill, not less time to create the impetus of havingg to get the lyrics or instrumentals out in whatever time you have. i.e. more time on my hands is not an impetus for me to write, less time might actually be. i just wish i could get past two lines without judging myself - that's my problem. i, too, have to wait patiently 'til i have a line or two, write them down, then wait some more. i sometimes use those lines, sometimes i don't. collabing with others almost always helps - but fear of failure is the fire behind this block right now... again, thx for this discussion. it brings to the surface lots of shared experiences and feelings, and kind of takes the edge off a bit. peace---jd
SpiderFingers	Date: October 9, 2008 @ 10:53 AM Yeah, I'm quite enjoying hearing everyone's pain (not really). but it does help to know that others are feeling the same at times and how each of us cope with this very real experience of not being able to produce creatively. I hope others join in. Thanx for everyone's input so far.
zedsalt	Date: October 9, 2008 @ 1:04 PM There have been a number of great songs written on the topic of not being able to write songs. Loudon Wainright III performed one recently on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
joycedavis	Date: October 10, 2008 @ 4:18 AM was it any good?
zedsalt	Date: October 11, 2008 @ 3:16 AM Well, yeah! I meant to say that it was among a number of greats on the topic. O.k., so, if I got really picky about what I would call great...like,say, I was told I could only refer to ten tunes as "great", maybe none of the songs about writer's block would make that list, but it was really good.

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