Starting from Scraps of Paper

Lies we've all heard
When I think about creating things, I often have to push through flows of thought like the following:: "who are you to think that you have something to say?" or "what makes you special that sharing your work could actually benefit others?"  But over the last few years I've begun to realize that those are lies.  Lies meant to keep me from expressing myself in ways I've been meant to all along..

I think we all experience some form of those lies.  And it ultimately seems seems to boil down to an identity issue.  Who are we?  What are we meant to do?

The truth
I've been reading several great blogs from writers and songwriters and one of the interesting suggestions that these bloggers and writers have been saying over and over is this: Say out loud "I am an artist".  (See David's blog here for one great example.)  Why are these suggestions used to help people get past these difficulties and fears?  Why is something so simple as repeating a phrase to yourself even helpful?  Because it gets to the core of the issue, which is to say it speaks truth about our identities.  And in a deep place, this resonates with us, so we are encouraged and spurred on because of it.

Because the truth is that we are creators.  That is our inheritance as being creating in the image of a creative God, so I would encourage you to embrace it, say it, live it, do it, repeat it and don't ever feel like you need to apologize for it.

So, once we're able to embrace that at a conceptual level, what then could this look like in practical terms?  There are an infinite number of ways that embracing this truth can positively affect our day-to-day creating.  Here is just one way we are trying to do this in the Living (un)Explored Project:

First steps
The first steps we're taking  is to explore some of our past work and then to take it seriously enough and to respect it enough to write it down in more than just scribbles on a paper.  You know what I mean: those old writing notebooks that have been gathering dust in storage or on slips of paper you've dumped into a shoe box, in text file sitting on your desktop among a thousand other things.  It was time to do some organizing, some critiquing and some discerning to pull out the better pieces and gather them together into more useful formats.

What I noticed, that rather surprised me, was that something changed when we did this.  In our case, the songs we intend to record are now laid out in a "lead sheet" format-that is each song is in it's own file, with lyrics and chords laid out so that it could be easily printed and played.  They are now easier to read, easier to follow, easier to see how they can be improved, and now they "look" like this project is more of a legit thing.  There is an emotional side to our creating that we need to take into consideration even if it's not always logical.  In this case, beginning to organize the project has an boost in our spirits that say, "we can do this".

Small Steps
Much of this getting over our fears in creating is knowing ourselves enough to understand what it takes to get over the next hurdle.  And these steps need to be small ones.  Looking forward, we still have some big hurdles and decisions to make.  How are we going to record?  How fleshed out do we want the arrangements?  Do we want live recordings or tracked ones?

I can easily be overwhelmed by these decisions which is why I'm not focusing on them yet.  I'm choosing to focus on the next little steps, having faith that lots of little steps in the right direction will always get me to my goal faster than staring at the big steps I feel like I "should" be taking, which usually leads to not doing anything.

I pray that you will have wisdom and perseverance to determine and follow through with whatever those next steps are for your creative endeavors.

-Michael

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What are some ways you have respected your work enough to take it to organize it and take it to the next level of excellence?  What is the next small step in front of you now to take with your art?

In a Name

Seriously?  Coming up with the name of this blog was one of the most difficult things about starting it.  I realize that I'm good at making excuses for not starting new projects, especially ones that involve vulnerability or possibility of failure, but this seems ridiculous.

So, when I started on an endeavor to consistently write blog articles around a new project my wife and I have cooked up...ok, it was totally her idea, I just loved it and ran with it...the first and so far most difficult thing was to name the blog associated with the project.  Especially when the name is embedded into the name of the web address to get there.  That's serious stuff.  I can barely decide which shirt to wear to work in a given day and trust me, I don't have many.  You can ask Katie.

I think the bigger reason for the difficulty, beyond a being a good excuse to procrastinate, is because the task is so important.  Why is that?  If nothing else, the primary task that God gave the first man, Adam, according to the Hebrew book of Genesis was to name the different parts of his creation.  The very first creative task given to man.  Seems serious to me.

But what is in a name anyway?  Something's name gets to the heart of what that thing is supposed to be.  In many cultures, a name is much more than a label used to refer to a person or place, but rather it seeks to ascribe the essence and even in some instances the destiny of that person or place.  If you want some examples, refer to how many instances in the book of book of Genesis you have footnotes that say something like "the Hebrew pronunciation for the name Jimmy actually sounds a lot like the word 'runny soup'".  And inevitably, the story of Jimmy that you are reading at the moment will involve ladling out some seriously runny soup.  You think I'm kidding, check out Cain, Nod and Seth..and that's just the fourth chapter of Genesis.

So, without further ado, we have chosen to name this blog The Living (un)Explored Project (but you already knew that, because it's in the web address) but more importantly, here is why: I wanted an excuse to start writing and creating on a regular basis.  I also wanted to write about something specific that could perhaps be of some help to others who are in a similar space in life.  I believe that as people, in which the bible describes as having been created in the "image of God", that we have an inherent job/duty/dna/desire/etc to at some level create in the way that are Creator does.  That seems like a reasonable part of what being created in the image of our Creator could mean, right?  But one thing I've been noticing is how so many excuses, fears and roadblocks seem to get in the way of our creative endeavors.  This is just as true in my own life.

This blog seeks to capture the journey of Katie and me choosing to break from living our lives unexplored and making the choice to travel down familiar roads of memories, feelings and histories, together, and organize that into a collection of art and music.  This is somewhat a selfish pursuit in that it really helps me to process through my own life by writing it down, but I hope and pray that it will also be of benefit to others as well.

There are plenty of others who have probably thought about this topic much more than I and most likely can speak much more eloquently to it.  However, I feel like we have each have something unique inside of us that we have been destined to express and different perspectives from which to communicate those ideas.  I'm choosing to talk about life, God, relationships and the creative process through the narrow lens of this project.  I think is a unique perspective, written not as one who has arrived and is telling others the way, but rather as one who is feeling the longing and just starting out as well.

So, I've started with the creation of, and now the naming of this blog.  That's the first step, with many more to come.

Here's to a new adventure in creativity!  I hope you'll join us on it and maybe together we'll enjoy a conversation about our creative destinies and maybe even a little bit of community.  But hey, that's what we've been created to do, right?

-Michael

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Have you ever stopped to think about the creative things you do in your everyday life?  Do those tasks cause stress or fear, like they do to for me?