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
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?
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