Creativity.

Creativity is not a rushing waterfall which you can access at any moment, but rather it is more like Old Faithful.  Every now and then, if you are patient and watching, you can capture it and take advantage of its power and beauty.

When it comes to songwriting, I first have to admit that I am not the greatest at it, but when inspiration hits me (or creativity) I can be pretty prolific.  The best songs that I have written have come at a moment when I had some personal peace, alone time, and was able to block out the events that were happening around me.  So that is why I don’t write songs like I used to.  There is way too much going on that I allow to keep me from writing…and when that moment of creativity hits…there is generally something else interfering with it.

Years ago, when I lived in Nashville and I had the dream of being a successful, professional songwriter, I had surrounded myself with other songwriters.  There was a group of 5 that I had a pretty regular contact with and all of them had at least 2 hit songs to list as achievements.   Admittedly I was not their equal, but it was my friendship with one in particular that allowed me to hang with the group.  Observing the group I noticed a couple of things that were similar.  They all seemed to have some sort of hardship in life that led them to be introspective in their writing and they all used some “help” in bringing about and/or sustaining the creative process.  I will assume that you know to what I am referring and leave it at that.

I listened intently to the stories that they told to try to pick up on some of the events in their lives that brought about such fruitful writing and eventually commercial success.  The consistencies that I noticed were not something that I wanted to create in my own life…so I didn’t.  Did that keep me from becoming a famous, successful songwriter?  I doubt it.  Rather it was my thought process around it that hampered my drive to success.  It was my inner voice that told me that I didn’t have what it took.  The Drive; The experiences; The single-minded focus.  And I was not willing to try and create it artificially.

I learned a lot from my days hanging out with the Nashville bunch.  Every now and then the creative juices still flow and I will write a good song.  But, even though I shouldn’t, I still look back and wonder what would have happened if I would have stuck it out.  Perhaps you would get one of MY songs stuck in your head.

Thank goodness they can’t charge royalties for that phenomenom!