notes on the creative process
stuff I've figured out over 3 1/2 decades of writing
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During these days of pain and fury, having an outlet is crucially important. For some people, that's a spiritual practice, or therapy, or moving your body in an intentional way, or any one of a million other things. For some of us, it's creative work.
For a lot of reasons, I've been deep in the weeds of my own creative process recently. I thought this might be a good time to share some things that I've figured out over the last– oh, thirty-five years of doing this? Maybe some of these are obvious to you, maybe some of these are useful, maybe some are just interesting peeks into someone else's weird brain, what do I know.
But here are some of my favorite tips and tricks:
- Something I discovered recently: If you, like I do, have a beloved band with a deep repertoire that, at this late date, has released (now with streaming and everything) a lot of their B-sides, demos, rare tracks, etc.– it can be interesting to make your streaming service play you a bunch of that stuff while you work. Why? Because if you're familiar with their polished album oeuvre, hearing their– you'll pardon my Anne Lamott– shitty first drafts and their songs that weren't good enough to make it to the albums you know by heart is, I don't know, weirdly heartening as you, the artist, are busy trying to create.