Some Final Thoughts For 2008

I wanted to give you a final thought before I sign off for the year about writing and writers block. It comes from a post on one of the songwriting blogs I subscribe to and read regularly called “The Shy Singer/Songwriter” by Canadian songwriter Vikki Flawith.

It’s a great blog, check it out

She quotes author Philip Pullman’s response to the question “What do you do about writers block?”

“I don’t believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?”

I agree. This is a great example of how pearls of wisdom from an author can still be relevent to a songwriter. Writing is writing regardless of the end result whether it be a short story, a song, a novel or a technical paper.

Some other noteworthy quotes from Philip Pullman:

On where ideas come from

“… I can’t believe that everyone isn’t having ideas all the time. I think
they are, actually, and they just don’t recognise them as potential
stories. Because the important thing is not just having the idea; it’s
writing the book. That’s the difficult thing, the thing that takes the
time and the energy and the discipline. The initial idea is much less
important, actually, than what you do with it.”

His advice to anyone who wants to write

“Don’t listen to any advice, that’s what I’d say. Write only what you
want to write. Please yourself. YOU are the genius, they’re not.
Especially don’t listen to people (such as publishers) who think that
you need to write what readers say they want. Readers don’t always know
what they want… “

On inspiration and the process of writing

“… if you’re going to write anything that will last – you have to realise
that a lot of the time, you’re going to be writing without inspiration.
The trick is to write just as well without it as with… “

The last word I’ll leave for Vikki Flawith herself

“IMO the antidote to writer’s block is… to write.”

Amen to that.

To everyone who have read these pages and contributed in some way either by commenting, giving feedback or just by being yourselves, I thank you and wish you all a very Merry Xmas and a wonderful 2009.

I’ll see you next year.

Until then, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

PS: Speaking about writers block, click on the link to download my FREE eReport “11 Ways To Eliminate (Song) Writers Block FOREVER!”

Keywords: vikki flawith, songwriting, songwriter, writing, songwriting zen, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting blog, songwriting resource, corey stewart

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Tags: Corey Stewart, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, writing, zen

Friday, December 19th, 2008 Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Zen

3 Comments to Some Final Thoughts For 2008

Hannah Shiloh says:

December 31, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Great site. I’m glad I stumbled over here … I’ll definitely be reading you on a regular basis!!!

songwritingzen says:

January 2, 2009 at 11:00 am

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for stopping by and letting me know about your Soundclick site. Had a listen and I love the second one “His Whispers” your chord progressions and your melody are just sublime.

I hope you have had a great Christmas and New Year. I’m just back from my break and slowly but surely getting into 5the swing of things again. It’s my goal to keep bringing relevent songwriting tips and other stuff to this blog so keep on reading.

If there’s anything that you really want me to write about, let me know but in the meantime keep on writing.

Corey

Andy says:

January 10, 2009 at 1:44 am

Wow – right on the money. Something always seemed goofy about “writers block” to me. Although I did find it ironically funny that Pullman gave the advice, “don’t listen to any advice.”

Great site!