It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement after creating something you like, or the frustration when it doesn’t land. Either way, you leave your biggest lessons on the table.
I genuinely believe that in every creative process, there’s a lot to learn about your weaknesses and where to improve. It’s worth taking a minute to look back and take stock of that, good and bad.
For me, a big one is this: when something doesn’t go to plan, I crumble. A song idea hits a dead end and suddenly I’m stressing about the unknown territory ahead, convinced it won’t work out, convinced everyone’s going to figure out I’m a fraud because I can’t make something good every single time.
The reality is that last part is true. Not the fraud part, haha. But making something good straight off the bat hasn’t happened to me yet. I mess around with ideas, most of them don’t work, until eventually something sticks to the wall. One creative decision inspires the next, and then the next.
This time, I spent three days just testing chorus melodies.
A lot of the time it comes within minutes or hours. This time it took days. Every instinct I had was telling me to crumble after day one. Feel sorry for myself. Tell myself that messing around with Beatles music was a bad idea. Resign myself to a week going by with nothing to show for it.
But I kept plugging away. You can see it in the video, me starting on an idea, realising I’m not finding anything, moving on. Starting again.
I’ve come to believe this is the hardest part of being a creative. We all want things to go our way on the first try, and sometimes there’s a spontaneous, instant moment where it just arrives… but that’s rare. More on that another time.
For me, mastering the discipline side of creativity is where I can make the most progress. Not the inspiration, the discipline. Showing up when it isn’t flowing. And I wouldn’t have had that lesson if I hadn’t watched back the footage of myself creating during the edit.
This song was born from a new sense of commitment to the process. Giving up completely wasn’t an option. It was tough.
But I’m so happy with how it turned out. I really hope you enjoy it.
MYLWD
