CaseyQ&A

Q: When you have word "gridlock", what process do you go thru in order to jog your brain for both lyrics and melody?

writer’s block – n. A condition of being unable to write; a period when the words just won’t come. One of the more common problems writers occasionally experience is a writer’s block that may last a shorter or a longer time. They say that the reason for Ernest Hemmingway’s suicide was a severe and seemingly endless writer’s block.

A Dictionary of American Idioms. BARRON’S 3rd. Edition.

I’d say it’s not so much an inability to write as it is a lack of motivation to write or the feeling there’s nothing I’m inspired to say or write about. I must confess I haven’t had a lot of trouble with this age old writer’s complaint, but there have been times when I felt the needed to be productive and I seemed to be stymied.

Among the many remedies I’ve found effective are of the following:

Finding something new (or an old favorite I haven’t heard in a while) to listen to. Whenever my friend Jackson Browne would release a new LP, I used to listen to it until I knew every word and every note. There’s something about his methods and work that fascinates me and more than that motivates me. Invariably after bingeing on some favorite and/or new music, I find ideas popping out all over the place. I’ll revisit an old favorite album or group of records. The Beatles’ music usually does well for me. So do early Dylan and really early Joni Mitchell. I’ve achieved the same kind of results by NOT listening to whatever sort of music I’m currently writing and then diving back into it when it all feels new again. I’m very competitive and I find myself analyzing whatever I hear on the radio (after being away from it long enough to hear it fresh) and trying to write the ideas I think the other writers missed. What I need to make clear here, however, is that I do NOT write the same songs I’m listening to. I don’t write Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Dylan or Beatle rip-offs. The processing of their artistry seems to inspire me and open new neurological pathways. It seems to offer new scenery and take me to places where I haven’t already said everything I have to say.

Reading is another wonderful way to stumble into a new area of awareness. The unfolding of a story, the descriptions of characters, the timing and the twists and turns always give me new ideas. I’m not talking about taking a title directly from the text, but noticing how I feel when identifying with the main character in certain situations… recognizing familiar scenes and feelings… realizing the universality of interactions I thought were unique to me. I read a lot, but it doesn’t take long for a good book to show you how much you have to say. I re-read John D. MacDonald’s "Travis McGee" novels from time to time. I also recommend collections of quotations… once again not to quote directly, but to start one's thinking in unfamiliar patterns.

I’ve had some luck with the approach of wondering, "What would I like to hear someone say to me?" A little fantasizing can spice up your creative efforts. You can pick anyone out and put words in their mouth… let them speak the very words you’d love to hear them say. I read that Bob Dylan used to sometimes switch the gender of the people in his songs. It certainly gets you out of the rut of saying the same old things.

Try to write a "form" of song you haven’t tried before. Write something without a chorus. Or if you almost always write so-called a-a-b-a songs, write something with a big old chorus. Try to write a song without any rhymes. You can be on the lookout for "forms" or structures of songs that are outside your norm and analyze and make note of them. Jim Webb says he used to try to write the follow up to whatever hit he liked on the radio. It’s an interesting exercise.

If you’re a habitual coffee drinker, try not having any for at least two whole days, get some extra rest and then see what happens when you start back on coffee on the third day.

So you see there’s lots of gimmicks to stir up your creativity. Hopefully if you’re in need, one of these will work for you. BUT… I wonder why you never hear this complaint about most other professions… like "plumbers block"? House building is a craft, but the people who make their living doing it don’t seem to go through periods when they’re unable to create. Actually I’ve had some trouble building or remodeling… when I start off by worrying about how my project is going to turn out. I find myself not wanting to start and I keep worrying about all the problems that could come up. Will I mess up and cut something too short, or forget to allow for some important detail? Will I structure something incorrectly by not following the "rules"? The truth is that there aren’t any such mistakes in songwriting that can’t be instantly "fixed." When you build a song, you can cut the boards any length you want and nail it together without second-guessing yourself. Then you can stand back and look at it and easily see any glaring errors. You don’t have to pull out any nails, or go buy any more boards. You can just snap your fingers and restructure as needed. You can try it this way and that way and see which way you like it without any additional cost. And usually it’s pretty evident if what you’ve built doesn’t stand up. It’s also usually easy to see how to remedy the problems. But if you don’t let yourself get started, you end up with nothing.

I mentioned the famous writer John D. MacDonald in the text above. He was influenced by popular demand to "brush-up" some of his earlier short stories for re-release as a couple of collections called The Good Ol’ Stuff and More Good Ol’ Stuff. He wrote in the preface to one of the collections that as he went over the stories, he remembered writing them; how some mornings the words would just fly onto the pages and the stories would spring to life as if by magic. However, there were also those dreaded times when he had to force himself to laboriously type away, completely uninspired without feeling very good about what he had committed to paper that day at all, and just find some almost mechanical way to move the characters forward to serve the plot. He said upon re-reading years later, he was surprised to discover that some of the best parts of his writing seemed to be the sections he had forced himself through discipline to just "manufacture!"

There are many tricks you can use to get unstuck, but I think the most important part of it for me is to keep in mind that there are no actual physical "blocks" in songwriting. All of us are surrounded with ideas and inspiration all the time. I know I DO get to a place occasionally where for whatever reason, I block my own efforts. Either I don’t allow myself to enjoy the writing process, or I cynically shoot down all my ideas before they can develop or I start judging the quality of my work on the basis of what chance it REALLY has of being a big hit or any of the other endless number of self-defeating forces that don’t exist in the world outside my brain. Worst of all you worry about what other writers will say about what you’re thinking of writing.

If you allow yourself to worry that you might not write a good enough song (or the best song ever,) you won’t write any song at all. Hopefully you’re writing because you want to. Have fun and enjoy expressing yourself. I happen to love it when I suddenly see where I could have made part of the song work better. It’s a lesson I’ll own forever. Songwriting is a craft. You learn as you go. Allow yourself to dream, attempt the impossible and take criticism (yours and other experts’) in stride and put it in perspective. The biggest hit songs are not always the most perfectly written. They’re not even the most profound. Allow yourself to say the things you think and then consider the need for rewriting. Get it on the tape and the paper BEFORE you edit.

I’m reminded of several thoughts I’ve learned to trust. One is a line from a poem by Rudyard Kipling,

"If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowances for their doubting too…"

The next comes from when Doug Kershaw (the famous Cajun fiddler/songwriter/recording artist) was trying to help me learn to play the fiddle. He noticed me watching my left hand, trying to see where to put my fingers in exactly the right places on the fingerboard. He said,

"Don’t look dere… just play! If dere’s a snake down by the bayou when you go down dere and you don’t see him, you won’t be afraid."

And finally there’s a sampler of a Thoreau saying my mother made that hangs in her piano room,

"The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sing the best."

Find ways to get inspired. Don’t block yourself. Just write. It will always turn out a better song than if you don’t.