Rough to Release

The day job has intruded a bit this week (to the extent that it's been a bit of a night job too) so to keep you all sweet without having to think too hard myself I have an out-of-sequence piece for exactly this occasion. So next week we'll return to story arcs and tension and release but in the meantime here are my dozen tips to tackle writer's block: 1) Take yourself somewhere different. Go for a walk, find a different cafe, jump on a tourist bus tour... Anything to mix up your environment. Make notes about who you see and how people behave. 2) Grab a copy of a good newspaper, something that does proper reporting not just celebrity gossip, and read through the stories. Look for themes or jarring inconsistencies. Who's writing the stories? Who's reading them? What are the personal stories behind the writers and readers? 3) Find a nice quiet room you know well, and really study it. The floorboards, the ceiling rose, the decoration. Who might have lived here before? W...

Welcome back Song-writing then.  Perhaps you have that folder I mentioned, or maybe a stack of notebooks, or whatever it is you use to capture your ideas. Now we start the process of turning the ideas into songs - complete, finished songs.  And here is my first rule for completing songs.  Which has nothing to do with songs or music.              Space and permission. What do I mean by that? These two things come together to give you the best chance at writing your best songs. You can ignore them, but you'll make life harder for yourself.   (this is not my room) Space. What I'm talking about here is a physical space where you can focus completely on the job in hand. It might be you're lucky enough to have a dedicated music space in your house, if that's so, take a moment next time you step in there and think about how it feels to cross the threshold? Is it inspiring? Does it give you a little lift just being in ...