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[moniss]

127. Good to see you Skinner and I would like to

pass on this advice that I found from the old guys like me from the '50's and '60's about writing. They said that too often people try to write a song or a story and feel frustrated because it doesn't seem to be coming out or there doesn't seem to be much progress. They said that focusing on trying to sit down and write pages, paragraphs, verses etc. will often miss entirely the point of writing.

That point is to document an expression of something. So their advice is to just write whatever it is that comes to your mind. Even if it is just a word, phrase or in music a few notes. Write what it is and keep it in notebooks so you can find it later. You will find something will come back to you that you've written and you will add more or make changes. Don't force what doesn't come freely. Don't write by some formula or template. Writing by formula or template will come across as such. To you and others.

Listen to those creative people who talk about a song or story being written in little pieces and starts and stops over years. In other words the goal is to simply write down what comes even if it seems unattached to anything else but above all write it down. The old guys have said writers will find that things have a way of coming together over time and then the song or story will nearly write itself as you go back over creative expressions you wrote down over time about subjects, feelings, people, places etc.

I used to have tremendous problems getting out my creativity and expressing myself. My writing was all very dry, technical and casserole recipes were likely more readable. Finally my acceptance of what the old guys were saying made me feel OK about having a thought, short or long, and writing it down even if it didn't progress any further than that at the moment.

The last piece of advice I can give you is to remember that even the great creative people of song, verse and literature wrote things from time to time that were not particularly good. There is almost no known author of published stories who has not had an editor reviewing their work and sending it back with suggestions, questions and request for rewrites. Few songwriters/musicians can say they went in and recorded songs without a producer doing the same. Don't give up writing. Just don't feel a story has to come out all at once.