Candles in the middle of the day

Why do you have candles lit in the middle of the day?

Are you nuts?

  

Or possibly just a self-employed musician with writer's block.  

People always ask me if I get writer's block.  I'm often tempted to glaring at them with one of those long open-mouthed stares.  

"Are you kidding me?!"  

"When do I not have writer's block?"  

Truly, with every single song or idea, even the ones that appear to be genius and possibly flawless, I've found that within days or even hours my once brilliant lightbulb will have shorted out and I'm left in darkness to figure out if the bulb was faulty or whether I simply tripped on the cord.  Yes, groping in the dark for an easy solution or for something that's broken and useless.

This is my process:

sitting down on the couch, in traffic, waiting for the train ;) , playing scrabble, running and it hits me.  Bam!  Maybe a line or a melody or even just a concept.  

I stop whatever I'm doing and feverishly try to find something to write it down on - a paper, receipt, my hand, or just miming the words in the air.  Anything to preserve my rare moments of unfiltered muse.  I go back to what I was doing with ease knowing that the following day I will return to complete my idea.  

The beginning always comes easy but then you have to give the song a structure and a progression as well as making it bad-ass and on top of that it has to be original.   This is the point in the process when you might happen upon an artist or writer or musician who is blankly starring at a white piece of paper with remnants of every junk food snack scattered in a circle around them and numerous used coffee mugs stacked on each other.  

Good intentions don't last long especially with every other activity you have going on.  Priorities are difficult to keep straight.  So at this point avoidance kicks in with gusto.  But avoidance can be one of an artist's greatest strengths.  If you try with everything else going on to stay away from your project but still end up having dreams about it or seeing it in the last bits of ketchup on your plate, it probably means that it's a good idea.  

So now comes the real crunch.  You've realized that your idea has potential - real potential - so you make a pot of coffee, you lock yourself in a room, and most likely lose a few useful parts of your brain having to do with social skills until you emerge victorious or at least close enough. 

So why do you have candles lit in the middle of the day?

I'm at the avoidance stage just trying to shed a little light on my malfunctioning lightbulb. And when I tell you I have new song to play for you...you'll be thankful I'm such a weirdo.