What do you do when you can’t write songs???

Unpack
Leave the home-life chaos and go to work
Try not to think about unpacking and rearranging furniture while at work
Wake up in the middle of the night thinking about work
Get up and unpack so you can stop thinking about work
Think of all the people you want to call and catch up with
Try to find times when you can hang out with old friends
Try to find times when you can hang out with new friends
Think of all the songs you’re supposed to have written by early March
Unpack some more
Buy cute patio furnishings for the back patio
Try to find times when you can sit on the back patio
Clean the house that you still haven’t fully moved into
Plant plants and hope they don’t die
Hang out with friends
Think about apologizing to those you haven’t called or hung out with
Go to work again
Unpack some more

What do you do when you feel like you’re treading water?

22 thoughts on “What do you do when you can’t write songs???”

my list looks almost exactly the same (minus the plants and patio bit), except my “music writing” is blog/email-writing. sigh…

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mandythompson on March 9, 2010 at 9:40 pm said:

I forgot to put “yoga” on my list. oops

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- joy renée on March 11, 2010 at 9:19 am said:
  
  LOVE me some yoga.
  but don’t assume that means i’m good at it!
  i look ridiculous.
  
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  - mandythompson on March 11, 2010 at 9:39 am said:
    
    Who doesn’t look ridiculous doing yoga?
    
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My list is the same too right now in my life, except the patio stuff and the unpacking….

I do have a vast beach, I take off my shoes and let the beach crunch between my toes, I write something in the sand, usually *Hi* and then get back in the car…. but if its the middle of the night…

Info commercials are freakin weird!! Anyways…

hot cocoa with little marshmallows….

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Prudence on March 10, 2010 at 12:24 am said:

I’d love to be able to drive to the beach and write “hi” in the sand. Even in the middle of the night. Ahhh.

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- Heidi on March 10, 2010 at 5:32 pm said:
  
  Prudence, Mandy would too….
  
  I live just a few miles from the beach and I am there regularly. A place where I can unwind from a very long day…
  
  Middle of the night ~ well hot cocoa and weird info commercials for me.
  
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Clean house. Which probably means going from room to room not really accomplishing anything.
Surf the web. Googling abstract things.
Check blogs I’ve commented on to see who else commented and if anyone replied to my comment. (Hello my love language is affirmation, nice to meet you.)
Flick my nails together.
Day dream.

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mandythompson on March 10, 2010 at 3:33 pm said:

YOU ARE WONDERFUL!!!

I flick my nails, too.

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I try to write when I can’t write. Seems weird but it usually works for me. But usually I add some weird condition like I have to write a chorus during a shower, or I have to totally rewrite a song I’ve already written…but in a totally different style or key.

And then sometimes I add an un-normal for me instrument to the mix and try and write from their.

The latest was the tune you heard with the mandolin. The Speed of Life music came from one of those times where I pulled the trumpet out and wrote the music around those few riffs.

Otherwise, I like to read. Lord of the Rings. Or watch Last of the Mohicans.

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