Writing Every Single Day habit

[Fitz]

I’d like to start a discussion about writing every single day. I’m often on projects for a good portion of the year and I have to write 6-7 days a week.

However, I always feel I have this ‘monkey’ on my back that what I’m writing isn’t up to snuff and the critic in me comes out most days. I also get an anxiety mid-piece where I’m not sure it can live up to potential. Stephen King once said writing a novel is like crossing an ocean in a bathtub and it kinda feels like that to me when I’m writing.

How do people combat this?

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[NekujaK]

For the last 2-3 years, I've also been involved in projects that require consistent composing. Not always every day, but at least 5 days a week.

I usually hate everything I write while I'm working on it. It never seems to sound like what I have in my head, and to me, it certainly never sounds as good as my previous work. After going through this cycle countless times, I've learned that I just need to relax and TRUST that the end result will be good, if not great.

It's during the last 20% of working on a piece that things usually start to come together and the music starts to make me happy. The preceding 80% of effort is usually frought with self-doubt and insecurity, and if I let my inner critic spin out of control, I will berate myself endlessly and feel like I have nothing to offer as a composer. I've simply had to learn to ignore that voice and trust that everything will turn out okay in the end. And thankfully, it usually does.

My biggest challenge nowadays is burnout. I never thought this would happen to me, but now that I've been doing this consistently for several years, I've become mentally and emotionally exhausted when it comes to music creation. I know I need to develop some routines to let my brain take a break, and I probably need a short vacation from music altogether, but it's really hard for me to not think about music, my current projects, as well as future projects that I'm eager to jump on.

But I need to find some balance, or else I'll start to resent the music work, which I definitely don't want.

 

[wing]

I also get an anxiety mid-piece where I’m not sure it can live up to potential.

This literally describes the process of everything I write. I go through waves of initial enjoyment with the seed of the idea, to then feeling like I've backed myself into a corner with the worst idea of all time and hating everything, to then coming around to accepting it and even perhaps loving it by the end. My trick is to just keep going regardless – I try to never just completely scrap something and give up. For this reason I feel like I've gotten pretty good at "editing" myself out of holes until things sound a little better bit by bit. I also like to think of these images when I get down and begin to doubt myself or the process -

 

[Alchemedia]

 

[Paul@Sydney]

This literally describes the process of everything I write. I go through waves of initial enjoyment with the seed of the idea, to then feeling like I've backed myself into a corner with the worst idea of all time and hating everything, to then coming around to accepting it and even perhaps loving it by the end. My trick is to just keep going regardless – I try to never just completely scrap something and give up. For this reason I feel like I've gotten pretty good at "editing" myself out of holes until things sound a little better bit by bit. I also like to think of these images when I get down and begin to doubt myself or the process -

Ha, this is very similar to the "valley of despair" that I'm always telling people on IT projects who aren't used to projects about. It's totally normal to feel that everythings terrible and will never get better. But they will get better, but perhaps never as good as you intiially hoped, and that's fine too.

 

[mbishop]

I’m very fond of “The Design Squiggle” and think of it often as I write.

About

The Squiggle originated as a simple illustration of the design process. The journey of researching, uncovering insights, generating creative concepts, iteration of prototypes and eventually conclud…

thedesignsquiggle.com

The Squiggle originated as a simple illustration of the design process. The journey of researching, uncovering insights, generating creative concepts, iteration of prototypes and eventually concluding in one single designed solution. It is intended to convey the feeling of the journey. Beginning on the left with mess and uncertainty and ending on the right in a single point of focus: the design.