Songwriting: the soundtrack to my life

You know what they say, what's bad for your heart is good for your art. For me, that’s always been true, and a silver lining of life’s tough experiences has been getting to take the pain and transform it into a story that other people can connect with and feel seen and heard within. I believe everyone has this gift, and that’s why art in all shapes and forms has an intangible value and quality to it that can’t be measured or put into words. Instead, it can only be felt.

For me, songwriting has been my medium of choice since I was a child, and I didn’t tell anyone until I was 22. I treated it as a personal hobby of mine just like one would treat keeping a diary. However, once I got to a certain age I stopped hiding, realizing the only thing more rewarding than the healing process art takes me through, is getting to share that with others and potentially aid them in their own healing. When it comes to my writing process, sometimes songs come to me in what feels like a spiritual download that I can’t quite explain, and there is nothing more fun or magical than when that experience washes over me. Other times I sit down and have to actively try to write songs, which isn’t as easy but always rewarding. Like most writers do, I often go through periods of writers block where I don’t find myself channeling any ideas. I notice when this happens, I’ll start to avoid the process of consciously sitting down to write, out of fear nothing will come. The more I avoid, the worse it gets.

One idea my friend Jordan gave me, the first person I opened up to musically and started writing songs with, was to write down song prompts on a piece of paper, cutting them up with a pair of scissors into individual slips, and then throwing them into a hat. Then, anytime the creative well of inspiration has run dry, I can pull an idea out of the hat, and challenge myself to develop it into a whole song. Now, instead of running from my fear of never having an idea again, I lean into that fear by taking the challenge, reminding myself just how little I have to be afraid of. I've found that the creativity is always there, waiting patiently for me to open myself up to receive it. Sometimes I just need to try new, fun ways to access and reignite it. Turns out all I needed was a hat, scissors, a piece of paper, and an open mind, and thanks to that I've written some of my favorite songs that never would’ve existed otherwise. I want to challenge any other artists out there who go through these 'inspiration peaks and troughs' to commit yourself to a challenge like this too, and see how it fuels your process in those moments that self doubt creeps up on you.

I’m sure some of you are wondering, "what if I don’t have ideas to even put in the hat in the first place?" My method for this is to fill up my hat with ideas during the times that inspiration is overflowing faster than I can attend to, and when it is not, I keep a mindful eye out for inspiration all around me that's waiting to catch my eye. Whether I am scrolling on Instagram and see a quote that speaks to me, reading through old phone notes and stumble across concepts or lines I forgot about and never used, listening to a friend or even a character on a TV show talk and writing down a word or phrase they say, or even googling songwriting prompts. Whatever it may be, I find that using the cut up paper in a hat method grounds your art in reality and in the present moment, and makes it feel like a fun activity rather than a task. Especially since when you pick out of a hat, you don’t know what you are going to get, and that's half the fun. It's like how when children play, there is a level of connectivity, spontaneity, and a go-with-the-flow attitude that us adults often lose touch with, because it requires a certain level of vulnerability and trust that unfortunately societal influences steer us away from as we age. Something as simple as choosing what to create out of a hat can help us reconnect with that state of being, a state that I can personally thank for all of my most meaningful artistic creations and that feels really good to be in.

Another thing to consider is that sometimes, the further we venture into sharing our creative process with the world, the more prone we are to losing sight of the reason we do it in the first place. We start to feel an obligation to produce something of value that can be measured up to an objective standard, despite our inner knowing that the value of art is undeniably subjective and rooted in the process itself. The second we place our attention on the results rather than the process, we are in danger of falling out of love with the very thing our soul felt called to do for joy and healing. This happened to me after I started telling people I write songs. I felt like I needed something impressive to show for it and the more I burdened myself with that belief, the more I felt myself getting bogged down in the weight of ‘I have to’ create rather than 'I get to.' Sprinkling fun games like this hat method into my songwriting process whenever fear sneaks up on me has helped me reconnect with my love for the process itself and why I do it in the first place. That's why I challenge you to grab your scissors and do the same!