Creating, by its very definition is unusual and must occur “off the beaten path.”

We can’t be worried about stepping on the grass or looking silly in front of the neighbors.

In other words, you can’t create and critique at the same time.

…

Forgetting to separate critiquing from creating is where I often get into to trouble when I’m starting things.

I forget to tell my inner critic to “take five” and just develop my ideas. To create and then critique.

Take writing this (or any other) blog post for example.

…

First I get the seed of the idea and then I have to dump all my thoughts about it onto the page.

Yes, all of them. The dumb ones, the obvious ones, the muddled and unclear ones. Even the contradictory ones. All of them.

If I start evaluating the thoughts as I write them, I almost always wind up saying something other than what I really mean. I get tied up in the grammar or how to order my ideas and I fail to get to the heart of the matter.

And, I find it’s the truest thoughts that get axed first.

Why?

Because the truth can sound like a cliche or seem too obvious to mention.

Because saying our truth makes us vulnerable.

People might know what we really think. And they might disagree with it.

…

So to write a successful post, I have to write down everything I have to say on the subject (the good, the bad and the ugly), and then – and only then! – can I go back and start editing.

(Don’t be fooled, editing is just another name for critiquing.)

…

Now, in spontaneous singing (improvisation) it may appear that these processes of creating and critiquing happen simultaneously. I argue that they are still separate; you just switch (rapidly) back and forth between the two.

You have an idea and develop it (creating).

Then you check in to see if the idea is succeeding (critiquing).

Once you’ve evaluated what you’re doing, you must switch back to creating to come up with the next idea. When we try to critique as we create, we cripple ourselves.

…

I experience it as having a separate office (with a door that closes *grin*) for my inner critic. She must be on site — she serves an important function — but she can’t always be in my space. If she raises her hand to object every time I have an idea, we will get nowhere. But if I permit her to share her opinion when I ask her for it, she helps me decide if I am making music or just making noise.

(Then she gets to take a coffee break while I go back to the work of creating. *smile*)

 
More Bloggity Goodness

• When Opposites Act

Yesterday, I went back and listened to some of my friend Elise’s wonderful workshop at the beginning of the month. She taught us a great 4-part round she learned from a Brazilian visitor.

So today’s song started out in Brazil (kind of) and then headed somewhere else. *smile*

…

[Oops! You\'ll have to visit songtaneous.com/blog to listen.]
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• When Opposites Act

(My percussionist brother gave me basically the same advice again earlier this summer.)

Have I completed this eminently concrete and useful “assignment?”

Uh … no.

…

Then, in August, I heard Seth Godin speak at the Pantages theater. He distributed a miniature workbook called ShipIt. ShipIt is a workbook designed to help you finish your thing and send it (actually ship it) out into the world. The key piece of advice on how to use said workbook?

Write in it.

(And if you’re wondering if I’ve filled in my workbook, you can stop wondering. No.)

…

I seem incredibly resistant to this advice to write things down so I had to ask myself why.

A lot of it is my issues with starting.

I feel incredibly tentative when I start trying to figure something out.

One of the things I learned in Italy is that this shows up in my improvising, too. (Surprise, surprise.)

…

Writing this blog has let me (forced me to *grin*) practice starting week after week. I learned from writing post after post, that even when I don’t have any idea what to say when I sit down, there is always a point where momentum takes over.

I write down what resonates.

Everything that resonates, whether it connects or not.

I move these ideas and thoughts around until connections start to form. All of the sudden, I’ve sorted out what I have to say and I can see the way through to the end of the post.

(It feels like a “click.”)

…

Over the last couple of years of blogging (and improvising!), I was delighted to discover that if I could just getting moving, I could usually see a direction. What to do next reveals itself. That’s what happened with the Passion Pays the Bills series of posts. I wrote the original list and then figured out each post’s content as I went.

For my next developmental step, however, I think I need to practice starting in more intentional ways. It’s not that I need to have everything figured out at the start, but I need to be more deliberate in selecting which ideas, projects and opportunities to pursue.

That’s where writing stuff down comes in. (I think. *smile*)

…

As we say in my family, lessons are repeated until they are learned, so it won’t surprise you to hear that a few weeks ago, my bass player friend Anthony suggested I sit down and — you guessed it — do so some writing.

He thought it could help me find a way to expand my Songtaneous message (I’ve been procrastinating updating the Songtaneous web site) and find connections between the motifs of my musical goals and my self-employed existence.

I felt pretty discouraged by my first attempt, but I’ve noticed things shifting over the past few weeks. Ideas for projects and people with whom I’d like to work have been surfacing.

Don’t worry, I’ve been writing them down. (*wink*)
More Bloggity Goodness

• When Opposites Act

In fact, I was a sprinter.

In track and field, the instructions “on your mark,” “get set” and “go” each outlined different parts of the preparation process.

And since I’ve been in the middle of one preparation process or another over the past few weeks (gigs, job interviews, going to ITALY!), I thought I’d take a look at a once familiar process for getting ready.

…

“On your marks” means it is time to start getting down into the blocks. The time for stretches, knee bends and psyching out your competition is over and you have to narrow your focus to getting down the lane as fast as you can.

(It’s interesting that in order to get into the blocks properly, a sprinter steps past the starting line and then backs into the block.)

“Get set” means the next thing that happens is sprinting down your lane. You raise the hips, lean forward and getting ready to drive the body out of the blocks using your bent leg.

The goal is to become a coiled a spring.

…

I’m a coiled spring alright. *wry grin*

The problem is that none of my energy is focused.

My friend Debbie Duncan says about stage fright, “It’s all just energy. It can help you or it can hurt you.” In other words, you get to decide if you’ll use the energy or if the energy is going to use you.

(In case you couldn’t tell, the energy has been using me.)

…

The problem is that I haven’t been able to prepare in the way I want to prepare. (My sister just moved and she shared the same sentiment.)

No hours spent researching my destination, creating color-coded, cross-referenced packing lists, or learning about the local flora and fauna. No weeks spent taking a crash course in Italian. No single free weekend to take one last “do I have everything?” errand run.

So I didn’t get to prepare the way I wanted, but … (and here’s another deep insight from the Songtaneous blog)

Sometimes you have to move forward whether or not you’re ready.

…

Fortunately (as this weekend’s gig at the Artists’ Quarter proved), there’s a difference between feeling ready and being ready.

In my ideal world, I would have had a firmer grasp on the words and notes for a couple of the tunes we performed this weekend.

It’s not that I was un-prepared, I just didn’t feel quite … ready. But Friday night came and I was on stage and you know what?

I was ready.

I’d prepared enough.

…

So I’m setting a goal to be “ready enough” to leave for Italy this week.

On my mark, get set …

…

Note: Remember no blog posts from me for a couple of weeks. If you miss me, please peruse the archives. *smile*
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• When Opposites Act

(In fact, I’m still having trouble and theoretically, I’m writing it. *rueful smile*)

…

I don’t know about you, but for me, it almost always more fun to imagine the work than to do the work.

Thinking about the work can be pleasant, almost like a daydream. It’s like seeing yourself in a time-elapse sequence in a movie. You work quickly, brilliantly and you never make any mistakes.

For example, if I were a movie blogger, you’d hear peppy, sprightly music and the tapping of my fingers on the keys. I’d be at my desk in a charming sweater set or cute pajamas and inspiration would pour from hands on to the page (… er … screen).

We’d flash to my blog post zipping out the back of my computer, down the “wires” to your inbox. Then we’d pan to people all over the city (heck, all over the world!) reading this post, delighting in it, forwarding it to friends.

We’d finish with me in a kick-y skirt and snappy coat twirling joyfully in the streets a la Mary Tyler Moore …

…

Real work is more like … work.

Real work means laundry and dishes and putting back the dining room furniture after Songtaneous. (We had a lot of fun! Thanks to those who came and sang.)

It means following up on an interviews, writing copy and posting (other people’s) web updates. Packing suitcases (okay, not yet — but I’m thinking about packing my suitcase) and packing lunches.

And it’s all in real time. No flash forwards or edited sequences to speed things along.

And, hardest of all, you have to motivate yourself to do it. Ugh.

…

Christine Kane talks about making the jobs of your life and the things about which you want to be disciplined “just what you do.”

She says by making — in my case — “get up and bike to work” just what you do, you remove the internal debate and dialogue about that decision.

In other words, you don’t have to agonize every morning (you don’t have to, but I sometimes still do *smile*) about whether or not to hop on your bike.

(You just lug it down the stairs before you’re late for work. *smile*)
More Bloggity Goodness

• When Opposites Act