What is All-Weather Writing?
Six ideas to be more productive as a songwriter
This follows the last few blogs on sacred spaces, moments, and creative habits. Having put all of these in place, it’s still possible to miss something. Being an all-weather writer is possibly one of the most important things I found that changed my productivity as a full-time songwriter.
All-weather writing is a mindset, a choice. Most of my songwriting friends enjoy the privilege of writing most days every week. Like all of us, they also have good days and bad days. But they still write. This is the big difference between those who are productive and those who are not so productive:
It’s simply the decision to be an all-weather writer.
Here’s what I mean. Some songwriters have a certain routine:
A certain mug to drink from a certain brand of coffee
The sun shining
Sitting facing the right direction (wherever the sun is)
A certain candle smelling a certain way
No paperwork needing to be dealt with
Done the dishes beforehand
Believe it or not, they are all REAL hurdles people have said they needed to fix before starting to write songs. And you may have your own hurdles. When I first started my new job as a songwriter, I had my own – for me, it was the weather. Yes, unless the weather was lovely, I was telling myself -
Surely I can’t write the best song without the sun shining today.
The trouble is hurdles are bad for your writing. Because they are UNREAL hurdles. So finally, when I decided to be an all-weather songwriter, I started doing my work like I did when I was doing a corporate job - out of my house at 6:30 am and writing when I got to my studio. Fixed.
I don’t think I’m on my own. When you decide to be an all-weather songwriter, everything changes. Here are a few other elements of this tool I found.
Six ideas
Here are six ideas to be more productive as an all-weather songwriter
Just write, write, write – When I sat down to write, I focused on one thing: writing. And just carried on writing. And then again, until I’ve finished a draft.
Write what is exciting to write – When I write, I look through my Idea Bank to find what Writable Ideas I’m excited about. 9/10 would be one with a high ‘Cool’ score. That helps get from idea to draft much quicker than others. That's exciting!
Filter out no-hopers – In my last book, I talked about the idea of the spectrum of writability. Here’s the picture of what I mean. Focus on the top 60% of writable ideas and filter out the no-hopers. These are neutral titles, DNA titles, and titles that will always be going to work.
We don’t write, we rewrite – I remember from my life as an equity analyst in investment banking, I started with a simple idea behind a product and worked on it until it was good enough to send out to clients. The approach was to keep working on it until it had become the best product it could be. That’s the same thing with songwriting: I’d write until I’ve written a great finished draft. But, especially when I’m writing on my own, I go back to it to make it as best it can be. I have song drafts number version #70 and more. It doesn’t always need to be that, but it just needs to be the best it can be.
Timing – This is another lesson from my corporate life, start work when the office is open (for me, it was 6:30 am) and finish when you’ve done your work (for me, 5:30 pm). So, did I just say I work 11 hours a day in my sacred space? Um, sometimes, yes! These days it’s rare, but I certainly used to when I started as a songwriter. I’m not saying everyone needs to do that. But I did.
Competencies – In my last book, I talk about strengthening your craft, network, and technology skills and abilities. This can be done in so many ways, from nourishing your creativity, enhancing your skills with your instrument, voice lessons, industry research, studio time looking at engineering, mastering, production, and more. These are all competencies that strengthen you as an all-weather writer.
I know it sounds like a lot of work. Some people would love to keep songwriting a hobby. And that’s fine. But, in reality, songwriting is hard work. Nice work, but still hard work. The big question is, what kind of songwriter do you want to be?
Questions
Here are a few more questions:
Do you have a sacred moment each week? Should it be the most productive time of your writing?
Is songwriting a hobby or a serious craft, something you feel called to do?
How productive do you need to be as a songwriter, hobby, or seriously?
Are there any unreal hurdles you might be putting before being an all-weather writer?
Hope this helps!
Simon