The Writer's Block I'm referring to in this article is the toughest kind - the one that lasts for weeks if not more, and makes you feel tangled into a paralysis you can't get out from.
If you're into those shoes, know that you can get out of it, and I'm going to explain you how I personally did it in this article. It's a long one (sorry about that!), but it's because it goes quite deep, especially on the strategy no.4.
If you haven't experienced long or recurring writer's blocks, then you might not need to read this article. :)
WHY WE EXPERIENCE WRITER'S BLOCK:
So, as a first thing, if we want to overcome this dreaded obstacle which is Writer's Block, we need to understand why it's there in the first place.
As someone who struggled with it a lot, I decided to read books and watch informative videos about artistry and creativity in search of answers, and understood a very interesting truth:
The reality is that Writer's Block is not an inherently evil force that wants to stop us.
Most of the time, it's just a sign that something is not right in the way we approach our creative process.
Writer's block is pretty much like fever, which is not the main illness, but rather a sign that our body sends us when there's something wrong in it.
After understanding this truth, I finally started asking myself the right questions, and found the right answers, which are the four strategies I'm going to tell you about now.
By the way, the fourth is the most important of all, so, if you have to take away anything from this article, let it be that one.1ST STRATEGY - START FROM A PLACE OF CURIOSITY, NOT FROM A PLACE OF NEED:
This is something I failed to understand and did wrong in the very beginning of my musical journey.
A few years ago, whenever I wanted sat down to produce music, I used to think something like :
"Ok, now I've ABSOLUTELY got to write an epic banger so that, when I unleash it in the world, it's going to make me famous and and all that stuff, so I can finally show my parents and friends I'm serious about this music production thing!"
That was the wrong mindset to start from because it made me overly perfectionist, and set the bar way too high for the track I yet had to even sketch out.
The result? Everything I attempted to write down felt like shit, because it didn't reach my perfectionist expectations. So I ended up deleting every single idea I came up with, creating a writer's block for myself.
Now don't get me wrong, aiming high is what we all should do. However...
We must avoid to have such a compelling NEED for every single thing we write to sound awesome and flawless.
That might be what is paralyzing us creatively and making us feel miserable artists. (more informations about this on the strategy no.2).
What you want to do instead is:
Sit down in front of your DAW with the intention of being creative, experimenting, throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and getting better as a musician.
Those are the goals that will make your music production sessions much more enjoyable, joyful, and worthwhile in terms of the music you're going to write with that mindset.
Also, bear in mind that you do not have to publish every single track you write, but every single track you complete will make you a better producer. Take advantage of that!2ND STRATEGY - TREAT YOUR MUSIC PRODUCTION SESSIONS AS IF THEY WERE LIKE PLANTING A TREE:
Now, I know this may sounds absurd, but stick with me on this one!
The second strategy is tied with the first one in a way, and it's based on this idea: most of the tracks we make tend to suck in the beginning, and it is completely normal.
This is true especially if the track you're writing something out of nowhere, without having a particular idea ready for what will be the "hook" of the track.
The reason why, is because most of our tracks, in their early stages, are pretty much like seeds:
They might look insignificant at first, but they may carry the potential to become majestic trees within.
This is the reason why impatience is your worst enemy when it comes to making great art.
If you feel like everything you write isn't good enough, remember that just like seeds, your new track may need time, space and nurturing to grow effectively in something meaningful.
Sometimes, overcoming writer's block is just a matter of being patient enough, and keeping on pushing through a track for a couple of hours until something "clicks".
Some ideas take more time than others to start forming, but that doesn't make them less valuable. I personally wrote most of my best tracks with this strategy.3RD STRATEGY - THINK LIKE AN ALCHEMIST:
This strategy is crucial to understand if you're that kind of person who feels like his or her ideas are not original enough or not interesting enough.
What you need to understand, if you're in that position, is that the quality of your ideas is directly tied to the quality of the ideas you feed into your mind (and most likely to the variety of those ideas too).
The reason for this is easily found if you look at the way human beings create new things.
What we tend to do when we "create" is:
We take inspiration from items or ideas that already exist, and with our knowledge, merge them together in a way that's never been done before to create something new - Pretty much as if we were practicing alchemy.
This means our creative outputs as musicians is, in most cases, directly inspired by the music we consume.
While this is a very "duh" statement, for many, I feel like there's too much people out there who do not appreciate this truth enough and end up feeling stuck, simply because their alchemical vocabulary is not filled with enough quality and diverse element to base their formulas with.
Coming back to music, what I'm trying to say with this is:
If you feel like you cannot produce original ideas, you might need to supercharge your creative mind by listening to as many different genres as you can and assimilate ideas form a broad range of artists's work.
Every genre has something different to teach you. Especially those that are far from the genre of music you make.
This is how super original people like Seven Lions, Madeon, Varien, Skrillex etc. crafted their style. They brought the influences they got from outside the EDM world into their EDM music, and that is why their stuff sounds so different.
Open your mind and let the awesomeness in, so that it can come out in form of greatly creative music when you sit down to compose.
(By the way, if you want a place to discover new music to feed your brain with, check out this playlist I made that features very cool tracks in many different genres from EDM, to Post Rock, to Orchestral).4TH STRATEGY - WRITE MUSIC BASED ON WHO YOU ARE, NOT BASED ON HOW YOU WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO PERCEIVE YOU:
If there's something you should absolutely take away from this article, it is this.
This is something that bit me in the ass both when I was just starting out, and when I became more expert and started working professionally as a composer for media.
For some of us, when making art, there often is a dichotomy that presents itself: our head wants to make music that sounds like Artist X, but our creative intuition tends to make us write something else entirely.
I struggled a lot with this in the beginning, because I wanted to write EDM bangers like Madeon & Zedd, but everything I composed always sounded more soundtrack-ish than dancey.
This led to me being severly frustrated and not happy about my music as a concept. But as I read and read about creativity, I came this simple truth:
Every single one of us, every human being, is different at its core, especially in regards to creativity.
Everyone of us has had different experiences, with a different view of the world and a different character.
These three elements together create a unique combination of taste, skills, interests and inclinations which is you. Or which is me. Or every other human being.
This means that every single one of us, carries inside him/her an unique message inside us which is very likely no one else has to say in the same way as him/herself.
There's a certain type of art within you that is eagerly waiting to come out. Listen to it, and let it take over your music.
Magic happens when you get out of the way of your subconscious. If you feel blocked, definitely try it out on purpose!
I think this is THE way to write the best and most authentic music you can write. More on that on the bonus chapter below.BONUS CHAPTER | THE BIGGEST WRITER'S BLOCK I EVER FACED (Not part of the article - You can skip this):
As a last note, I want to tell you a story of how these strategies helped one of my best tracks come about.
This is not part of the article, so you can skip it, but I wanted to share it:
I had my biggest writer's block about one year ago after working on music for clients and trailer labels for the first six or so months. There wasn't much work that month, so I decided to resurface and take a very short break from that world, eager to finally compose some personal music with no supervision from clients or what-so-ever, just to find out that... my creativity was gone.
For a full 30 days, I tried to sit down and write something with absolutely no results.
Looking back at it, I see the reason why that happened: I got too much used to needing to be flawless and supervised.
While paying so much attention to those professional standards made me better at work, it also made me shy away from following all the four strategies I just told you about in this article.
I ended up feeling like a failure every single time I sat down in front of my piano, to the point, one night, I decided to call it quits on music production.
I still remember that night very clearly. All hope was gone, and I rationalized the idea I didn't have what it takes to write music anymore. But I wanted to leave something behind, so I set out to write one last song, no matter how shitty, cheesy, or unoriginal it sounded.
With that pure intention and no attachment to outcome, I ended up writing something that initially sounded cheesy and bad as hell, but that in a few hours, started to get very interesting and got me back up.
Most interestingly, after spending a full week on it to complete it, I ended up having in my hands what I felt like was the best and most authentic track I ever made at the time, which also got featured on promotion channels and received more views and love than any other of my tracks ever did by that point.
If you're curious about how it sounds, you can listen to it here!CONCLUSION:
I wrote all of this out of a desire to help and inspire those who want to make great art but don't know where to start from.
If you read through all of this, I hope it didn't feel like a waste of time, but rather like a conversation that will help you make even greater art than the one I'm sure you're already making now!
If I did waste your time instead and knew all about writer's block, I'm so sorry about that! I'd invite you to share some of your strategies with us in the comments, as I this would be very kind of you, and of great help to the rest of us. :)