Forced Creativity and Why Miguel and I Don’t Write Music Together

by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com

I’ve had a long standing argument with Miguel about whether or not creativity is better when you wait for inspiration or if it’s ultimately better to frequently force yourself to be creative looking for inspiration. I’m not sure where he is in this discussion now. He may have come a little more onto my side of the debate, or he may still feel that creativity is waiting on the muse. For my part, I’m more convinced than ever that you should strive for creativity frequently, and find inspiration along the way.

I think that maybe there is a definitional problem in how we once had the conversation though. I think in our youth we had this feeling that every time you sat down to create that what you created was the result. If I said to Miguel, “Hey come up with some lead guitar for this song we’re working on,” that Miguel felt he was stuck with that lead guitar forever and ever. If I sat down and wrote a short story later that night about how a misunderstood McCartney couldn’t get his fucking Lennon to just come up with something over what he’s playing, that whatever way I wrote that story I was stuck with it.

Sometimes that’s how songs, stories, video projects, etc. do come about. You feel inspired, you sit down to work on something, and the result is just amazing. Some of my best work has come about this way. Some of my best work has also come from forcing myself into the creative space, coming up with nothing good for hours, and then having an odd thought somewhere along the way that turns into something great. I feel like I’d miss out on many of those ideas if I didn’t spend the time trying.

When I write a blog post, I usually do find that what I write is what I’m stuck with, because I usually only do some light edits before posting. When it comes to the past work Miguel and I did, I think we were unaware of how much iteration generally goes into making a great piece. I think that where I was demanding a guitar riff from Miguel, we should have been jamming a little more to find a riff that Miguel liked. But I also think Miguel should have just come up with something as a placeholder, because there was nothing saying he couldn’t change it later when he was inspired. Miguel was never really all that interested in practicing, and I think we missed out on a lot of opportunities to not only improve as musicians, but also to find those riffs that would make Miguel happy.

I was of the feeling that if “John and I sat down and wrote the first hundred songs or so” that we would find the hour and a half of music that we were actually interested in playing somewhere in those hundred songs. I also felt that while some of the songs would never quite get there that we would work out a few of them. I think we were idealistic, and unfortunately our idealism wasn’t compatible where our songwriting was concerned.

If I have a point here, it’s that creativity isn’t generally all or nothing. There may be times when you’re under a deadline and what you create is what gets presented to the public. The rest of the time, I think you have time to take the bad presentation of a good idea and turn it into something better. It’s not just about forcing yourself to be creative to come up with something new. Sometimes when you sit down to “be creative” you’ll find inspiration on that thing you’ve been stuck on for years. Sometimes you’ll pull something out that isn’t very good in its current state and find a way to make it better.

I think that even Miguel would agree that when he’s working on editing a video that it’s mostly about sitting down and making some sort of progress. That when he spends time on a project that sometimes the inspiration makes itself known through the tedium of the work. Yes, sometimes you’ll sit there for hours and not create anything worth sharing with the world, but other times you will. Since you never know which it’ll be, you might as well sit down and come up with something. You can always change it later.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who decided to take a week off from writing since his mom was visiting. He still found himself frequently writing throughout the week. It doesn’t really turn off, I guess.