No, not Foxworthy. Jeff Tweedy.
"Oh. Conway Twitty? Is Jeff his real first name?"
No, that's still not right, but in reality we're closer to who Jeff Tweedy is. Jeff Tweedy is a prolific songwriter and has recently released a book called How To Write One Song. I'm only halfway through reading it and I can already tell that I'm going to read it again. And possibly even a third time.
"But, Mark, you don't write songs. You write stories."
Of course! But in a nutshell Jeff is talking about creativity. For him, he focuses on writing one song and the habits that go along with writing it. For writers, focus on writing one story, no matter the length. Create a deadline. Once it's done, you're done. Write another one. There's nothing mysterious about creativity. All of us have wanted to create something. Whether it's something physical, like a painting or a wooden figurine, or something not physical like a song or a story.
All of us have the tools to create something. Although he talks about writing songs, one at a time, there are parallels to writing stories or other pieces of art. Make writing a habit.
Make your art a habit.
Don't have time? Why did you just spend thirty to forty-five minutes playing a game on your phone? Use that time, even part of it, to create something.
Don't know what to write? Try freewriting. Brainstorm and throw ideas down on the page. It doesn't matter what it looks like. You're the only one who's going to see it.
Creativity isn't this mysterious power that only a few possess. All of us have it in one form or another. Mine happens to be in the form of a story.
One final note: in full disclosure, when I was sixteen, I dreamed of being a rock star. Even back then, I knew I had to write my own songs in order to make it big. So I did--write songs, not make it big. I have at least a dozen or so songs that I wrote back then. So it's funny that I now discover this book. Believe me, it's well worth its weight in gold and then some.
No comments:
Post a Comment