Seriously though, winning the conversations in your head is one of the main keys to getting the most out of your songwriting and starting a journal is one of the best strategies for doing that.

There are some conditions attatched to this journal writing exercise.

1. It has to be done every day

2. Set a minimum amount of pages or words to do every day (say, 3 pages or 1000 words)

3. It doesnt matter what you write as long as you write the amount of pages and/or words you said you were going to do.

4. Allow your writing to be good, bad or indifferent.

5. Pay attention to your inner voice, maybe write down what its saying.

6. When you have finished just stop and go onto something else.

The way in which this exercise helps you win the battle
with your inner voice is that you eventually break through the walls it
puts up. You will be amazed what your inner voice will say to you as
you are writing away.



However, instead of succumbing to the temptation of stopping, you will
keep on going until eventually you free yourself of self doubt and in
its place will be a flow of ideas, confidence and inspiration.

I have been keeping journals for years but I havent really experienced the real benefit of journals until I read "The Artists Way" by Julia Cameron (a must for any songwriter). In the book she talks about the 'morning pages'. Three pages of automatic writing first thing in the morning and boy, what a powerful tool that is.

It was that book that allowed me to piece together all the loose ends in my own songwriting endeavours and therefore, I am basing this journal writing exercise on the morning pages concept. It must be done everyday.

Doing it everyday and defining a productivity target will set up the discipline, having no agenda and allowing what you write to be good, bad or indifferent will stop you assuming that everything you write has to be good and paying attention to the noise in your head will help you see your voice for what it is, a neverending source of negativity.

Whats next?

Well, first of all write in your journal for a week. That's seven days of putting down your thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations, inner conversations (you name it, put it down) and see how you feel from doing that. I can guarantee you wont have so much stuff flying around inside because its all down on paper and who knows, there maybe some songs in there too.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: song writing, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, artist way, songwriting and the guitar, writing, lyric, corey stewart