Lets clarify something here, having a songwriting process and writing every day does not mean that you're forcing yourself to write songs. Nothing gets done if you force things. It goes against nature itself.

Have a look at what happens in nature. Changes happen in their own time and at their own pace. Things grow, evolve, breathe and become whatever they are designed to be. The problem with us humans is that we try to hurry things along because we feel that nature moves too slow. Consider the concept that human beings move too fast for nature and therefore we need to slow down.

Its the same with songs. With the songwriting process we are trying to get a constant happening and that constant is the concept of just writing. Once we start writing, a song will appear just like when a poet starts writing a poem will appear. If we declare ourselves as songwriters then when we write we are moving towards a song. This is automatic.

Have you noticed that when you sit there with a blank piece of paper in front of you and you say to yourself "I am going to write a song now" you immediately put yourself under pressure to write because you are doing it under the context of 'writing a song'.

Straight away your inner voice starts talking to you, saying things like "ok, it better be good" or "you have nothing to write about" or "dont you have something more important to do right now?". More often than not we give into our inner voice and find a reason not to write and there........the cycle starts.

If the context of your life is 'I love to write' and you incorporate writing everyday as part of your life then you are naturally writing not forcing yourself to write. If, in your day to day writing activity you become inspired to finish a song then great. If nothing comes from the activity then it's also great because you're still doing what you love and that is the act of writing.

Can you see where I am going with this?

I am just extending what I wrote in earlier articles about not being so caught up with the end result. It doesnt matter what you write it just matters that you write. Doing this will allow your songs to breathe, grow and evolve from the ideas that you come up with.

Dont force songs to come out, get out of your own way and let them happen and they will appear soon enough. Have faith in yourself, the songwriter not your inner voice.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Songwriter/Musician