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I'm attempting to do the socially polite thing on the MP3 Forum, which is to listen and give feedback to others. And I've appreciated the feedback I've received from others, especially those who recognize my latent genius . . .
But seriously, I'm wondering at my own lack of production. It seems that some posters have a never ending fount of creativity, and post quite a bit. My question: What's normal, throughout the course of a year? Who owns the record for most songs posted? I can't possibly keep up, so I pay attention mostly to people who have responded to me. Not fair, but I feel I'm going to miss some good stuff. Comments appreciated.
Ott

Ott
I think each writer has their own speed.
I also believe quality is more important than quantity. But the more you write and produce the better you will be. IF when you write you do the best you can every time.

I have spoken to hit writers that say they only write a few songs a month and others who write a few songs a week.
Do what works for you.

No one expects you to respond to every song posted on the MP3 forum.
Do what you are comfortable with.

Mmmm, good question -- creativity and the prolific or non-prolific nature thereof is a unique and individual thing.


IMHO not a thing to even bother comparing oneself to others as far as rate goes.



Robin McKinley is one of my FAVORITE authors and she is not prolific at all... maybe a book every four years, ish. I found her on Twitter and man she's chatty though! haha.

Others like Danielle Steel may be wildly prolific, yet sorry to report, I have never been able to get through even one of her books. Uh, make that one chapter I think... tried...

Bill's right, go with your own comfort level and realize that what YOU do is "normal" for YOU and be comfortable with that.

If you want to step-up your rate then plan it: build a schedule and say "this is WRITING TIME," treat it like your employment as though you are on the clock (well maybe even better, skip the donut break! lol) and while it may seem strange to do at first, eventually the muse will realize when and where it can easily find you.

Note your own "rate" and look into what times in your life you are more creative. Also, when are you less inspired?

For me -- when I make a major move, my creativity flies out the window for at least a year. Even if I schedule or try --- phththththtttt. Nada. Nothing.

When I am developing myself spiritually (that's a personal thing, to each his own), in other words when I draw nearer to God I find that my creativity increases exponentially.

Your mileage may vary! Find your own markers.... what activities or moods or thought processes bring OUT the creative side? Do more of those. What blows it to pieces? Do less of that.

Best of luck!




Linda

Hi Ott

What your doing is quite understandable and common amongst most. The thing to do is to reach out to someone NEW to you and leave them feedback now and then. This is the only way more people will come to your music.
Maybe a title will strike you or just a new name around the boards.

I sometimes look for someone new going about leaving feedback and trying to help others. Once I see that pattern I go help them. "Doing" always influences somebody

I don't know who holds the record for most song posts.. Could be Tampa Stan because of time here & posts numbers. But from my time I have noticed the most from Calvin, with or without Joice quite often.
When Louis is around he posts alot.

There are many who post alot but I'm gonna say "Calvin"

It's meaningless in terms of good versus bad to consider how prolific or non prolific someone is as a writer or creator. I have known oodles of people who fit both and are excellent and I know people who crank out tons of crap and some who have written 1 or 2 really awful songs and never move past them, but rather they keep looking for new opportunities for the same 1 or 2 terrible songs.

I think you should do what makes you happy first and foremost. That way at least 1 person is happy with your work (some never even have that). If you only have enough to say to fill 1 song, then so be it. If you can crank out 250-500 songs a year, good for you. (I kept that pace for years). I know a lot of folks who are top notch that do 12-20 songs a year and choose the best 10-12 for their album. Others have 100 or more songs to choose from. Who cares? Just do the best you can and try to learn ways to improve your skills each time out. And most importantly, have some fun doing it. If making music isn't the most fun thing you do, then I strongly suggest NOT doing it anymore and instead doing more of the funnest thing in your life. Why do anything else with your free time?

Brian

Hi Ott.

my fellow latent genius.

I think you do fine and I see you enough to know you are here.

Your comments are always good for me to read and I mostly look at what you post as well

Myself, I only post a song every 1-2- or 3 months and I feel creative with them all.

So I guess thats what is normal to me.

I read and comment on others lyrics (normally in between my writing), or sometimes I JUST FEEL inclined to listen to mp3 forum and comments on finished songs or worktapes.

Whatever makes YOU FEEL good at the time is fine.

Just be who you are and I think thats cool.

God Bless Roy and Helen

Hey Ott,

Besides worktapes, and various noodling, and soundscapes, my total output for finished material this year, will equal one whole song ! And that's a co-write, ......so I guess half a song. *shrugs*

So, who cares ? No one, as long as your're having fun. Just keep your own pace, and enjoy it. I'm not too sure about folks saying they "write" a couple of hundred songs a year. They may do a few hundred scratchings of idea structures, but probably not much more.

cheers, niteshift

Ott, when I first began writing lyrics in 2008, it was one every 2 or 3 weeks, I think. Mainly because it was so exciting to have the creative juices flowing again after a long hiatus. When I began last year with the 50/90 challenge and did the FAWM and 50/90 challenges this year, I managed a lyric every 1-2 days over the fixed periods of time (e.g. 14 in 28 days or 50 in 90 days - this year I did 54 in 72 days ).

When the challenges were over, however, I spent the following weeks/months revising several of the lyrics I'd written and focusing on finding collaborators, etc. I only wrote a couple of new lyrics after each of the challenges (e.g. since finishing the 50/90 on September 2, I've written only 2-3 lyrics). I'm finding this works fine at the moment, as it means I can get on with pays-the-bills work and other Life things, and not be pressuring myself to crank stuff out every day. It's about setting priorities that I'm comfortable with. (Though I agree the "write-something-every-day" notion is a good one in terms of it being a useful exercise. ) However, I do write down hooks/titles and ideas as they come to me. I'll be looking at them in earnest when FAWM starts in about 7 weeks.

Guess it boils down to doing what feels best and gets the most pleasing results. At the end of a given year, I'd rather have half a dozen decent lyrics/songs than a slew of questionable lyrics and no songs.

As for critiquing - here and elsewhere - time permitting, I try to average a couple a day. While I also like to give constructive feedback and encouragement to newcomers, I generally focus on lyrics by people whom I know are serious about revising.

Donna

Ott,

I so no reason why you can't crank out a song every week or two. I am like Donna, I am raised on the "pressure cooker" of RPM/FAWM/5090 so I got use to doing a song every day or two. Of course there is no magic answer to writing good songs. I know Scott Campbell will go over every line 10 times to make sure they are perfect (and it shows). Me, I pump out a lyric set in 5 minutes (and it shows -- ha, ha). However, I do put my initial ramblings up and then modify as I get comments or just let it "play" out there.

It looks like you want to write for the commercial market, so I think you should be writing everyday. Join Donna and me for this years FAWM in February (14 songs in 28 days). It's a load of fun and there are collaborations goings on left and write.

Kevin

Hi Ott

Ernst Hemingway once famously remarked that 'his best friend in the whole world was his waste-paper basket!' and yet he became one of America's great modern novelists.

I believe the problem with proliferation from the any artist's point of view, is that there comes a time when it delivers diminishing returns. Writing for the sake of writing, in the hope that you come up with something good; in the hope that you will somehow become inspired doesn't always work and the results are often forced and detached.

I think the best advice is to finish each song, before you move on to the next one and only you yourself knows how long it takes for any given project. The rule should be there are no rules!

The more prolific posters on the forum's are often the one's that bring 'works in progress' to the boards, while the less prolific posters are the ones bringing 'finished works'.

I guess it's all a matter of personal choice regarding how best to use the MP3 and Lyric forums.

ColmT

I like having multiple songs going on at the same time. I have a bunch of lyrics that I haven't tried to do music to, but actually I only have about 4 or 5 (or maybe 10) in the "active" stage.

Kevin

A lot depends on the amount of time a person has to spend on writing. Some people seem to have a lot of spare time on their hands whilst others like myself are too busy to write on a regular basis. The important thing is quality rather than quantity.....no point in producing endless amounts of crap on a daily basis. I would rather concentrate on producing one decent song at a time. I can write a half decent lyric in under an hour...but it takes many hours to turn that into a recorded song so no point in wasting that time on lyrics that are not up to scratch.

Colm, I'm with you on finishing one song - or lyric - before moving on to the next one.

In some instances, one disadvantage of writing a new lyric every day - and often in a matter of just minutes - may be that the author doesn't take the time to carefully consider, assimilate, and apply constructive feedback that had been given on previous lyrics.

The same flaws keep cropping up, and there seems to be no progress. This of course is only my opinion - and my own experience of critiquing - but I'd suggest it's more efficient and gratifying to tweak and revise one lyric until it's really good rather than writing a new one - or more - every day and being told the same thing over and over about how to make it better.

Donna

I like both points of view here.

Jot down and notate lots of ideas, as they arise, and file them.

Then, of those ideas, one or two will emerge which have promise.

Then, the hard work begins, in shaping an idea into a finished piece. Maybe combine bts and pieces from more than one train of thought ? Whatever the process, it;s those small little hooks or grabs, which wiil prompt more work on a song, until hopefully, one day, you're happy with it. Not ! LOL

Write on.

cheers, niteshift

Ott,

Yes, some people here are retired or are pro musicians so they have time to work on music while others are working two jobs and writing in what little spare time they have. You do what you can do!

Writing music at a fast pace can do a lot for developing your chops, I think, but rarely does anything for you in terms of quality.

When you have spare time, and feel like it, work on music. If it becomes a chore for you, it shows in the music.. so work when inspired. If you're not inspired, work on getting inspired.

If you even think working on getting inspired is a chore, take it easy. Then you are probably stressed out and overworked..

One great song will take you over the rainbow, one real person can take you there.. 500 mediocre songs, with 100 publishers buttering your ears for their own intrest, won't..

A sincere thank you to everyone of you. Love the people on this site!
Ott

When my wife sends me to the basement to practice guitar she tells me not to take it personally and surmises the reason James Taylor and Carly Simon broke up was because she told him if he played Fire and Rain one more time, she was leaving, yet he continued to play it. I guess that is her way of saying that people will get tired of listening to you no matter how good you are, if you overdue it.

When I go back over songs I wrote 10 or 15 year ago, I often find that I am repeating the same message in different ways either within the same song or in another song I've written. And what I have concluded from this is that I wasn't really happy with any of the ways I had written it or I would have chosen a fresh topic, or added more substance to the lyric rather than repeat the same thing in different ways.

I favor open mics to message boards. Everybody gets their 2 or 3 songs and the variety, both good and bad, helps keep things fresh and the feedback you get from a live audience tells you right away whether or not your song is worth polishing. The other thing I find very telling, is which songs you choose to play when you get up in front of the audience - it's not always the ones you thought were so great when you first wrote them

Sorry if i got off topic a little, but I think you can tell from my comments I favor a modest volume