Rules for Writing

I have purchased Daniel Pink's audiobooks "Drive" and "A Whole New Mind." He has some amazing ideas about what today's students will need to be fully equipped for the future workplace. I haven't begun listening yet, but I have read his blog and watched a vod-cast and I think he is really onto something!

I was perusing his blog and saw this great post "7 Rules for Writing" which came from an interview he did for the New Yorker Magazine. I thought these rules also applied to me - as a composer. I've been thinking about how to be more productive, how to keep the creative juices flowing. I think this may be the answer. In fact, I think this could apply to any creative endeavor.

I will list Daniel Pink's points and then comment.

1. Show up: Sit at the piano and put pencil to paper and start playing and writing. Even when I don't feel like it. Keep the scraps and perhaps they will show up in a composition!

2. Write every day: I love what Pink said "Regaining momentum takes three times as much energy as sustaining momentum." I think this would apply to exercise, housework, blogging, writing lesson plans... If I write every day and it becomes a habit, it will be easier to keep up the pace!

3. Don't do anything else until you've written five hundred words: Maybe not 500 words (notes?), but keep writing until something feels good!

4. Move: Physical exercise. Pink says this seems to stir up his best ideas. I just need to move more! Maybe it will help get the music started!

5. Once you've produced a semi-credible draft of a section or chapter, have someone read it to you aloud: This actually works in my composing. I can play through a section, enter it on the computer notation software and listen to the computer play it, but when my instructor plunks through it, I hear things differently and it is easier to hear what works and what doesn't (even if he doesn't offer a suggestion of what to change).

6. Remember that writing, though solitary, is also social: Yep. This applies to writing music. I remember the first time I heard someone else perform a piece I'd written. My stomach was in knots and I felt like I had placed my own baby into someone else's permanent care. I felt very vulnerable.

7. These rules work for me. Your mileage may vary. I guess this will be an experiment to see it if works for me, too.

I'll keep you posted!