In the world of faith healing/energy work, there are some practitioners who claim that working on someone drains them of energy, while some feeling energized after giving a healing. Creative pursuits are no different. For me, songwriting can leave me either buzzing or exhausted, or both, depending on the situation.
The past few months, call it the winter blahs, but I have been struggling to find inspiration. I've sat down to write and found my mind and soul blank - and not in the good "Zen" sense. In times like this, while I don't try to force it, it can be helpful to write something, even if it's crap. Yesterday, I started writing on an idea I had during the Ron Sexsmith show I attended last week. I wrote a couple verses and a chorus, and reading it back I decided that it wasn't particularly inspired.
Then later, I started playing guitar around what I had written and realized that there was something to be salvaged from it. The music and chords came really easily - it was one of those moments where stuff "falls from the sky" and the creative process comes effortlessly. I was in a trance. It lasted about 20 minutes, and when I came out of it, I was totally bagged. I had to go to bed.
It amazed me how 20 minutes of work could leave me completely exhausted. But with creative work, you have to think that you're working with forces that are somewhat beyond your control.
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