Winning the war with your critical inner voice 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 so.
However, there are some conditions attached to this journal writing exercise.
1. It has to be done every day.
2. Set a minimum number of pages or words to do every day (say three pages or 1000 words)
3. It doesn’t matter what you write as long as you write the number 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 it says.
6. When you’re done, stop and go on to something else.
The way this exercise helps you in your battle with your inner voice is that you will eventually break down the walls it puts up against your creativity. You will be surprised what your inner voice will tell you as you write.
However, instead of succumbing to the temptation to stop, keep going until eventually you are free of doubt and instead there will be a flow of ideas, confidence, and inspiration.
I’ve been writing diaries for years, but I didn’t really experience the real benefit of diaries until I read “The Artists Way” by Julia Cameron (a must for any songwriter. If you don’t have it, GET IT).
In the book he talks about the ‘morning pages’. Three pages of autowriting 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 writing efforts, and thus I base this journal writing exercise on the concept of morning pages.
I can’t stress you enough, it needs to be done every day. You need to make time for it. It’s a great investment in your songwriting process.
By doing this every day and setting a productivity goal, you’ll establish the discipline you need to be a prolific songwriter.
By allowing what you write to be good, bad, or indifferent, you will stop assuming that everything you write has to be perfect, and paying attention to the noises in your head will help you recognize your inner voice for what it really is. An inexhaustible source of negativity.
What’s next? Well, here is a songwriting exercise for you.
Start writing in your journal for a week. That’s seven days to write down your thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations, inner conversations (whatever you want, write it down) and see how you feel doing it.
I think you’ll feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
At the end of the seven days, I can guarantee that you won’t have so many things going around in your head because everything will be written and who knows, maybe there will be some songs in there too.
We’ll get to what happens next later.