I used to write a song every single week, now I can't remember the last time I picked up my guitar.

From 2018 to 2020, I had a full notebook of lyrics and recorded over 30 rough demos on my old laptop. Then I took a 'stable' office job in Phoenix to pay the bills, and the creative time just vanished. I went from that weekly rhythm to maybe three half-finished tunes in the last two years total. The grind of the 9-to-5 just slowly choked it out of me. Has anyone else had a creative habit die a slow death like that, and did you ever get it back?

4 comments

4 Comments

kimmurphy2mo ago

What finally clicked for you to get back into a rhythm? I went through the same thing after my schedule changed. The only thing that worked was stopping trying to make full songs. I set a timer for 15 minutes, three nights a week, and just messed around. No goal to finish anything. After a few weeks of that pressure being off, a few lines or a riff would stick. It built back up from there.

wells.zara2mo ago

So you're telling me the secret to making music is to stop trying to make music? That's the kind of backwards advice that actually makes perfect sense after you've been banging your head against a wall for months. I was so stuck on finishing something good that I forgot how to just play. Setting a timer and having no goal sounds like it would do nothing, but it totally takes the weight off. It lets you be bad on purpose, which is weirdly the only way to get good again.

robertlane2mo ago

Try doing it first thing before your brain even wakes up.

mark_carr71mo ago

My last creative block lasted 47 days. I was trying to write lyrics and everything felt forced. @robertlane is onto something with that pre-coffee brain idea. I started just humming random melodies into my phone voice memos right when I woke up, no instrument, just nonsense sounds. Half of it was trash, but one dumb little hum turned into a full chorus a week later. You have to trick your brain out of being its own worst critic.