The following is from an interview with the famous novelist Ernest Hemingway I just read on the subject of writing. I thought it was pretty interesting and relevant for songwriters too. What do you think?
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The most important thing I've learned about writing is never write too much at a time. Never pump yourself dry. Leave a little for the next day. The main thing is to know when to stop. Don't wait until you've written yourself out. When you're still going good and you come to an interesting place and you know what's going to happen next, that's the time to stop. Then leave it alone and don't think about it, let your subconscious mind do the work. The next morning when... you're feeling fresh, rewrite what you wrote the day before.
The main thing is to know what to leave out. The way you can tell whether you're going good is by what you can throw away. If you can throw away stuff that would make a high point of interest in somebody else's story, you know you're going good. Don't be discouraged because there's a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can't get out of it. I rewrote the first part of A Farewell To Arms at least fifty times. You've got to work it over. The first draft of anything is s***.
Originally posted by MonkeyC on Mon 13 Jan, 2020
I think it's fascinating and a pretty good approach, and I guess I won't be writing a novel anytime soon as judging by this it would take about 3 years!
I wonder how it fits with "technical vs creative" thinking? What do I mean by this? Well, on a recent guitar course I was doing with Berklee on Advanced Improvisation this question came up: "What do you think is more important/prefer, technical or creative ability"
I think this is a great conversation as there are guitarists who are "technically" brilliant and know how everything fits together, what works, what doesn't and push the boundaries, think Allan Holdsworth (if you don't know who he is, look on YouTube, he was an unbeliveable guitarist irrelevant of whether you like his style or not). Then you have the "creatively" brilliant, think Jimi Hendrix, still reverred after all this time as a seriously creative guitarist.
Of course there are those who sit right in the middle, maybe think Jeff Beck (just watch him playing Where Were You, and you'll see what I mean - he even plays a major and minor run using the whammy bar, try doing that and not sounding like your killing a cat.........).
So, is there technical writing, which feels like Hemingway and creative writing (Stephen King?), I don't know you tell me...........and what influences you the most?
What do you prefer and why? Who are your favourite musicians, writers and why and where do they sit on the technical vs creative line?
Bear in mind there is absolutely no right or wrong here, both ways (and a mixture of both) are amazing and it is just a personal preference and something to get a conversation going..........
The following is from an interview with the famous novelist Ernest Hemingway I just read on the subject of writing. I thought it was pretty interesting and relevant for songwriters too. What do you think?
--
The most important thing I've learned about writing is never write too much at a time. Never pump yourself dry. Leave a little for the next day. The main thing is to know when to stop. Don't wait until you've written yourself out. When you're still going good and you come to an interesting place and you know what's going to happen next, that's the time to stop. Then leave it alone and don't think about it, let your subconscious mind do the work. The next morning when... you're feeling fresh, rewrite what you wrote the day before.
The main thing is to know what to leave out. The way you can tell whether you're going good is by what you can throw away. If you can throw away stuff that would make a high point of interest in somebody else's story, you know you're going good. Don't be discouraged because there's a lot of mechanical work to writing. There is, and you can't get out of it. I rewrote the first part of A Farewell To Arms at least fifty times. You've got to work it over. The first draft of anything is s***.