Performing or not, it's still affecting my life

[jnasser]

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EDIT:

This post has been very misinterpreted by many people (some of whom posted and some who told me in person...  The points that I was trying to get accross are in the comments.  I am leaving the original info on here though to try to figure out *how* it as misinterpreted.

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Comments

[aplomada]

I think I see what you mean. Writing is much more of a creative skill than performing music, which requires artistry but is also very technically demanding. And the pursuit of perfection stifles creativity.

I wonder what rebelowl42 would say about the process of writing music? As for writing, you have to be willing to let your barriers down to let your creativity flow. I have no idea where creativity comes from, but I know how to practice it, not just with writing prose but also with writing puzzles and creating visual art.

I'll give you an example. I want to create a bumper sticker design to sell on Cafe Press. I did a design for it yesterday, but I don't like it. I'm not going to use it. But I don't consider the time wasted. Creativity always involves false starts, and sometimes the ideas from a "failed" effort get incorporated into a "successful" effort.

[rebelowl42]

Writing is much more of a creative skill than performing music, which requires artistry but is also very technically demanding. And the pursuit of perfection stifles creativity.
I don't know where to begin...so I'm going to take a big breath, make a list and go from there

[jnasser]

wait wait wait wait wait. I haven't read your post yet, but apparently I said something wrong. I did not try to make any of those points... your three take aways are not what I meant in any way... Let me re-read my post and figure out what happened here.

[rebelowl42]

I replied to aplomada, not you

[jnasser]

Point trying to make per paragraph:

1.) as a performer, if it ain't perfect I didn't want people to see it.

2.) with the above, you learn to work on thigs that have the potential to live up to that "perfect" status - thus you start concentrating on what you do well

3.) I can see how this nurtured (or was nurtured by) my competitive nature

I was not trying to compare anything to writing, nor was I trying to say anthing about one being more creative than technical. I really was only trying to say those 3 things listed above.

[rebelowl42]

I think those three points were made very clearly. I agree with 1 and 2 completely. 3 makes alot of sense in the context of you.

[sabournine]

That sounds like a very stifling education, though I can understand why it is set up that way and how it can be successful (for some definition of "successful"). They want to train people to be the best at what they do.

I don't have much to add besides what I said in my comment to your last post. I have personally found that the attitude I used to have of wanting to write the "perfect" song has been extremely detrimental, and the only thing it's accomplished is getting me to not write music at all. Once I started writing for fun, for myself, and seeing songwriting/composing as an exercise where I could explore possibilities and not just a means to an end, not only did it become a lot more enjoyable, but the writing got a lot *better*, too.

About writing (words), have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)? I've been doing this for the past 5 or 6 years, and it has seriously changed my life, and the way I approach all of my creative projects.