writing, composing, sleeping

Ah, time to blog. What will I say. I don’t know. I’m actually kinda tired at the moment, but I’m uploading some vocal tracks for a collaborator so now is a good time to think about writing a few words. It has been an interesting week – very busy but less stressful than normal. I have really tried to take the teachings of Eckhart Tolle and apply them to my daily life. I’m trying to remember to breathe, and be conscious of my breath, from time to time over the course of the day, I’m trying to get enough sleep, and eat fairly well, get out in the air, and do lots of music & writing because that’s what lifts me up inside. My teaching studio is getting busier, and I love working with adults who are on a conscious journey of their own to live authentically & release their voices. As well as working on some collaborations, the next big job is to do the books so I can do the income tax. Time is pressing, so can’t procrastinate anymore. Just don’t want the bad news, that’s all.

Besides that I’ve been trying to write my screenplay, I got the beginning done but then I felt like I’d run out of story, but, when I was in the bath on Wednesday (why do you always get your best ideas in the shower), I got a whole lot of ideas and I’ve written them down in prose, so I just need to get some time and try to construct the scenes. It’s my first script, but I like the story, it’s a romantic comedy but I think it has elements of drama and it’s different enough that it would hopefully be interesting. In my opinion, as well, you have to have strong characters with depth and history in order to make a film, and particularly in comedy. I don’t like surface stuff that just goes for a laugh. I like things like the scene in “As Good as It Gets” when Jack Nicholson is playing the piano and weeping because the little dog he was forced to look after & used to hate has gone home, and he says angrily “over a dog!”.

This week I am also going to the opera, and going to a master class for mezzo sopranos put on by the opera company, so that should be very interesting.

Someone was asking today what to do about writer’s block, and here’s what I do. I keep whatever I’m working on, on my keyboard (piano or computer) and look at it over the course of the day, read it out loud, or sing it if it’s a song, to the point that I’ve gotten to, and then I go do the dishes or go for a walk to lay down for a power nap and bam I usually get something. Sometimes I can’t get anything at all so I just keep looking at it, reading it, singing it… maybe I get 4 more words, maybe I get a whole verse or scene. I’ve learned to carry notepaper and a pen everywhere I go cause nothing’s worse than getting an idea and having nothing to write it down with… and you can bet you’ll forget it, too.

If someone was here with me when I am composing they would go ape, I think, because I play whatever I have, over and over again… and add a note here or there and then play it again. Last weekend I kinda forgot my Dad was in my bedroom and off I went playing something I’d been working on to see where I was with it and to see if I had any inspiration of something to add… and he came out and said ‘what’s going on?’ oops. Sorry Dad, forgot I had company there for a mo.

Anyway, I gotta go to bed. Getting up early is for the birds, it makes you want to go to bed before midnight. That ain’t no fun!