It’s called writing. But, after some wandering in the dark, most songs that reach the point of actually existing just happen. Then later you call what you did ‘writing’.

Don’t get me wrong. I devote a quite a bit of time to songwriting (and other writing, like this). So I show up, I put in the time rain or shine, creatively speaking.

I stare out the window, I experiment, I fool around, I go down a lot of blind alleys. This whole process is what we call ‘writing’.

So I’m not saying that songs just ‘happen’ without making the time, putting in the time, and developing craft, not to mention doing the often grueling work of finishing a song. They don’t.

But once there’s some forward momentum, when things start falling into place, when ideas are coming, good and bad (to be decided later)… then it’s just happening. My subconscious, with instincts honed by experience, gets in the driver’s seat (the conscious part of my mind is still there, but it’s now in the passenger’s seat, doing a ride-along).

This is a state much to be desired. But it can’t be forced. It’s a result of all the previous showing up.

I don’t think I can get to this state, and the end results that come from it, without the ‘wasted time’ when nothing seems to be going on. Very few writers can.

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