I don’t think I paid enough attention to things in school …actually, I know I didn’t …but of all the crap you experience, there are some things that stick with you. One of these experiences was from my composition class. We were assigned to write songs in a certain style (jazz) and submit them once a week no matter if they were finished or not. When I was told this I kinda laughed and thought “sure …this’ll be easy”, and started handing in songs that I had already done on my own beforehand. He didn’t know about them so what difference would it make. Eventually though, I ran out of appropriate songs and found myself with a few hours to go before I needed to hand something in (hummm, kinda like a lot of things I do I guess). So, I locked myself in a wenger and proceeded to beat something out on the piano.
The first thing I realized was that what I was beating out wasn’t gratifying at all. It was rushed, uncreative, uninspired and lacking in any solid song structures. I just didn’t feel it. I wasn’t in the mood to be creative and I found myself struggling with getting something that I liked. That’s the key word though …liked. On top of this, I couldn’t leave it unfinished. I don’t know why - I suppose it’s like starting a scale; you never start in the middle and you always return to the tonic - sure you could do it another way, but musically speaking it just flows better when it’s done in one motion. The same thing applies for me when I’m learning things …I have to learn them from the beginning and play them through to the end. I’ll stop for a few tricky parts, but before I’m finished with it I have to have played it from start to finish numerous times in order for it to sink in. The only problem with this though, is that some songs are stuck in my head for life. 
So as I was saying, I couldn’t leave the song unfinished. It just didn’t sit right with me. However, after some random ‘piano bashings’, I found that I got it done. I didn’t like it per se …but it was something none-the-less. I made up endings and bridges that kinda flowed together and put them all in place, hurriedly sketched them out on manuscript and then handed them over. The following weeks came and I did the whole process over and over again. Lol, I guess I didn’t learn anything about time management because I always left them to the end, but I did find I was able to get things done. When I got the songs back I realized “hey, there’s some not bad stuff in here!” What I found was that I didn’t really need to wait for inspiration …I could just force it.
Is that a good thing? I’ll go on record and say yes it is, and here’s why …forcing yourself to be creative is a great way to create things that you normally wouldn’t. If you sit around and wait for things to happen artistically, you’ll find that your ideas will tend to be very similar - and you’ll resign yourself to the whims of your creative process. This is bad …at times. In addition to this, you’ll find you also linger and linger over stuff that you’ve been working on in the past. FORGET THE PAST! It’s past already - make something new. You’re the one who should be in control - not ‘divine intervention’ or that ‘bolt of lightening’ that people sometimes wait around for. Of course certain things will still come to you out of the blue, and when that happens you’ll go along with them, creating your little masterpiece …but the important thing is that you just can’t wait for them. They’re not so dependable. Sometimes they’re like crazy mo-fo’s that hit you all at once, but more often than not they hide themselves away. And having your own creative back-up is what keeps you in the game …especially when things kinda look dry on the horizon.
Creating something ‘half-assed’ is better than creating nothing at all. Lol, and I’ve got a LOT of half-assed stuff …most of this site for example! Inspiration is great, don’t get me wrong - but you can’t live your life around it. It’s like living with luck …sometimes it’s there and sometimes it’s not, and you sure wouldn’t want to bank on it. Btw, it appears half-assed and mo-fo’s are not official words in my spell checking program.
There …fixed.
