writing has not happened in quite some time. maybe its just that i’m busy with work, and what little time i spend doing music i am working out these arrangements and recordings and not thinking about writing. but its not happening. its not bad per se, it just got me thinking.

its as if most writing happens in a moment. sure there are some ideas that have to be worked and reworked to gain their final form, but they all seem to start back at one moment — with an idea. something that jumps out or inspires or what have you.

i’m still learning how i myself process and harness these moments but it seems like my mind does something specific that i can’t put my finger on. its like i know when i hear something that in there, somewhere, is something that i need to draw out. and with my memory being what it is, i have to draw it out right there or i miss it. and then i forget it.

there are some ideas i’ve captured in the moment that, when i have time to come back and revisit them, have lost something. its like whatever strong connection i had with that word or idea or phrase was lost when i left the moment and i can’t seem to recover it. some of the sticky notes or napkins i’ve come back to are this way.

today in the car i had one but i was distracted by something else, so i let it go. and now its gone and i’m here trying to put my finger on the urgency that comes with inspiration. i think in this writing i’m figuring out that i need to be purposefully vigilant about these moments and not let them pass.

i am certain i’m being slightly more dramatic than i need to be, but that makes the blog more interesting, no? besides, i really do think i’m onto something here.

almost like i have to drop everything and try to work out enough pieces that i can come back to it later and still see how they fit together; that i can return to what i felt in the moment. i’ve done this before somehow to be sure, but maybe it was luck or an accident.

i’m sure like anything there are some people for whom all this comes very naturally. but that is rare; for most of us you gotta work at something to get better at it. experiment. hone your craft. embrace inspiration when it comes.