Are you Able to Get Your Feelings Out?

My love for philosophy and lyric-writing had me on a website this morning much longer than what it deserved. As you know, I’ll break just about anything down.

Here’s my disclaimer; I love when people write or wax philosophical. I love when people feel free enough to get out their feelings on paper. That is very cool. But that is my point; get the feelings out.

My aggravation with many lyrics and books is that I don’t know the person has actually accomplished what they set out to do. This isn’t me picking on anyone, it’s more that I am becoming increasingly concerned that people aren’t feeling very good about what they have written nor do they feel like it’s good enough to show anyone. People send me things they have written all the time and ask for a critique. I’m usually wary of doing it because I am not sure people are going to want to hear what I have to say.

My response isn’t based on grammatical correction or if I am even touched by what someone has written. My general response to anything that has been written down; is it honest?

Most of the songs sent to me might look good on paper, might rhyme and have a good meter but I honestly don’t believe it.

Because I can’t go very long without quoting something from Will Ferrell, let me include an example from Anchorman where he asks Brick what he loves;

Brick Tamland: I love... carpet.
[pause]
Brick Tamland: I love... desk.
Ron Burgundy: Brick, are you just looking at things in the office and saying that you love them?
Brick Tamland: I love lamp.
Ron Burgundy: Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?
Brick Tamland: I love lamp. I love lamp.

That just about sums up writing for me in the best nutshell ever.

We do this when writing something down. Many artists will tell me they have Writer’s Block. I just had a block when I was trying to think of what that was called just now. Lol
I don’t experience Writer’s Block because I don’t suffer from a Thinking Block of a Feeling Block. I might write something down that’s complete crap, but I am never at a loss for something to say. It’s not really skill so much as I have learned to become honest and not care what anyone thinks about what I say.

Back to this website I spent too much time on. I had a giggle while reading because it started off by saying;

“Great philosophy is sometimes to be found in popular song lyrics when you read between the lines...”
They went on to give examples of several songs. I don’t dispute that there is philosophy in just about everything, but the lyrics they provided didn’t give me options between the lines, they gave me too much room.

For example; Lyrics like, “Long is the river flowing to the sea and in my blood a shiver rising in me”
It’s not a bad lyric, but I still have no clue what this person is feeling.

Or, “The softest cloud, the whitest dove, upon the wind of heaven's love...”
Also, a lovely little rhyme and picture to go with it but I suspect the writer just liked the rhyme.

“Deep in the night, the winds blow cold and in a heartbeat the fear takes hold...”
Another lovely rhyme, but I am still left wondering what was going on.

I believe one of the number one reasons Writers experience a block is because instead of writing down what they are feeling, they are trying to write a poem or a song. That’s completely cool except that so far all I felt was the first person was cold, the second person accomplished a cool rhyme and the third person is wandering somewhere in the forest scared out of his mind.

Now these people didn’t come to me complaining about Writer’s Block, so I won’t bother them anymore. ;)
But my hope is to offer some help on how to never have it.

First of all, do you love to write or are you like Brick who is trying to participate?
If you LOVE to write, that should be just about all you need. If you love it above caring what others think, you are really in a good place. If you are honest, then you are all set.

Of course, getting to know language is good. Reading books on writing is helpful too. I maintain to write all we need is the love for it, the honesty and we need to not care who reads it. That’s just about it.

I laughed at some sketch comedy between Ricky Gervais and Sir Ian McKellan in Rick’s show; The Extras;

“How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I am portraying in the film or play…I imagined what it would be like to be a wizard and then I pretended and acted on that day.”

Of course, it was hysterical (it’s on youtube) but all comedy aside the point is pretty funny. We over think just about everything we do and writing is no exception. This has nothing to do with the content, Ian went on to portray a very complex character (and make no mistake, that boy does have skills) but the mentality actually isn’t too far off.

If we can simplify our motivation, we can write as much or as little as we want. If we make sure the reason for doing it is pure to begin with, there should be no Writer’s Block. If we have the courage to write down what we are thinking instead of searching the English language for the best rhymes, we can feel good about what we write. It may be non-factual or inaccurate, it might be harsh but it can at the very least represent exactly what we are feeling.

I love when lessons come from comedy, because life is pretty funny really…if we can look at it that way. ;)

Writing loads of crap, but it’s honest crap. ;)

Karen :)

“This is a song...This is uhh, This is a new song...It's through the eyes of one of the greatest people alive, I feel...The Lunch lady" ~Adam Sandler