The old quote "there's nothing new under the sun". Sure it's all been done, but what's interesting is to take the ordinary and put your spin, or uniqueness on it. Good artists borrow, great artists copy. Again, inspiration comes from seeing what others are doing or writing and again make it uniquely your own. Seeing the world from a different angle or perspective. Taking the little things that are overlooked and being BOLD with it. Don't be afraid to be yourself. If you put yourself out there in a big way be ready to be judged and even criticized, but you will be admired for being courageous. I also paint and I used to think, I had to go somewhere there was beautiful scenery or a vacation spot or travel to some exotic place. Until I learned to see the beauty in the ordinary, the everyday life and I took it and I put my spin on it and it was extraordinary. Don't be afraid to experiment with different styles, combinations, things others wouldn't try. Don't judge yourself, just let it flow. Freestyle, free write whatever comes. But try to set some habits of practice of persistence, it will pay off. You don't have to have a lot of talent, just the joy of wanting to do it and learn and you'll get better. Don't look at those who are way beyond yourself, there will always be those who are better, but compare your own progress from year to year. Everyone has their unique thumbprint.

You can't NOT be Yourself! There will only be (1) Jimi Hendrix, (1) Janis or (1) Elvis, not matter how many people copy them. You can be in the style of them, but you won't be them ever. Copying is not a bad thing as you learn alot from that and eventually you will more and more find who you are. With painting, many artists go to the National Museum of Art and they paint/copy the great artists Leonardo and others and it's to analyze and learn how they did what they did.

So back to the "showing" and not telling, I'll give you a real life example of one of my recent songs I posted on this site. It was called "The Ghosts of ElDorado". Some time ago, months, maybe a year, I saved an article about the Spanish explorer's looking for the city of gold. At the time, nothing came to me to write a song about. This year I did FAWM 2020 which is February Album Writing Month, it's a site online where songwriters all over the world try to write 14 songs in February. It's fun to see what everyone writes and get ideas. One guy wrote a song about ghosts and for some reason that triggered me to thinking about all the people who died searching in the jungles for that city of gold. Then I thought about how many people are always seeking wealth and fame here and they never get it, but it sort of occurred to me that the real gold is how you live your life and if you believe that life goes on after our few short years here, then what's valuable is what you take with you, your lessons or good deeds. I'm a spiritual person, not really crazy religious, but I remembered Jesus saying to lay up your riches in heaven and that his father had many mansions, so I could tie all that together and that's what the song became about. Turned out pretty good. So hope that sort of explains how to keep a library of ideas and what they can turn into when the time is right.

Last edited by Belladonna; 04/07/20 08:27 PM.