I'm not sure if my advice would help at all; but I will take a swing at it. If you are in the "shadows" of past songs, step into the "light" of new ones. A change in mentality can make a HUGE difference.

I'm not allowed to have times that I just can't write. They will take my house. I have to write consistently on demand. Period. There is no other option unless I change professions. I write for a living.

My thought process isn't much different than what has been mentioned. You need to know this next thing. It's IMPORTANT.

You not being able to write songs as well as you feel you did has NOTHING to do with your ability. It's your thinking! So, if it's your thinking, get it back to when you wrote those songs.

Also, give yourself permission to learn. Learning isn't about perfect growth. It's about making TONS of mistakes to improve yourself. That takes the pressure off big time.

I feel like you are somewhat asking "how do I avoid the dirt and dig ONLY diamonds." It doesn't work that way son. wink (Just an expression, I'm not sure your age) Fall in love with the process again, and the some great results with come from it.

Given the subject line of the thread, I would guess you have some habitual questions you ask yourself that aren't serving you very well. The assumption is you are in the shadow in the first place! Instead, if you asked something like "what can I do today to get myself that much closer to my next great song?" it may energize you to take the actions of moving forward. And it's not some big complicated overthought answer you are looking for. It should be something like "I will commit to writing 30 minutes." You do that day in and day out and you can just feel the progress. Then WHEN that next song comes, remember it and use it as fuel.

There are SO many writers who wrote songs that they thought were exceptionally great...that no none liked. They have also written songs they KNEW were terrible, fought not to have it on the album, were embarrassed by, blah, blah, blah that ended up as incredible hits.

Take action consistently and give it time. The diamonds are in with the dirt. Don't stop because you only see dirt right now. You found a few diamonds before, you will find them again.

Lastly, you might want to check out a book called "Go For No." It's a sales book that was recommended to me that made a big shift in my life. It's not just for sales, which is why I'm recommending it. It's about taking the pressure off and taking action.

Enough rambling. Bottom line is, this isn't the NFL. What we do, we can usually do a lifetime. Start digging.

PS-I use speech to text, so there will be errors. Just ask if something needs clarification.

Last edited by HearToLearn; 03/12/20 08:54 AM.

Chad (Hope that makes it easier)

TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.