Episode 261: A Musical Writing Process

Today on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re sharing how small decisions, working with your hands, and giving yourself things to emotionally react to — like playlists — can help your creativity.

In this episode, the Verbivore talks about how she’s approaching managing through some of the worry and anxiety of the moment while also making mental room for creativity.

Last week, she finally decided to move forward with a painting project that she’d been sitting on for at least the last eight months (spent trying to decide on colors, methods, finishes, and when would work best to start). After finishing this work, it became clear that the benefit was not just in having a revitalized room or a feeling of accomplishment, but in helping clear her mental landscape and provide a jolt to her creativity. 

The process of painting allowed for her mental focus to sharpen on the task at hand — temporarily quieting down the noise and creating space to notice some of the ideas in the background that had been drowned out. A wip-specific playlist also helped direct ideas — test out scenes, try out details or character choices to see if they felt like they fit, and dig in a little deeper emotionally since the songs already had a personal emotional connection and meaning.    

Towards the end of the conversation, Fable notes how some of these things wouldn’t be effective for her, but how great it is for us each to find whatever works. Be it taking a walk, taking a shower, knitting, working with note cards, or visually managing your project on Pinterest it’s great to find things that help support and strengthen your creative process. These specific activities may not work for everyone, but we hope the ideas shared here help spark other practices that could be useful.

We hope you enjoy this episode and that you find whatever processes work best for you! And keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes: 

We don’t have the specific quote that Fable was thinking of in regards to the value that making small decisions and working with your hands has on your brain and creativity, but here are several articles about their benefits:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bethany Stedman