Thursday 9th June, 2022
Err on the side of practice, not planning… that line is gonna sum up this whole post.
But if you’re in the mood for diving deeper into what I mean, then let’s gooooo!
These past few months have been really complicated for me. Internally, externally, & the other ‘ternally’ that we don’t tell the others about. When I was trying to maintain a work flow through chaotic times I did manage to get some good work done. Even during the pandemic I got some great work done. Even through my circus career as a teenager, I got some excellent work done. But… & there’s a big but. For most of my time as a creative, I’ve been working around my practice, not through it.
There are practical things things that you need to do to be what you’re calling yourself. You’ve heard it said before… “if you’re a writer, write… if you’re a serial killer, kill… etc”. As a songwriter, I have spent so long avoiding songwriting. I’ve gotten bogged down in metadata, theories, journal entries about being a songwriter… the list goes on. When you decide to become an artist of any kind, you have this vision of what that looks like. Then you peek behind the wizards curtain & you’re shocked to discover the vast amount of spinning cogs involved in making that music box spin: branding, networking, social media, insurance, project management, monetisation…. this list also goes on forever. It’s easy to become side tracked, like I have, with all of these extra tasks. Sometimes they can be a great distraction from actually working on your practice.
This post is coming from my eventual coming back to working on my career directly. I am a performing artist… have I been performing? Am I even ready to perform? Is my performance any good? The generous answer to all of these is ‘kinda’. I’ve spent so long running around, trying to accomplish so much, & avoiding the difficult & extremely practical task of performing. Another beast on my to-do list is a new Patreon introduction video. Patreon is where I gather most of my money as an artist right now & that’s a huge deal! It’s not much money to live on, but the emotional support is beyond sustainable. Finally, there’s songwriting. At the core of my career I’m a songwriter, so why am I not writing all the time? Why am I not churning out songs? Or the very least, why am I not sitting at a piano with a blank page, screaming?
Now, all of this isn’t to say that I’ve been idle. Sure, I have filmed Learning Curve, & I do get to sit in on edits for that. I have been consistently in the studio with the spicy & talented Brian D. These are practical steps to my career. I’ve even planned out a marketing strategy for the album, although I’ve done that for college & I’m not really sticking to it… What I’m getting at here is that I have been working on the practical to some degree.
The groundwork has been laid, you get where I’m at…. so here’s where we get into the nitty gritty of my one liner up top. “err on the side of practice, not planning.” The plan in this situation, is figuring out who you are, what you’re going to do, & why you’re doing it. Maybe you’re picking a font for your brand, or maybe you’re planning how your third album will tie into the lyrical metaphors of your current soundcloud demo, I dunno… but deep down, you know that you’re probably putting too much time into it. These tasks are ghosts of where you’ll be one day, not where you are now. Right now, you need practice. Practice means work btw… kind of how a lawyer has a ‘practice’. (we all know & love lawyer speak, right?) This ‘practice’ I speak of, for me, right now, is getting out & gigging. That also means having a show to gig & a band to gig it with. It means sitting with a camera, some lights, & figuring out the album image, & the promo videos for the patreon & social media in general. It means finishing the last song on the album & working on the pre-production before I get it to Brian. These tasks, I could have done several months ago… but instead I worked around them, not through them.
To cap all of this off I’ll say that planning is REALLY important. Knowing who you are, etc, is what gives you direction… but it’s also informed by your practice, or at least it should be. When I was at my best in life, through circus, theatre, or music, I was performing, I was producing work, I was focused on the practice a little too much actually. I could’ve done with some planning… even still, I felt better about my work & my life beyond that. Today, I’m finding that it’s really scary to work into the face of your career. Trying something directly allows you to fail at that thing. This fear of failure can manifest into the tasks seeming too exhausting, or complicated to attempt now. I’m always telling myself that once I get this thing ‘set up’ then my actual work will be much easier. That’s not the case though is it? I know this… I don’t want to know it, but I do. Quite often, if you sit for a moment & think about what you’re doing, you’ll know if it’s useful to you now, or if it’s a productive distraction.
Feels like I’ve lost my way somewhat, with this post. I think that I’m trying to articulate a particular kind of procrastination. The ‘desk cleaner’ is someone who makes sure that the desk is perfect before they open their book & write. This is not a problem, until it takes you more time to clean than it does to make. If you haven’t found a balance in your work, like myself & most of us out there, then err on the side of practice, not planning. (that’s a better line, I’m gonna copy & paste it to the top & pretend that it’s what I meant the whole time)
Okay, that’s mee…. thank you for your tracing eyes.
Nathan
