To the songwriters and bloggers

Throughout my life, I've always had a journal relatively handy. Though I may not write it one regularly, writing my thoughts translates into a form of meditation for my brain.

Tragically, I do not journal very often, and personally I don't count blogging as journaling. Whether I'm not allowing myself the time to do it, or I'm spending more time watching TV than trying to exercise my brain, I don't know. But there's always a part of me that wants to write a poem, or try to sort out the gobbly goop of random slop in my brain.

Earlier this year I embarked on a goal to learn 100 songs in 100 days on the guitar. It was fun because it gave me something to work on every day, but what I soon discovered after starting the goal was how uncomplicated so many songs actually are. I couldn't help wondering why I didn't write more songs myself. I had the capacity to write poems, as well as play the guitar. Why not just slap the two together?

Unfortunately I couldn't justify learning my own songs as a part of my 100 song in 100 day goal. No one would care, and I didn't have much time to devote to an unknown black hole.

But now those 100 days are over and the goal is officially complete. Here I am with a renewed energy for my creative capacity, but I'm still disengaged from sitting down and writing. Crap. Now what? It's not like I have tons of spare time in the day, and can just sit down and write whenever inspiration strikes.

But then I remembered one of my daily goals earlier this year; getting words on paper, every day. You don't know when creativity will strike, but you won't recognize it when it does if you're not writing anything down at all.

Two days ago, I found my most creative time of the day, and it happens to last about 10 minutes in the morning. I drive my wife to work and then come back home. I unbuckle my daughter out of her carseat and she spends the next 10 minutes using the inside of our car as a jungle gym. Meanwhile, I listen to NPR and drink my coffee. Lately though, I've pulled out my phone and have begun writing in the notepad app. Once the toddler is finished, I email my notes to myself and boom, words on paper.

Here is the song I wrote yesterday.

So for anyone out there who has a desire to write, but can't find the time, all you need to do is make it happen, maybe 10 minutes in the morning. If inspiration strikes, you're going to find you have a lot more time in the day than you thought.