How much do you want it...

I was thinking yesterday about how before doing the writing for The Stuns debut album in I'd written 2 completed songs in 3 years. And since the completion of that album in Jan '10 I didn't write anything new until I wrote some new songs with my brother Luke's band in September '10 and didn't complete anything else for the Stuns, or purely for myself, until Nov '10. I was also writing very little poetry, and wasn't showing anyone my poetry at that stage. I wanted to be completing songs in this time but "couldn't find time" for whatever reason. I actually find it embarrassing to tell you this.

As I said when I started this blog I realised that if I wanted to be an artist I quite simply had to write and actually finish things, which meant I needed to completely commit to making time, and adjusting my priorities and time management so this would happen.

In the past 3 months I've written 9 songs (2 co-written with The Stuns) and 7 of those were written in less than the last month. I've also written piles of poetry in that time. Just peruse my blog. Here are the songs in the order they were written. If you haven't heard any of them just click on the name and you'll be taken to that entry.

Mistaken Stranger (The Stuns)
Gretchen, Don't Change Direction (The Stuns - no recording available)
Sunset To Sunrise
Morning Memories
My First Night On The Town
Lips and Straws
Penny and Jacob
The Only Way (no complete recording)
Take A Holiday

If you have a favourite out of these please comment below or e-mail me at myfighttowrite@gmail.com and let me know. I'd be very interested to get your feedback.

Needless to say I'm rather impressed with my increased creative productivity. But it's taken such a long time to get it to happen. It's now clear to me what the problem was.

Firstly, I was thinking negatively about myself and my writing and life in general, and not really trying hard to change that. You CAN NOT get positivity and motivation from negative thinking. I used to be disappointed in what I'd achieved every day and had it in my mind that this disappointment would motivate me to be more productive tomorrow. IT. DID. NOT. WORK. I can't press this point enough. Find motivation through setting realistic goals for your day and feeling happy that you achieved them. Gradually set your goals higher if you think you can but always - absolutely always - find the positives in what you've achieved, no matter how small. Not the negatives. From positive thoughts you will find the motivation to gradually make the changes you want to see for yourself.

Adjust your perspective. See the positive. Think the positive. Do not humour ANY negativity at all. You will soon be a more happy, positive person. I will add to this that being constructively critical of yourself and being negative are not the same thing. The ability to self-critical is required for self-improvement and change. But that's a subject for another day.

I don't want to give you to much to read and think about at once so I'm going to continue this in my next post.

Between now and then think about how much you want to get motivated and make changes in your life. If you really do I say tune into tomorrow's post.