Word Files in the Wake of the Storm

It was not a fun time for me this weekend. We can all relate to those internal crises we bring on ourselves that rage away below the surface. I often get great ideas and lyrical images coming at me when that stuff is going on.

Today a bud of mine suffering some romantic heartache sent me a note, and this excerpt stood out:

... its amazing what can be done when I'm in that mood. I found a couple of new progressions which I'd never used before. I'm not going to write it down. It seems inappropriate to do so.

I'm familiar with the creative energy that comes with angst. It's why there are so many poems written in high school. What caught my eye on this was the "I'm not going to write it down. It seems inappropriate to do so."

Why is it inappropriate? I'll weigh in as thinking that when life sends you something and it stimulates a creative response, it's one of the upsides of such times and hold on to it.

Holding On

It's tough to preserve the output from such moments. In my case, I'm hardly in a position to work effectively on lyrics when I'm crashing emotionally.

What I do is open a word file, give the feeling or moment a title and quickly jot down whatever is coming to me. Sometimes it's only the title, which will serve as a reminder that I can use later to pull out the original moment and record it more effectively. A good example of such a work is Shell Shock.

I then save it off to an "ideas" directory to be worked on sooner, later or never again. Output from this weekend are two empty files, titled "Meltdown" and "Death by Introspection."

Word files in the wake of the storm.