On Songwriting- Good Enough

1950s repurposed earrings

For the past year or so, I've been very distracted by shiny things.  Shiny, vintage jewelry things in particular.  I spend loads of time running all over town, finding vintage jewelry in need of repair and redesign.  I spend lots of hours making the jewelry.  And then I spend at least that much time photographing the jewelry and listing it in my Resparkable Vintage store on the Etsy website.

repurposed... and shiny!

Partly due to that, my songwriting muscles have gotten a little out of shape.  Next month, I'll be attending a songwriting workshop in Nashville, so I figured I better get back into the groove of songwriting so I'll have something to take.  In the past week or so, I've spent a little time just sitting down with my guitar and noodling around.  The sparkly things around me in my studio are still a bit of a distraction, but I am trying to divide my time a little differently, at least for the next few months.


Fortunately for me, I'm not a perfectionist.  I never have been.  I am not setting out to write 10 amazing, blow-everybody's-socks-off songs.  I just need a few new songs to bring to the workshop.  Songs that are decent enough to share, but not so good that I'm married to them, and can't take constructive feedback on them productively.

In other words, all I need is good enough. 

So, I'm working on making a regular practice of songwriting again.  And I intend to make a lot of big, bad, ugly messes.  Forced rhymes, cheesy sentiments, tired cliches, lines that don't quite work, etc. Because I know from past experience, that's how you get to the good.  Or at least, the good enough. Practice has never made me perfect.  But on a good day, it's made me good enough.