I’ve been reading some good books on songwriting lately. The Craft and Business of Songwriting by John Braheny states, “In order to operate at peak performance during the creative process, you should be motivated internally by the spirit of play and exploration and forget about what anybody else might think. You’ll have plenty of time to worry about others’ opinions later.”

I have to agree, and it seems that this truth applies equally to almost any creative pursuit. We should be careful to guard against motives that distract us and keep our hearts from enjoying the process of creation. If we start to work from other motivations, we can short-circuit our creative mind. Enjoyment in the process helps improve the outcome, helps intensify our creative abilities. Of course, there are later parts of the creative process that require discipline as well, but if we do not allow ourselves to play for the enjoyment of the creation, we could limit ourselves and stifle our work.

Come to think of it, keeping an attitude of play is important for many areas of life, or perhaps all of them. :o)

What are some of the creative pursuits you enjoy? Are you able to keep a playful focus for your initial efforts? Any tips for the rest of us on how that works best for you? Also, if you’d like to check out some other great posts on arts and culture, head on over to Watercooler Wednesdays on Randy Elrod’s blog.

Though I’ve yet to complete reading it, I’ve greatly enjoyed Robert McKee’s book, Story, and I wanted to pass on a recommendation in case you haven’t yet made the discovery for yourself. This post is another in the Watercooler Wednesdays series on arts and culture.

If you have an interest in writing, particularly if you require any elements of story in your work, you’re likely to enjoy and benefit from this book. Though targeted at screenwriters, Story does a great job of explaining and illustrating how good story works and what doesn’t work. You can take it as a given that the author knows this subject; he spent decades teaching screenwriting and his students include many who met with great success in that field.

One part of the first chapter that I enjoyed was where Robert discusses some of the loves that a writer of story must possess. Here are a few that he touches on: the love of… story, the dramatic, truth, humanity, dreaming, humor, language, duality, perfection, beauty… Don’t worry though, Robert does much more than talk about story; he also gets down into the nuts and bolts and offers plenty of practical information.

Have any favorite books lately? Also, if you’ve read Story, did you find it helpful?

One of my blogosphere friends, Vicky Beeching, put up a vlog a couple of days ago exposing the incredible wreck that is the inside of her Jeep. You should check it out… it’s pretty amazing. :o) She actually used that as a springboard for some good thoughts on living an open transparent life.

Also, I was in Nashville several days ago at LifeWork 2.0 (a really great conference about blogging and building online communities). One of the things we talked about was how to improve your blog by making it more personal. To that end, I’m going to try to get a little more posted here about what I’ve been up to and what my life’s like. I live a pretty amazing life, so you should definitely come back to my blog several times a day to see if I’ve posted anything new, because you probably don’t have any life at all… :o) Just kidding. Really.

Anyway, I was inspired by these two things to share a picture of my room (sorry about that) along with a few of my thoughts on the topic.

:: my room at the apartment - click the pic for full-sized version ::

My photographer’s eye was tempted to rearrange a couple of the things in the photo for best effect, but I resisted and what you see is exactly how the far end of my room happened to looked like (from the vantage point of my bed) when I got up this morning. (You can see it’s difficult to make it back to my closet/pantry at the moment. Getting dressed or getting food are both quite a chore.) I will say that this was captured at a particularly bad moment. Most of the time, it’s not quite this bad, but I must admit, most of the time, it’s not exactly spic and span either…

So, on the topic of transparency, I think one valid question is “how much is too much?” :o) Some people wear all of their problems on their sleeves, and it’s pretty much a self-centered thing. Other people hide everything inside, and it’s also somewhat self-centered. (“What will people think of ME?”) Somewhere in-between there’s got to be a balance where we’re willing to share pretty much anything with anyone, but the main focus of that transparency is what might helpful to others. Of course, there may be times where we share stuff with good friends just because we find it helps us to do so. However, I think a better reason for transparency is to encourage and comfort others. When we’re transparent, we help others realize that it’s ok to also be transparent. For those who feel like they’re alone in their struggles, we find comfort in knowing that’s just a silly lie. Even more importantly, if we don’t try to hide who we are, we have the opportunity for much richer and authentic friendship.

What do you think? Where is the balance between being too transparent and not transparent enough? Other thoughts and reactions? :o) I’m gonna go clean my room now…

So I had a really great time in Nashville last week. I suppose I should have been blogging about it all along, but I was so busy having fun! Now that I’m giving you almost a whole week in a single post, I’ll just summarize and leave out a lot…

Anyway, I got into town on Sunday and hit the Bluebird Cafe. While I was waiting in line to get in, I met Dean Marold and we ended up grabbing a table and enjoying some good food and music together. One of Dean’s friends, Carrie Cunningham, had been selected as one of the songwriters playing that evening, and it was fun to know somebody who knew somebody who was playing… :o)

After the show, Dean and Carrie introduced me to Doak Turner who invited the three of us over to his place for some food. Doak cooks a mean breakfast, and it’s especially good after midnight!
 
Next day was Cinco de Mayo, and I slept in. Sometime after noon when I was grabbing breakfast, I made a new friend, Blossom, in the kitchen at the Country Hostel Nashville. She was just heading out the door for Illinois, but we chatted for a little while and then she decided to join me for the evening hanging out downtown. We went first thing to NSAI (Doak’s suggestion) and both signed up for memberships. Next, we hung out for a while downtown on Broadway… takin’ pics, meeting people, and listening to lots of good music.

Band playin in a bar on Broadway

After that, we ran down to the Station Inn and enjoyed listening to The Time Jumpers for the rest of the evening.

Time Jumpers playin at the Station Inn

Then we headed back downtown to hang out for a little longer with our new friend Douglas Roberts, a great guy who plays guitar on Broadway pretty often and also teaches guitar around Nashville.

Douglas Roberts plays guitar

Hangin with Douglas and Blossom on Broadway

Next day was LifeWork 2.0, and that was just amazing. Lots of incredible people, all kinds of good information, and just a really good time.

On Wednesday morning, I grabbed breakfast at Merridee’s with some friends from LifeWork 2.0 and got a chance to talk with Randy Elrod for a little bit afterward. What a great guy! For lunch, I got to hang with John Voelz (another great guy) downtown and then headed for BNA. My flight was delayed enough so I would have missed the last connection out of Denver, so I got a flight reservation for the next day and headed back into Nashville. Wednesday night, I stayed at a new place (Music City Hostel) and had a good time downtown with some new hostel friends who’d come there from all over the world.

On Thursday morning, I met some cool people on the way to the airport. Both flights went well, and I met some great people in the air as well, so I didn’t end up reading at all… just talking. :o) Now I’m back at my home away from home in Seattle.

How ’bout you? Been anyplace fun recently? Plans to go someplace soon?