Become a Songwriter By Tapping Into Your Creativity

It's that time of year for making New Years Resolutions... or, judging by the general trend, getting ready to break New Year's resolutions. In an attempt to dissuade the typical bout of lethargy that settles over me around this time in the New Year, I decided to do a little research into what makes a sustainable New Years' resolution regarding creative writing.

I came across an article that purported that the best way to create a sustainable resolution was to develop a resolution centered around taking small steps to get to your ultimate goal: I interpreted this to mean that a more effective resolution would be to define a gradual path toward your ultimate goal rather than to make a resolution of your actual goal that is near impossible to sustain without knowing quite how to get there. Given many of my goals take more than a year to accomplish anyway, I thought this was a brilliant suggestion.

Related Read: The Best Beginner Piano Books to Start Out In

How does one find a path toward your ultimate goal of more creative writing, you ask? Fortunately, given the abundant and accessible exchange of information these days, it was easy to uncover pre-established step-by-step paths toward achieving most goals.

Given our mission to inspire folks to find their creativity, I’m going to assume that you folks who subscribe may set up New Year's resolutions that have something to do in general with creativity. To help you make steps on your path toward your ultimate goal, here’s a list of resources for pre-established paths toward tapping into your creative writing abilities in 2021.

1. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.  After having heard this book mentioned in several AOTS  interviews, this book was near impossible to pass up.

2. Blogs, Articles, etc. There are tons of blogs on creativity and incorporating just one article a day, or heck, even a week, can make a world of difference. Here are 10 blogs that may be useful.  Or, you could always go more specific and find major magazines or online sites on your creative medium of choice and peruse their regular articles.

3. Video clips on the creative process. I stumbled across this website that has 10 videos on idea execution and the creative process. My current favorite is #2 by Ira Glass, definitely 5 minutes that could make a significant impact on the way you approach your creative endeavors, especially if you are in a creative career.
4. A+E Bio True Stories. Sensationalized? Absolutely. However, I found through watching these programs some emulation-worthy steps artists I admire took to achieve their goals, even after some fairly significant setbacks. And if you’re more of a reader, I can’t stress how much a good autobiography of your favorite people can go a long way.
5. Local classes. Find something that interests you and go for it. A class might not give you everything you need, but if you can take away a couple of valuable lessons to start working toward what you want, then it’s a success.

Hopefully, these guides help you like they are helping me. And, if you really feel like it’s too late and you’ve already missed the boat on New Years Resolutions this year... well, Chinese New Year starts on January 31.