Greg Monks

Writer's block is a myth. What it really is is a collection of bad habits, or a bad working environment, or a situation that's not conducive to staying focussed and getting things done. Speaking as a writer, every writer (and musician) I've ever encountered who complains of "writer's block" has either been in a bad situation or else was a collection of bad habits. As proof, writers and musicians who write for deadlines never suffer from "writer's block". They punch the clock, do the work, punch out, go home, repeat. It has to do with structure plus purpose.

I think it pays to remember that everyone is self-taught. There's no such thing as stuffing information into people's heads. Even in university, someone lays it out before you, and you have to make sense of it as best you can, in your own way. I'm a "schooled" musician, probably because I come from a brass background where reading and theory is a must, but I've played with lots of pop, folk, and other "unschooled" musicians over the years. The best thing to do, I've found, is just to jump right in and suss one another out until you work out ways to work together. People tend to be friendly, and generally want to see you fit in and have a good time. And if the vibe is bad and/or uncomfortable, most of the time no amount of chops and knowledge is going to fix that: it's usually a personality thing, and situations like that it's best to walk away and keep your sense of humour.

It's tough being in the arts these days. I've just retired, and have to say that getting away from the biz is a huge relief. A huge problem is that there's less and less light at the end of the tunnel. As a brass player, the gigs were drying up when I entered the professional scene back in the 70s, I switched to Top 40 because that's where the money was, and today there are precious few live venues left here in Canada. Back in the 70s there was more work than there were bands. Today, you can't buy a gig. There are some things you can do to make things bearable. At the top of the list is your social life. Having like-minded friends in the same boat is a good start, but simply hanging out isn't enough. Planning and doing things helps you stay focussed and connected. For example, when I lived in East Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast in BC, Canada, we would get together regularly for pot-luck dinners. They're a great way to save money and feed a big crowd, plus if you plan them well, they're a great way to meet new people. I personally feel that as a musician, it's important to get to know people in other arts. If you think it's tough being a musician, try being an actor, a painter, a sculptor, or worst of all- a poet! Who ever made a living as a poet? And how do they stay upbeat, in a world that is never going to pay them a living wage? Putting on multimedia gigs is a great way to feed your brain, even if you're not making a lot of money doing it. Anyway, that's my two centimes. Good luck.

I'm a retired writer/musician (jazz/classical) who for amusement set aside a bazillion songs that came to me while I was doing other things, such as mowing the lawn, mopping the floor, painting a fence. Thousands of these ditties I simply allowed myself to forget, but the odd one I'd either jot down (my own music shorthand) or slap down using a primitive old programme on my computer. The lyrics to these ditties are uniformly unusable. A good many were rather profane, and most were downright silly. Here's the last one, the result of banging nails into the floor upstairs as I floored the attic (don't expect pro quality- this was done using a cheesy old programme on a very old computer). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VJgmUuoQOU Here are the amazing, profound lyrics: Stare, stare, like a bear, I can see your underwear, Stare, stare, stare . . . Like a bear . . . Stare, stare, like a bear, I can see your underwear, Stare, stare, stare . . . Like a bear . . . I've been staring like a bear since we parted, Left the air so thick and blue as you departed, How you overturned your chair as you departed, Blew apart your underwear when you farted, Stare, stare, like a bear, I can see your underwear, Stare, stare, like a bear, I can see your underwear, Stare, stare, stare . . . Like a bear . . . Underwear . . . chorus (3 female singers) Stare, stare, like a bear, I can see your underwear, Stare, stare, like a bear, I can see your underwear, . . . with a little ditty at the end that could be its own tune. Anyway, as you can see, the lyrics, such as they are, are silly and disposable, and as a writer, I could do a professional job if the spirit moved me. The thing is, though- I am not a songwriter, and the songs I've written are pretty much in this same style- whatever that style is. So I'm not sure what to do with them: toss 'em all out, as I'm sorely tempted to do; write them down in pie-anna-songbook form to become a paperweight collecting dust in someone's attic, or whatever. Do you more knowledgeable types have a name for the genre in question? "1950s Schlock" would be my best guess.