I'm not a writer, but as young as you are I'll pass along some advice I got when I was in college.
My big dream was to be a composer. I love playing piano and clarinet, but I'd much rather perform my own stuff and have others play my music as well.
So went to college to study music and my composing was put way back on the backburner for 3 or 4 years. I didn't give it up completely, but that particular college did not encourage a lot of creativity. I was distressed because I'd gone all that time and never picked up any formal training in music composition, yet the whole time I was bugging my theory professor, who was also a composer, to give me some training in composition. He refused to do it, but I harassed him about it anyway on a fairly regular basis. I got him to at least listen to my music and tell me what he thought. Honestly, I didn't ENJOY very much of what he had to say; nobody ever does. But he was truthful, didn't hold back, and every conversation ended with "Just keep writing." It took some time, but I paid attention in my upper level theory and music literature courses, doing my best to emulate what I heard. I'm not sure what happened, but it was like a light bulb went off in my brain and I was composing "real" music. So I let him hear this art song I composed in collaboration with an English major, and he went NUTS over it. I let him hear an atonal piece I did for synthesizer; and though atonal music was not his particular thing, he gave me unusually positive feedback on that one.
Over the next 1 1/2 to 2 years I met other composers and applied for graduate studies in music composition, and all that without a single formal lesson in music composition. I had to figure all this stuff out all on my own and synthesize everything I'd learned in theory, history, and literature. Sure, I had to take analytical and orchestration courses, standard with any undergrad music major, and I also had to take instrumental methods courses, which meant I got hands-on practical knowledge on the basics of playing every orchestral instrument out there. So I basically had the knowledge tools to compose, and I'd been composing jazz and pop-style instrumentals since high school; all I lacked was a lot of mentoring and heavily critical feedback that people with extensive formal training normally get.
And even though I got accepted into a grad school, I got my butt handed to me on a weekly basis. Long story short, my professors weren't crazy about the idea of their name being associated with a crap student composer who didn't know what he was doing. They WANTED me to succeed--MOST of them, anyway--and they didn't tolerate a lot of garbage from me. I had to learn fast if I wanted to survive grad school, and I ended up composing some really good stuff that I'm still proud of. I don't get to compose the way I used to, and I'm not making a living at it. Now I'm focussing more on something a little more commercial--I've got bills to pay, just like everyone else. The wonderful thing about being put through the wringer like that is developing a critical ear, not to mention an open mind and a desire to ask people for honest, hard-hitting feedback. I've even gotten to know people in record companies and publishing companies--enough to know I'm not interested in their services! I've gotten some wonderful advice from industry professionals that way. In the end, I compose because I love composing. I'm capable of making music that people will enjoy and will purchase, and one of the best ways to know what people will buy is to just ask them. So I've done the research to know what's going to sell. And while between teaching privately, performing, and (hopefully) recording, I'm hoping to support myself in doing something more "art for art's sake," composing purely for the enjoyment of it rather than someone's approval.
And therein is the secret of succeeding in any artistic/creative work, especially writing: You do it because you enjoy it, and the approval of an audience or peers is secondary to the joy of completing the work itself. Getting approval is something you do for reasons beyond the scope of the work, and there's no shame in that, but you do those things for your own reasons in hopes that you improve your ability to do the work and to reach whatever goals you set as a measure of your success.
In short: Just keep writing. Don't stop writing. I suspect the best compositions, songs, and books have this in common: They are not written--they are REwritten. Keep an open mind, always seek feedback, and always take good advice.
My wife's favorite trash romance novelist is Nora Roberts. She started writing pretty much because she didn't have anything else to do…now she writes 8 hours a day, EVERY day, and she doesn't start new projects in the middle of old ones. I suspect I spend 4 hours a day, give or take, composing, and I have 3 different projects going on at once. Everyone is different. But the main thing is work your butt off at it and you definitely WILL get better.
Good luck to you! Can't wait to read more of your stuff!
14 Jan 2014, 5:45 pm
