Are you struggling to find enough time to write?
Is everything else in your life crowding out the one thing you want to do the most?
Here are three quick ways to make more time for your songwriting, starting today.
#1 Approach your songwriting as worship. Just like praying or singing worship songs, time spent on your songs each day can be an act of worship, as well. Maybe you’ve never thought about it that way, but your ministry is an act of worship. Any time spent honing your craft is a sacrifice for the potential listeners you can bless with your songs. It’s not selfish to spend time on the melodies and lyrics that can bring healing and a deeper sense of God’s presence to others. Preaching is worship and so is giving. Your sacrifice of praise can be found in daily songwriting.
“Writing from the overflow of inspiration is better than trying to bleed a dry turnip.”
#2 Stop setting aside time to write. Okay, I know… that sounds bizarre! But one of the blockages you feel might be that you have to set aside a specific time to write. That’s not completely true. Yes, more time writing is more time writing. But you may find that creativity soars when you let yourself be a “stealth songwriter,” coming up with ideas and jotting things down all throughout the day. You can always go back later to organize and work out your ideas more fully. Besides, waiting until you can focus completely on songwriting is difficult for most of us. How many times have you set aside time only to feel completely distracted by the other cares of life? Developing the attitude of a songwriter can go a long way towards making the time you do have more productive.
“Your ministry is an act of worship.”
#3 Spend more time getting inspired. Having worked with hundreds of songwriters over my 30+ year career, and from my own experience, I’ve found that many writers fail to fill their creative gas tanks. But trying to write on empty never works. Try setting aside your songwriting for a week or two to just fill your soul with the music, literature, film, and books that truly get the creative juices flowing. Writing from the overflow of inspiration is better than trying to bleed a dry turnip.
“Your sacrifice of praise can be found in daily songwriting.”
When it comes to songwriting, mindset is everything. Frustration over your busy schedule is never productive. But you can approach it with a more positive outlook and get better results as you incorporate these three things into your thinking and actions.
This Post Has 2 Comments
Awesome John -!I ask my husband to invest and give me this for Christmas and we are buying the 397 the Kingdom songwriting this weekend .. but remember I deposited on the coaching ; would that apply to this or will you just hold in deposit until I can really work that larger budget out . I have tried to maneuver and sell things :but I NEED to get started on this . Look for my purchase andnew updated card because I was cc hacked, recently . Thank you . I gave 20 finished songs and 10 unfinished ; 15 idea level w a few notes
Thank you, John! I can’t think of a song that has come, anytime, but worship, unless it was one that brought me to worship (“I am a lily of the valley”)