Called : anguish of the blank page ... This syndrome generally affects some writers.
A lack of inspiration, such as anxiety, lack of courage or self-confidence, fear of failure etc ...
Results ? Motivation and morale at zero !

Even though I'm just a little electronic music lover, sometimes I feel touched by something similar ... No desire, no inspiration, no will ! Nothing !

I want to talk about it and find out how to get rid of ... I think there are people among you who have experienced this ...
People who went through this ordeal and got rid of it ...

Is it possible to share your experience with us ?

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2021

I get this sometimes, but since I have already set aside time to work; I just try to do something productive. watch a tutorial, learn a tool or technique, organize and audition samples, do sound design, etc. if you force it, you most likely waste that time anyway. good time for no inspiration required technical bs. so you are ready when you are "there" to work.

 

Sometimes it's just not today, just chill, go bike, skate whatever...
That Ableton book
"Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music"
has some really nice approaches to avoid that writer's block

 

That's just my opinion but, here it is:
I think it's impossible to be productive all the time without loosing something on the way, maybe loosing some love for creating, composing, making music (it might be all creative processes).

No inspiration is actually a good thing, it's the alarm saying you "for now, do something else and come back later", that the moment you recharge your batteries and feed your brain with fresh/exciting or simply new stuff to tell with notes. I could continue to speak about the feeling this brings to me but I think your already get my point...

It's a bit more complicated when it's your job and you have to deal with the obligation of result, in this case, I try to break things in my creative process and interesting stuff always come up !

Bon courage ! Si ces phases "sans" te posent vraiment problème, je serais ravi d'approfondir sur le sujet, que je pense, tout compositeur ou créateur rencontre à un moment ou un autre. ;)

(Oui je suis passé en français, je viens de relire ton post et "morale at zero" m'a fait me dire que tu étais sûrement français ^^ Si ce n'est pas le cas ça aura au moins le mérite d'être drôle au moment de traduire ;) )

 

sorry but I just wanted to add, it's the perfect time to open up another WIP. give something you already have going a new listen with fresh ears and eyes. there is always some grunt work to get out of the way. color coding tracks, editing stuff like removing silences, joining files, correcting any fades...never-ending.

 

I'm going through a bit of this at this very moment.
There is also an adjacent term, "Horror Vacui" or kenophobia. " Fear of the empty".
It's probably a good time to tend to something else. Once you start to worry about it it just gets worse.
I feel the pressure to DO something, anything all the time. I have about a dozen tracks that I just cannot bring myself to open even though they are not far from being finished.
Procrastination - and it so f**kin tiring. Ask Hamlet.
The best thing these days: "meditation'... Allow the mind to be empty. At least that's the idea...

 

Well, it's very individual for sure, but that writer's block can ranging from annoying to pure dread.

My personal solutions are kind of like chipping pieces of that block using a couple of forced methods, some of which are:

1) Pure engineering/sound design, that is, working at the non-musical side of producing music, crafting sounds, and such.

2) Oblique Strategies, you know, that thing by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. Take the first card and follow it dutifully. (Wikipedia on OS)

3) Being a nerd, I've got several nice dice, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 , 20 and 100-sided ones. Sometimes when I hit a junction point I'll use those to resolve whatever. Things like forcing a time signature (d6+d10/16 or /8) or a scale degree (d8), a percentage of FX mix (d100) and so on.

4) Taking a break and doing something else entirely, letting my subconscious work things through.

Whatever it is, hopefully something works out for you, we all have experienced it and we all know it's a massive pain.

 

in my opinion if you are staring at a blank page it means u have nothing to say..you need to take a break and live a bit more for now

good beats/riffs can also inspire words, sometimes they just fit together

this is from katy perry - firework songfacts

• Perry told Billboard magazine that the inspiration for the song came from an unlikely source. "Basically I have this very morbid idea... when I pass, I want to be put into a firework and shot across the sky over the Santa Barbara Ocean as my last hurrah," she said. "I want to be a firework, both living and dead. My boyfriend showed me a paragraph out of Jack Kerouac's book On The Road, about people that are buzzing and fizzing and full of life and never say a commonplace thing. They shoot across the sky like a firework and make people go, 'Ahhh.' I guess that making people go 'ahhh' is kind of like my motto."

now you could be searching now in books or whatever to find inspiration, but i think it doesn't work like that...it comes to each one differently

 

Accept that you're not always in the mood for the things you think you must do.

Also, accept that you don't always need to be in the mood for doing the things you think you must do. Don't be a slave to your own emotions.

And there's no such thing as a writer's block, since it seems to imply there's something externally going on that you cannot control. Psychotherapists like to name things, and it gives people an excuse for the battle they're experiencing.

It is just your brain, staring at a blank page, overthinking things and being too much aware of itself. Just do it, or do something else and stop worrying. There is no spoon.

This was me going "through it".

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2021

It's a complex topic because it is so very personal. Everyone experiences anxiety in some way or another, but some people are better equipped than others to cope with it.

I've had my share of psychological problems: depression, anxiety, panic attacks, ... The coping strategy I've learned as a child was to avoid problems, not tackling them. That's exactly what happens when I see a blank page in my DAW and decide to launch a game instead.

There are no easy solutions because psychological issues are largely a result of how you were raised as a child: how your parents taught you how to cope with things. Scientific research has shown that the first 4 years of childhood determine for a large part your personality (and issues) as an adult (Bowlby's attachment theory if you're interested). That's pretty crazy when you think about it.

That's why some people are able to cake-walk through life and others struggle to do anything at all. So much for the illusion of free will. Anyway, people suffer anxiety in varying degrees. Not all forms of fear are bad or lead to debilitating issues.

My tips:

• acknowledge that you have not created yourself but that you are a product of your parents and social environment; therefore: be kind to yourself, you are not to blame for who you are
• talk to a psychologist if the anxiety you experience stops you from doing anything important in life (as it was in my case)
  
• meditation and/or sports help; you cannot keep sitting in front of a computer and hope things will get better by just doing that
• set realistic goals; I remember I gave up on music in frustration when I wasn't able to produce a professional result... after my first week in a DAW éver... not sure what went wrong in my head there at the time
• there are lots of books and online tips on how to be productive, these can be useful, but keep in mind that those won't do if you have an underlying psychological problem

Well, I could write a book about this But let's keep it at that.

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2021

I'm glad I posted this topic . Honestly I learned a lot of things .
Your participation and your sincerity are incumbent on me . You all deserve likes . Done . Thank you !

 

Is that what it is called?

Yes, I feel affected since the loss of two hard drive failures.

 

Read this book
https://stevenpressfield.com/books/the-war-of-art/

i didn't read it untill i hit level42. please - nobody - make that mistake. read it today. its a easy read

 

yes i have gone thru this many times so i speak out of experience , however not all of what i've done should be done , you juzz gotta realize that the reason you cannot write a track at a specific moment isnt that you got no talent,life xp , its juzz that life got to you , when you come back from work tired,bills,a wife nagging you dont take her to some exotic island vacation like nextdoor Emma's husband does, or you thinking bout the next kitchen innovation , im not talking bout Jingle music Writing or soundtrack for a movie - steal every and each chord you like of some classical disk chop and paste and cut together on some super multk$$$k studio using violin and whatsoever samples

gotta find inspiration ? listen to the best tracks old and new outside of your prefered musical taste, u listen to men singing like women high pitched voices 14y old girl bedroom room poster pop ? search for best HipHop or Tribal Trance or 90's psychedelic , hidden gems , rythms and beat worth , go outside get yourself as many women in a daytime as you can, life is too short to contemplate settling down,coping with nag , yes be a role model to your kidz if u got any , teach em young that life is a bitch and you die so better make the best of what you got , workout,,gym, make and create, and be stronger than the rest , they all wont give a damn if you end up broken and poor so dont do them the favor

beers,weed,nights and days i woke up in various places and my home not even remembering what occured the 2-3days ago , lol today i woke up with a broken nose again and my eye filled with blood again , probably some fight with some strangers, luckily im still alive,gonna be limping tommorow at work cause i also got my knee all broken up again

make your life unforgettable , cherish each and every beautiful moment you ever had ,its all yours, no need to compare or feel jealous of top10's or ppl that made it , they had other luck other acquaintances other stuff in their life, that doesnt mean your tracks suck and theirs are plat record material , it was juzz a matter of coincidence, your track might of already been a world top 10 if your girfriends sister was f*ckin your local radio station executive producer and youd been heard

tryout new plugins , play around with the myriad of interesting sounds and presets each one have,make beats that get you groovin dancing using some beatmaker like xln xo ,

good luck wid it bruh , wish the same to all of you bros and sisters,keep up the musicmakin!!!