A powerful tool that will unlock the hardest-to-reach story inside us
One of my favourite openings in a song is the bass riff in Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer. It’s got passion, power, and punch.
It also shows bucketloads of confidence.
Come on, you lot! Build your song on my chords, Tina Weymouth seems to be saying. So, David Byrne and co. did. And a classic was born.
Isn’t it similar to how the writing process unfolds? We invest significant time, do our research, and take inspiration from what’s around us. Yet, sometimes our blank page remains just that, a blank page.
Oh, would that we had a Tina Weymouth at hand!
Fortunately we don’t have to look far in order to unleash our own take-no-prisoners, raw-sounding bass line. We’re born with it. Confidence is innate. It does need freeing, though.
Here’s a few blocks that get in the way of our creative power:
“I’m just not very good at writing”
“Who’s going to read my drivel?”
“What’s the point?”
“My post is not very exciting.”
Here’s how you turn it around.
How will I know if I’m any good at writing if I don’t take the first step? Start with a short post. A short post starts with a line. Any line will do. Writing is a long-term process. Above all, start.
Your “drivel” is what someone else needs right now. Notice that I said “is”, not “might be”. The former unlocks our confidence, the latter suppresses it. Sometimes we read a piece of literature we didn’t know we needed.
There’s always a point to writing. Whether it is to let it all out or to raise awareness of a subject close to one’s heart, writing is always purposeful. Even when we go off on tangents. Ulysses may well be the most tangent-rich novel ever written. Bloke goes on a walk around Dublin in one day. Along the way he daydreams, meets other people, and remembers. End of the story. Oh, yes, and there’s that famous Molly Bloom soliloquy.
Life is not always exciting. Creativity thrives not when we’re busy engaged in an activity but when we’re idle. Boredom is as necessary as a meadow in springtime is inspiring.
Rein your anxiety in. Anxiety is one of confidence’s worst enemies. Anxiety keeps us in our comfort zone. Confidence gives us the wings to fly out of it.
Allow yourself to be disappointed. Aversion to risk-taking translates as excuse-making. But growth comes from disappointment, from frustration, from setbacks. Learn to love your setbacks. They’re there to show you a different way.
Mess around with words. Another killer baseline, Queen’s Under Pressure, started with John Deacon messing around on his bass. The band went out for dinner and when they came back to the studio Deacon had forgotten the riff. Luckily for him, the band’s drummer, Roger Taylor, remembered it, and the rest is history. Mercury and Bowie slugging it out together on the mic, but the real winner in that song is the bass hook.
So, I say to you. You were born with your own killer baseline. Go out and play it. You, writer, you, your very own Tina Weymouth.