ON WELLS

People in non-creative fields tend to over-estimate the percent of time artists are being fueled by inspiration. It is a nice idea, but in reality (or at least my reality), that happens very rarely. If you want to make art regularly, you need to rely on something else.

I like to think of songwriting (and maybe art in general), like digging a well. There are two primary components to a well (I’ve never dug a real well, maybe there are more. In my wells there are only two); your well should be structurally sound, and it should have water in the bottom. In this metaphor, the structure is how well ~crafted~ your song is, the water is the emotional resonance that the song is presenting. This doesn’t mean a song needs to be sad, just that it needs to connect on some deeper level to a listener.

Can you dig a well that is structurally impeccable that never hits water? Absolutely. Writers in Nashville do it all the time in multi-million dollar studios, where a clever song is often mistaken for a good song. Can you hit water without any structure? For sure. Indie artists the world over fall victim to this, making songs that don’t make any sense but are probably really sad, you just can’t quite tell why. Great background music for TV shows. 

If it’s not already clear, I haven’t fully though out this metaphor, so bear with me. When you begin digging a well, you can’t really tell if there is going to be water beneath you. You just stick your metaphorical shovel into the ground and start digging. Often, when digging wells, you just end up with a lot of holes. It can take a few false starts to find a spot where you’ll hit water. 

That’s OK, because while you’re not hitting water (or a good song, for anyone lost in the metaphor), you are getting big ass shoveling muscles, rippling deltoids that will make the next hole a little easier to dig. As you begin to hit water more often, you develop an internal divining rod to tell earlier in the process of digging the well if there’s going to be water down there.

The problem is that no one has a perfectly accurate divining rod. You can still get lost in the goose chase of digging the deepest, most structurally sound well, but if there isn’t some fresh, potable water in the bottom of it, it’s just a really nice hole. If you do hit water, some people may think, “Perfect, I’ll just dig my next well right next to this one, that way I know there’s going to be water!” but no, who wants a well right next to another well? It’s useless, just like a song that’s too similar to another song. All it does is make them both a little less special. Nope, the next time you want to dig a well, you can’t reuse any of your past water-producing work. You’re starting from scratch every time back at the surface. It can be overwhelming.

Carter, what are the best methods to digging wells? Great question.

I have two tips for well digging. 

1. My approach to digging wells never allow a clean slate. Clean slates are paralyzing and bad. Instead, always have the next start started before the end of the last ending. When I’m coming to the end of a project, I like to pause and begin 3-5 new songs (we’re abandoning the well metaphor now because it’s my blog and I can do what I want). This way, it never really feels like I’m beginning something new, I’m always continuing. Continuing is easy, you just do the same thing you did yesterday. Continuing doesn’t require divine inspiration, it’s just work, and as good as divine inspiration feels, it’s not a good thing to rely on when you need to dig a well.

2. I have a really good excuse to write bad songs (or dig holes). My instagram is full of songs that don’t have any water at the bottom. Most of them didn’t start as songs for instagram, they started as real ideas I had for real songs, but at some point I realized there was no water at the bottom, so I pivoted. Funny songs don’t need to be that structurally sound, or that emotionally resonant (especially if they’re only 30 seconds long). My instagram short songs function as the dumping ground for everything I make that doesn’t quite hold up. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, they just aren’t cut out to be real songs.

The benefit to this has been a shift in mindset. Even the stuff that gets rejected has a purpose; when an idea isn’t working out, I’m not frustrated by the fact that it won’t become a real song, I’m excited that I get to make another short song for social media. 

That’s really all I have to say on the topic, now I have to go dig some wells.

Good luck,

-The Interstellar Tennis Champion (Carter)