Making The Dream Come True

There is a great quote that has been running around the Web a bit lately that is really true.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt

A lot of us feel we can't be songwriters because of whatever situation we are in at the moment. There is another anonymous quote that states that people who want to do things find ways to do them, while those who don't really want to make excuses. Which are you? I am assuming that you really do want to write music, or you wouldn't be reading this. Here are a few suggestions of things you might try to get your writing in the public ear you might not have thought of yet, so you can keep moving and not feel you "can't."

YOU CAN WRITE NOW

Forcing yourself to the computer or paper or whatever you like to use is half the battle. Make your writing area something you like being in, or move or clean it until it is. If you think you can't write about anything, what is making you not want to? Write about that, free verse or prose, then back up and make at least one pair of lines rhyme with a simple rewrite. I don't care how poor you are-you can do that. Even if you have to look on the ground until you find a broken pencil or pen and use the backs of old flyers or paper towels from a public restroom, you can write down something. I've seen street people get enough from panhandling to go into a store and buy a pen so they could use the restroom and take a free local underground newspaper on the way out and fill the margins full of ideas for a poem to read at that night's poetry slam so they can sit somewhere and drink a cup of free coffee for participating--you can do that. I've seen people go to jams at local clubs just for the chance to try out new drum loops they'd thought up while their drums were all in the pawn shop, and see how other musicians could work off of them, and they'd worked them up with pencils while on the job that day waiting for the phone to ring while they made a few bucks as a relief receptionist so they could get their kit back soon. I've seen some lyricists submit short, pithy prose and the odd rhyme to newsgroups as exercises then try their hands at submitting to greeting card companies to stay sharp handling rejection, and making a few dollars here and there to save up to put their new album out. If you really want to, you will find a way.

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