get your juices flowing

I've been spending a little time writing songs again - it's always a time for discipline (with two kids it's mad a lot of the time); of setting time aside to think through melodies, craft lyrics, mull over motives and themes. I want to encourage you, as I encourage myself too - spend a little time every day 'pumping the well' first - allowing your creative juices to get flowing first. 'The Artist's way' is a great book - not a Christian book (by Julia Cameron) - but brilliant in getting you to switch the editor in you off just long enough to get some stuff on the page. She talks about doing 'morning pages' - writing whatever comes to mind, just to start writing. The way I've used this in the past is to go for a walk by the sea and write down what I can see. It always ends in worship! I'm not trying to write songs, or anything really, just trying to describe what's around me, and not tweak and change before I've created. It's one of the most helpful things I've found along the way.