|
January 2010
This months’
newsletter focuses on yet another way LifeJournal can be a tool for
creativity. Peek behind the scenes of how singer-songwriter Lafe Dutton
has used LifeJournal as his songwriting partner in the article below. I
bet his article will give you ideas about your own creative projects!
Facebook: Become a LifeJournal fan and get a free download of LJOP!
I
just finished a two-day eBoot Camp social media workshop with Corey
Perlman. (If you are a small business owner, I emphatically suggest
you go to TheEBootCamp.com.) Corey chided me that I should make better use of the LifeJournal facebook page, so here’s how I’m going to start:
If you aren’t already, I’d like to invite you to become a fan of our LifeJournal facebook page: www.facebook.com/lifejournalsoftware.
Become a better writer!
If you have ever wanted to write better, now is the time to sign up for Sheila Bender’s online class Journal Like the Pros.
This four-week class begins on February 8 —but you do the work whenever
it’s convenient for you. No scheduled classes—just writing exercises,
postings and responses--to do at your convenience. Sheila is not only
a great writing teacher/coach (with 25 years of experience!), but a
published essayist, memoirist, and poet. She knows how to
enthusiastically encourage you and offer suggestions for improvement.
Learn more about this class. (And, if you want to sign up for both the
February and March classes, send me an email and I’ll give you a nice
discount.) Hurry, just a few spaces are still available.
Learn directly from journal writing experts
Last month’s telecast (recorded and now available only to IAJW members) featured Dr. Lucia Capacchione, author of The Creative Journal. She is a pioneer of using non-dominant writing and drawing in your journal. Her techniques are simple yet very powerful!
Our next telecast is on Monday, February 22 with Dr. Beth Jacobs, the author of Writing for Emotional Balance.
This do-not-miss interview will show you how to make progress on your
emotional issues—not just go round and round in circles. Become a member of IAJW and you can sign up for this event!
Wishing you the best in keeping your New Year’s resolution to write consistently in your journal!
All the best,
Ruth Folit
www.lifejournal.com
www.IAJW.org
rfolit@lifejournal.com
Using LifeJournal for Songwriting
By Lafe Dutton
Like
any fiction writing, there are many ways to write songs: lyrics first,
music first, outlining, building off a title and so on. Before she ever
recorded for herself, Carly Simon used to work for a New York
publisher, shlepping into the Manhattan Brill building on Broadway for
an hourly wage packing a heart full of hope.
"Every day we
squeezed into our respective cubby holes with just enough room for a
piano, a bench, and maybe a chair for the lyricist if you were lucky.
You'd sit there and write and you could hear someone in the next cubby
hole composing a song exactly like yours." (Carly Simon, quoted in The Sociology of Rock by Simon Frith.)
I
clump songwriters into two groups: those who write for others, and
those who write for themselves. The first group listens to top 40
radio, analyzes the all important first two lines of popular songs
(Think about your three favorite songs right now: how much information
is there in the first two lines?), and writes the title of the song
first.
The second group, which includes Tom Waits, Bob Dylan
and most singer-songwriters, write from pure inspiration: an overheard
snatch of conversation, a melody line that won't go away, an entire
verse that writes itself in the shower or on the back seat of an aging
taxi to who-cares-where.
I
belong to the latter group, and LifeJournal has been my primary
songwriting partner for more than five years. Having customized the
Topics List, with two clicks of the mouse. Read more>>
End Quotes:
"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work."—Rita Mae Brown
“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.”—Pablo Picasso
"
I will tell you what I have learned myself. For me, a long five or six
mile walk helps. One must go alone and every day."—Brenda Ueland |
