Saturday Summary, January 8, 2011

Every Saturday, The Creative will feature a brief post about my current creative efforts and how they are progressing.  If this doesn't interest you, read no further -- not only will I not be offended, I'll never know.  The usual creativity-centric posts will return on Sunday.

This was our first week back to school after Christmas break, which meant three things:

• My free time suddenly dropped.
• My energy levels were zapped.
• My schedule was actually back to normal, meaning I had some time for being creative.

Read on to see what actually happened for me this week.

Music -- I finished a piano arrangement of The Ash Grove, which I'll be playing in church service this Sunday.  My plan right now is to write a piano piece a week during January (when our choir doesn't sing and almost all the music is me on piano).  I figure that's a doable goal, and with a definite deadline and need arising every weekend, perhaps that will keep me on task.

I also came up with my goals for the number of pieces I want to compose in 2011.  I reserve the right to write more in one medium and less in another, so long as my total count is on at the end of the year.  I share this here with you as a way of being held somewhat accountable:

• Handbell pieces -- 20
• Piano pieces -- 20
• Choral pieces -10
• String pieces -- 4
• Band pieces -- 2
• Other instrumental pieces -- 4
• GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60

I've already done my first piano piece, so that's out of the way.  I know I have about five or six handbell pieces I've promised to various publishers this year, so that will take a good chunk out of that row.  I'm really hoping to break in to choral writing, and it seems to me the only way to do that is to write a bunch of pieces, try to improve with each one, and send them out to publishers.  The others are just things I want to try, to see how they go, and because they ought to be fun to do.

Writing -- I've done nothing here, except looking at the site for the agent I sent The Coming of the Heroes to back in August, only to discover they say that if I haven't heard from them in three months, I may need to resubmit it (the implication being that they've lost my manuscript, somehow).  I figure I'll try that here in the next week or two, give them another three months, and then if I don't hear anything, move on to someone else. 

Publishing -- This week saw a whole slew of rejections.  I've had one handbell piece rejected twice this week (once at Choristers, who had had it for a couple months, and once at Jeffers, who had it for about a day), and it's now out at Beckenhorst.  I had a couple of choral pieces rejected at Beckenhorst, and they're now at Lorenz.  I also polished up and sent off the 12 Bell handbell pieces I wrote for my sister, wife, and me to play right before Christmas.  Those are at Choristers, who has, in the past, published 12 Bell stuff. 


That's it from here.  I've got another piano arrangement squarely in my sights, and I ought to have three mornings this coming week where I'm not at school or otherwise obligated somewhere, so maybe, just maybe, I can get two pieces done this week.  I'll keep things updated here in the Saturday Summary.  In the meantime, have a great week, and keep creating!