Writing on Spec

Last week we looked at the fun to be had from writing a piece on demand -- either having a specific person asking for a specific piece, or writing a piece to fill a specific demand or occasion.  Writing on demand can feel quite a bit like a "real job," since you have people (editors, musicians, or audiences) expecting an actual product from you in a specific amount of time.

Then again, since nearly all of Bach's music was written in the knowledge that he or someone else would be playing it in his home church, writing on demand can't be all bad, now can it?

On the flip side of that, though, is writing on spec.  "Spec" stands for "speculation," and in a lot of ways, it's just as risky as some off-shore oil investment with a company that sounds like it just might be the front for some foreign country's mob.  Thankfully, when it comes to creating on spec, we tend not to get involved with organized crime.  However, we do still have to put forth a considerable amount of capital up front -- money for the investment, time and effort for the creation -- without knowing what, if any, result we'll reap from it.

Despite that, writing on spec is still probably my favorite way to write.  I sit down at the computer and keyboard, and I write ... whatever I feel like.  I can write a piece for two octaves of handbells, or two and three, or two through six, or for five handbells and a bicycle tire, or string orchestra and rabid monkey.  I am totally free to let my creativity and imagination run completely wild as I explore and play.

To me, that's really the biggest difference between writing on demand and writing on spec -- writing on demand tends to feel like work (though quite enjoyable work -- don't get me wrong!) while writing on spec really feels like a lot of play.  If a piece starts to take an unexpected turn -- more instruments, more or less difficult than I'd originally imagined, longer or shorter than I'd originally planned -- I can follow it and see where it leads; I can let the piece dictate what comes next.  If I were doing a piece on demand, I'd have to be the strict caretaker, guiding the little piece back to the preordained path when it starts to stray.

With writing on spec, I can throw my clock and calendar out the window.  If it takes me a week to finish a piece, that's great.  If it takes me a month, fine.  If I work on a piece for a year (or, for some of mine coming out this year, off and on for five or six years), that's okay, too.  Since no one is expecting the piece, no one knows if it's taking too long to create.  Of course the down side to this is that no one is expecting it, so I can take longer to create it than I probably should, hemming and hawing over minute details that I ought to just decide about and move on.

The biggest drawback to this sort of writing, of course, is that I never know if a piece is going to be seen or heard by anyone other than me.  When a publisher talks about how they handle "unsolicited manuscripts," this is what they're talking about.  I can (and have) send a piece off to six or eight publishers and had it rejected every time.  That's several hours I spent writing the piece, plus all the time I spent sending it to publishers, that's just gone.  Is it wasted?  Far from it -- in the writing, I learned, grew, and became a better composer ... but it still feels like a waste when I have a piece I composed languishing for want of someone to play it.

To tie everything together -- is one sort of writing (spec or demand) better than the other?  No -- each has its time and place and purpose.  It can help to know which type of writing we're doing, as, at least for me, I tend to think differently about each one.  Whichever one you find yourself writing, just enjoy the process as you go and have fun with it; I mean, come on -- you're creating, for heaven's sake!  What could be better than that?