The Creative

Saturday Summary, January 28, 2012

2012-01-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

Another week gone, another Wednesday post completely forgotten. Perhaps it's time yet again to rethink the frequency of my posts here on The Creative... In the meantime, here's this week's Saturday Summary...

Music -- I spent most of my composing time this week working on some violin solos for Lynne Latham. I'd promised her four new solos by the start of March, so with three of them basically done and high hopes for finishing up the other today, it looks like I ought to meet that deadline with time to spare. After that, I'll turn my sights to some handbell projects I've got on my plate ... but more about those later.

Writing -- I've done a little looking at Fealty and Fire, but I really need to get these composing projects out of the way so I can spend a good, solid chunk of time on the book. Until then, I'll keep working little by little, hoping those little bits of work will keep moving me toward completion.

Publishing -- It's that time of the year when royalty checks start showing up and, more importantly to me, records of how many copies of a piece have been sold. If nothing else, that lets me know how different pieces are faring. I like all of my pieces (I must, since I cared enough to write them), but I have no way of knowing what the music-playing and music-buying public will think of them until I get those statements that let me know how things are going. It's very humbling to look at my spreadsheet where I keep track of that sort of thing and to see that, since Il Est Né was published back in 2007, I've sold over 27,000 copies of music. I know that's far less than a lot of composers, but when I realize that I've only been in this composing "game" for just under five years, I am excited and humbled beyond measure. To all of you who have purchased and played my music, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I also received this week my complimentary copies of my latest release from Jeffers -- an arrangement of For the Beauty Of the Earth, as well as complimentary copies of the upcoming editions of Lorenz's Ring and Rejoice magazine and The Church Pianist magazine, both of which contain at least one of my arrangements (and, in the case of The Church Pianist, two arrangements).

That's all from here. I've still got several hours of composing left to me today, so I'd best go and make the best of them. Have a wonderful week, and happy creating!

Saturday Summary, January 21, 2012

2012-01-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

Another week has come and gone, this one just as fast as the past several. At least this week I can comfortably say I got some work done.

Music -- I spent a fair bit of time working on a large-ish handbell project, then started in on some violin solos with piano accompaniment -- I had sent 3 solos to Lynne Latham a while back, and while she liked them, she wanted more for the set, so I'm finally getting around to getting those written. I need to write three more, and, if all goes well, I ought to have them done by the end of January.

Writing -- While I didn't do any actual writing, I did discover how to get my current rough draft of Fealty and Fire onto my Kindle Fire, so now I can read through and make notations at my leisure. Now, to just find the time to do the work ...

Publishing -- This is sort of the calm before the storm. The newest pieces from publishers have been released, so there won't be anything new coming out for a while, but I know that one of my publishers is having a recording session for their demo CD this weekend, and others will be having theirs soon. It's also getting close to that wonderful time of year when I get some royalty checks, which makes this whole composing thing pay off financially (of course, that's not the only reason I do it, but with a baby on the way, I won't complain about a little extra income). On the whole, things have been very quiet and peaceful on this front this week.

That's it from here. There's snow and ice on the roads outside, so this seems the perfect day to just stay inside, do some composing, and take it relatively easy. Have a great week, and happy creating!

Being Creative Without Purpose

2012-01-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Jason ... and I'm an addict. I realized this the other day, and also realized that a good many creatives (or want-to-be creatives) are in a similar situation.

What's the addiction? The addiction, my friends, is only being creative when you have a purpose, a clear outcome in mind. In my case, I've been fortunate enough that a good amount of the composing I do earns me, to a greater or lesser degree, some financial compensation. When that happens with one or two pieces, it's a nice little bonus; when it happens with forty or fifty, well ... sad to say, you start to look at everything in terms of, "Will this make me some money?"

Even lately, I've been working on a couple of projects that don't have any promise of direct financial benefit, but from their completion I can very easily foresee some other tangible benefit. Even when I write a very simple piece and or a bell tree descant to be used at church -- even when I have no intention whatsoever of pursuing publication -- there is a direct purpose for the creation, namely having music custom-tailored to my performing ensemble or situation.

Also suffering are those who desperately want to be creative, but who feel they must have a Purpose, a Message, a High-Minded Ideal before they are allowed to create. Unable to find this One Right Purpose, they founder, always wanting to create but never allowing themselves to begin because they don't have a reason for the creating.

What's a Creative to do?

Spend an hour on the weekend creating just for fun -- Whether it's writing a poem or two, playing with paints or oil pastels, or even writing a piece of music just for your own listening and playing enjoyment, getting away from the external rewards of our creating reminds us why we're doing this in the first place, and helps renew our spirits for even more creative work.

Ask yourself The Question -- Take twenty minutes and go off by yourself, then ask yourself the Big Question: If I got no reward, no outcome, no money of any sort for my creative work ... would I still do it? Don't allow yourself the luxury of the pat, "Of course, I would!" answer -- really search your mind and heart and find out your true feelings. This isn't a time for blame and recrimination -- it's a time for self-discovery. If you find you don't like your True Answer, realize you can always change how you approach your creativity.

Tell yourself that, even if you do create just for fun, that doesn't mean that creativity won't serve a purpose -- I have pieces of music that I've composed just for fun, pieces I wrote years ago, ones I never dreamed would receive publication. Then, for no reason, I'll pull them out, dust them off, and send them to a publisher ... and, lo and behold!, they get accepted. I have at least two piano pieces that fit this bill, and a couple of string orchestra pieces I'm hopeful will do so very soon. When I wrote the pieces, I wrote them just for fun -- it was nothing more than creative play -- but they are now finding a purpose greater than that with which I created them.

Now, please don't think I'm saying that creating with a purpose is bad -- it isn't. Far from it, much of my creative output has been promoted and guided by having a firm purpose in mind. I think the worry comes when we only create for a purpose, never allowing ourselves the time to use our creative gifts and talents for our own self edification.

Try to find some time this week -- an hour, a half hour, five minutes, whatever -- to do some creating that has no purpose other than the act of creating itself. You may find your creative energy renewed, your creative process rejuvenated, and maybe, just maybe, a new love for the creating you do every day.

Saturday Summary, January 14, 2012

2012-01-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

I'm finding it really hard to believe that it's Saturday again. This past week has just flown by. That usually means -- and this week is no exception -- that not much happened on the creative front. Still, feel free to read on to see just how little happened ...

Music -- I did get a bit of music composed, but not as much as I would have liked. I threw together a couple of short things for my wife's classes at school, as well as worked on a longer handbell arrangement, but otherwise all was quiet. However, with this impending three-day weekend, I'm hopeful I can get quite a lot written before heading back to The Real World on Tuesday.

Writing -- I did an awful lot of reading this week (I lay the blame squarely on my Kindle Fire), but not any writing. I hope to start back with looking at Fealty and Fire before the month is out, perhaps even this weekend, since I've got a bit of extra time to do so.

Publishing -- The biggest (and only) movement I had on this front was the discussion with Bill Ingram where we decided we're going to change the title of my just-accepted arrangement of Now Thank We All Our God to simply Thanksgiving. Other than that, there was nothing at all here.

With a wide-open Saturday looming before me, I'm hopeful next week's Summary will be much more interesting. Have a great weekend, if you're the lucky sort who has Monday off, enjoy it, and happy creating!

Priorities

2012-01-11T10:10:00.000-05:00

I have my hand in a lot of things. I teach school, I teach piano lessons, I direct music at a church, I compose ... and I also have a home life. On top of that, in a very few short weeks, I'll also become a father, putting my proverbial hand into a whole other realm of things.

Now, most of this "busy-ness" is by design: I enjoy doing a little of this and a little of that. My wife accuses me of "flitting" in the evenings -- going from one thing to the next to the next. Indeed, as I write this, I'm watching Nova ScienceNOW on TV, and occasionally stopping to read a bit in a novel or wander off and do something else throughout the house. I've always become bored doing the same thing over and over, so this ability to go from one thing to the next and then back, while probably not the most efficient way to get things done, works for me.

The problem with this approach, however, is that I tend to find myself very easily -- and frequently -- over-committed, or very close to that point. I always manage to get things done (or have, at least, so far), but it does make for some very hectic times. Indeed, I can look now about six to eight weeks out and I see a week-and-a-half period of time where things are very, very hectic, including concerts, church services, classes, lessons, and a round-trip flight half-way across the country to conduct a handbell festival (and a shorter drive from home to conduct another).

Added to all of that, I'm a Creative -- I have my own creative projects I want and need to get done, both composing and writing. I've got a novel I'm trying to finish, and not only do I have pieces I wish to and feel called to compose, but I have pieces that editors have specifically requested, and other pieces I've been commissioned to write.

What this all boils down to is that I've got to be a master of priorities: knowing what to work on and when to work on it to make sure it all gets done when it's supposed to. This isn't always easy.

Some things shoot themselves right up the priority list: if it's Sunday morning at 10:30, no matter what else I have to do, that day's church service has top priority. The same with teaching my students around noon on a school day.

Other things lend themselves quite easily to dropping down the priority list: anything that is listed as "optional," at least for me, usually reads as, "Only do this if everything else is done first.

With everything else, however, setting the priority level is a matter of guesswork, assumption, and prior experience. I also have to ask myself many, many questions: How much time will this project need overall? Is it better to dabble at this a little at a time over the course of several weeks, or sit down and try to knock it out in a weekend? If it's a creative project, do I need to allow for time after I'm done and before it's officially due to make corrections and changes?

Once I've assigned a priority level, the questions don't stop: Is it better to work on the first thing that's due even though it's a huge project, or to quickly knock out several smaller things so that I don't feel like there is so much looming over me on my to-do list?

I'd love to say I've come up with the perfect solution to all of this ... but I haven't. Truth to tell, I'm not sure I (or anyone else, for that matter) ever will. What I do know is that the simple fact of assigning priorities and thinking about how much and what quality of time a project requires makes the deciding much simpler when I do sit down to work. Even the simple act of making a list of projects and their due dates (whether official or self-imposed) can make the process run more smoothly.

What all this means is that I often have to sacrifice things I enjoy doing to do the things I need to do: giving up an hour or two of television of an evening to compose or proof a score is not an unheard of thing. Even then, it's about priorities: it's more important to me to get a piece of music or a novel created and out in the world than it is for me to have the short-lived enjoyment of watching a program or two on television.

As you go through this next week, look at everything you do, and ask yourself just what sort of priority it really is to you. Often, we do things that aren't high priority because they're easier, and humans, by and large, will take the path of least resistance. See if you don't need to reevaluate your priorities and spend your time on something different.

Your creative life may just thank you for it.

Saturday Summary, January 7, 2012

2012-01-07T08:00:00.023-05:00

The first week of the year was a fairly productive one for me, surprisingly enough. I hope it bodes well for the rest of the year.

Music -- I finished up an arrangement of "Now Thank We All Our God" for handbells and thought about working on a couple of other pieces. Despite having very little time, I still feel like I got a good amount accomplished. I have some other things to get to next week, and I'm optimistic I'll have the time to get to it all.

Writing -- Again, nope, nothing here. Hopefully soon.

Publishing -- Now, a lot of good things here. First, I finished proofing both my upcoming string orchestra arrangement of "Twas In the Moon of Wintertime" and my upcoming handbell arrangement of "Go Tell It On the Mountain." Very few corrections on either one, so that's always a pleasant thing.

Then, I had not one but two pieces accepted this week: the aforementioned arrangement of "Now Thank We All Our God" and an original handbell piece entitled "Elation." I also moved some other pieces around out in the world, so I hope to hear some more good things in the near future.

That's it from here. Have a great week, and we'll see you all back here on Wednesday!

Making Lemonade

2012-01-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

As I write this, I'm an hour away from a doctor's appointment that will, I'm fairly sure, confirm that I woke up this morning with pink eye. Now, this was not something I asked for, encouraged, or ever dreamed would happen to me, today of all days, but nonetheless, there it is.

I had grand plans for today. For starters, I was going to go in to school to teach, and after school was going to teach some piano lessons. That's out the window.

I had a couple of errands I was going to run at other times throughout the day. Yep, those are shot, too.

What I've got is an eye that itches and goes blurry from time to time, and the inability to go pretty much anywhere in public because most folks don't want what I've got.

To me, this seems the perfect case of life giving me lemons. I wanted a nice piece of chocolate, I got a fat pile o' sour lemons; I wanted to go teach and run my errands, I've got to stay home.

All too often, we take these setbacks and allow them not just to set us back, but to totally derail us, throw us off our path, hurl us to the ground. They don't need to do so. We can take those lemons and make some lemonade ... but we've got to bring our own proverbial sugar.

Yes, I can't go anywhere, but I can use this extra time to get caught up on some things here at home. I can sit at my computer and send some much-needed correspondence. I can proof some scores that I've needed to look over for a while. I can even compose a little bit, all the while resting, drinking plenty of fluids, and stopping to nurse and baby my eye when and as it needs it.

The strange thing about "life lemons," though ... even though they may feel like they totally knock us for a loop, they're often exactly what we need to stay on track, if only we'll look at it. Yes, I would very much have liked to go to school today, but having this extra time at home will let me get done several things that, quite frankly, I had no clue when I was going to find the time to do them. I've been staring at my white board here in my office and shaking my head at all I have to do with pretty much no time to get it done ... and now life has given me the means to do it (though I would have loved if it could have done it in a more pleasant and less disgusting way).

What it all boils down to -- in life, in creativity, everywhere -- is that our circumstances don't define us; we define our circumstances. I can look at a case of pink eye as either a problem and inconvenience, or an opportunity. The same goes for any other situation in which I find myself.

The next time you have something go horribly awry in your life, ask yourself if you're going to make it something that ruins your day, or an opportunity just waiting to be seized.

Saturday Summary, December 31, 2011

2011-12-31T10:07:00.000-05:00

Welcome to a special Year End edition of the Saturday Summary. This one ought to be a bit longer than most as I take stock of what this past year held for me, and look ahead to what I hope to accomplish in the future.

Music -- I guess the first place to start is with my goal for the year, and how many pieces I had left to write to reach it:

Handbell pieces -- 20 -2
Piano pieces -- 20 9
Choral pieces -10 9
String pieces -- 4 0
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 22

I wrote more handbell pieces than I had planned (which I'm actually just fine with), but not nearly enough of anything else. The 38 pieces I wrote this year is the fewest I've written in the past few years. I did have a couple of other "pieces" I did, mainly for our Christmas concert and Christmas Eve and Day, but since they're not the sort of thing I ever plan on trying to publish or have played outside of my church, I'm not including them in the numbers.

So where do I want to go from here? Thirty-eight is a respectable number, but I'd like to write more next year, at least 40. I might have to temper that number a bit since my life will undergo several very drastic changes in the coming twelve months. For now, we'll say the goal is 40, and go from there.

I also really want to get more heavily into string orchestra and piano music, and really want to try to break into band music. As much as it pains me, I may put choral on hold for now and focus my energies on instrumental. As always, though, I'll pretty much follow where my creative desires call me.

Writing -- This was the year that saw me finally self-publish The Coming of the Heroes, the first book in my Sadonian Chronicles. (For any of you looking for an after-Christmas gift for you or someone you love, the print version is now just $9.99, and the Kindle and electronic versions are only $.99!) I also spent a fair deal of time editing and trying to get the second book ready, though a December release deadline just got totally away from me.

Where do I go from here? Well, I'd like to have Fealty and Fire available for purchase by mid-March, but again, we'll have to see how things go. Also, after the receipt of a Kindle Fire for Christmas and exploring the Kindle store extensively, I'm also toying around with the idea of trying to write some shorter, non-serial things, mainly for the fun of it (I suppose if I had to name a hobby, writing would be it), but also to explore the world of e-books and see just how viable they are as a creative medium. Beyond those goals, we'll see where life takes me.

Publishing -- It was a really good year for me in the Publishing department. Not only did I have close to twenty pieces released this year, but I also had accepted 26 handbell pieces, 10 piano pieces, one string orchestra piece, and some violin solos. I added on three new publishers of my music -- GIA Music, From the Top, and Grand Mesa Music -- and have had my music played by more school groups, churches, and community groups than I can count. To any of you who did program and play my music, just let me say that I'm honored you would choose one of my pieces to play, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

So, where do I want to go from here? Well, the sad thing of music publishing is that there's a very definite progression: write music, get accepted, get published. One of my fears for 2012 is that my smaller number of new pieces written this year will cause me problems on the acceptance and publishing fronts next year. I have enough publishers that work on shorter deadlines than I'm hopeful I can still keep a goodly number of pieces coming out in the next year or two, but I already worry there are one or two publishers who may go a year or more without one of my pieces in their catalog. I know that's not the end of the world, but at least on a sort of personal-private-goal level, I had hoped that wouldn't be the case for quite some time. I already know, however, that I've got at least a bit of "job security" as I have a couple of pieces I've promised editors, as well as a commission or two looming, so I don't think my composing career is in jeopardy just yet, thankfully.

From a professional standpoint, 2011 was a very good year. Tomorrow is the day I start trying to make 2012 an even better year. I already know it's going to be a year of big changes (with our son due to arrive in late March) and big challenges (my first time leading handbell festivals). Tomorrow is also the day I start putting the wrong date on legal documents for about four weeks, but that's a different matter altogether. I know there will be many unknowns and many surprises in store, and I am eager to see what they will be.

To all of you, thank you for another year of being creative and sharing in this whole creative journey. I wish you a blessed and creative 2012.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2011-12-28T10:22:00.000-05:00

As hard as it is to believe, another year is drawing to a close. For many, this is a Big Deal, frequently because it involves dressing up, going out, and drinking champagne at midnight. Sadly, it also heralds several weeks of putting down the wrong date on checks and other documents.

Personally, I've never been a big fan of time and the arbitrary nature of how we measure it, but over the past several years, the end of one year has become a Big Deal for me, as well. The end of anything is a great time to reflect on and assess what has come before, and the start of a venture is a great time to plan, dream, and set goals. The approach of New Year's Day is a unique opportunity to do both at the same time.

Every year around this time, I've sat down -- formally or informally, as the mood has taken me -- and done some simultaneous reflection and goal setting. This is not like making resolutions, which for nearly everyone are vague, "You know, I oughtta _______" types of statements. These goals rise out of the triumphs and failures of the previous year, and are tempered by my own increasing personal knowledge of what I'm capable of doing.

With that in mind, I invite you to do the same. I've outlined the steps below. This can be as informal as taking two minutes to think about this while you're driving, or as detailed as copious notes hand-scrawled on voluminous sheets of paper.

Looking Back

What went right this year? What do you want to repeat? -- This can be from the mundane (I did the dishes every day) to the sublime (I won the Nobel Prize for Knitting). It can be from the specific (I exercised for precisely fifteen minutes every single day of the year) to the generic (I never felt unhappy at work). Answer this question for all facets of your life -- your career, your finances, your personal life, your hobbies and interests ... everything.

For me, this was a really good year all around. I had more handbell pieces accepted than last year, more piano pieces accepted, plus a second string orchestra piece and several violin solos. I edited and self-published my first book. My wife and I found out we'll be expecting our first child. As a result, our finances are doing really well, primarily in the form of a nice fund we're building up to both handle unexpected baby expenses and to buy a second car when baby comes. Mi estudio de español va muy bien, también. Todavía tengo muchas cosas a aprender, pero es un buen comienzo.

What went wrong this year? What do you NOT want to repeat? Were there any catastrophic failures this year? Anything that, if it's all just the same, you want to make sure never happens to you again? Was there anything you tried that just fizzled out? Was there anything that happened that, while it may not be directly your fault (a layoff, a robbery), you might be able to help guard against in the future?

I've learned I don't enjoy T-boning another car on a country road while driving nearly forty-five miles an hour. Yes, it wasn't my fault, so not only did my insurance rates not go up, but when they totaled the car we were able to purchase another brand new Civic (complete with warranty) for about $1000 out of pocket, but the trouble, hassle, months of extra chiropractor appointments ... just not worth it.

Was there anything that, while it wasn't exactly a failure, didn't quite live up to your expectations? Some endeavor your tried that fell a little short? Some financial or weight loss goal that you didn't reach? Some aspect of your relationships that, while not bad, could have been better?

I didn't write nearly as many pieces this year as I had wanted. I had grand goals for how much I was going to compose, and it just never materialized. In fact, though I got more published this year, it was a direct result of how much I composed last year -- I actually wrote fewer pieces this year than I did last year. My novel didn't sell as well as I would have liked, partly because I think I priced it too high, and partly because I had (and still have) no idea how to promote it. These are things I'd like to fix in the coming year.

Looking Forward

What do you want to repeat this coming year? What steps can you take to make sure that happens? Did your exercise program go well because you worked out with a friend? Did your career go well because you teamed up with the right people? Did your credit card bills stay low because you tracked your spending? Even though we can't control every aspect of our lives, what actions can you repeat that will help ensure that what happened before happens again?

I'm really pleased with so many of the personal relationships I've built this year, especially with many of my musicians at church, and with many other musicians in the handbell community at large. I'd like to keep those relationships strong by staying in touch and continuing to help those people out in whatever ways I'm able.

What would you rather not repeat? What steps can you take to try to prevent that? Did you lose a job? Did you mess up a relationship with a friend or family member? Did your side business fizzle? What can you learn from that to avoid repeating your missteps?

I've learned never to trust other drivers out on the road to behave as they always ought. Even though my car accident was just that -- an accident -- I might have been able to avoid it if I hadn't expected the other car at the cross street to stay stopped at its stop sign. Yes, a stop sign means stop, and cross traffic had the right of way ... but if I had been a bit more cautious and not put my fate in the mystical powers of a large, red, octagonal sign to hold vehicles at bay, I might still be in my beloved blue Civic instead of my new red Civic.

What do you want to improve this year? What can you learn about your tiny mistakes and unrealized plans? Did your weight loss plan not go so well? Why? Was it because you never exercised, or you refused to give up your daily triple venti mocha with whip? Was your career not as successful as you wanted? Did you really give it your all ... or is it maybe not as big and important a part of your life as you thought it was?

For most of us, this is the area we struggle with the most. For most of the time, our lives go more or less where we want them to, just maybe not exactly as we want them to. It's learning from the little mistakes and problems along the way that help us redirect the sailboat of our lives and head once more where we wish. The things we want to change here aren't failures ... but they're not our biggest successes, either.

I've got so many here that I can't list them all, but I'll give a few. A big one for me is how much I composed. I had great plans that never panned out. I still wrote (and more and more I'm writing because a specific person or publisher has asked for a piece, which I like), but not as much as I have in previous years. The biggest culprit was time. I think if I start saying, "No," more in other areas of my life, I can free up some of the time that's important for my creating, both composing and writing.

I've also found myself spending more and more time on things that either aren't important to me, or else aren't as financially valuable as other things, and part of my plan for the coming year is to weed out some of those activities in favor of ones that well help propel me where I want to go in life.

I feel like I've done a respectable job of getting myself and our life here at home ready for the coming of our child, but I know there's still more to do. I know I can never be totally ready, but I want to make sure that, when the time comes, I'm as ready as I can be.

I've also let my health and weight go this year. I haven't gained two hundred pounds or anything like that, but with all the other demands on my time, fitness is something that's gone out the window. I want to spend more time this coming year trying to help keep this body in good enough shape that it will let me keep composing, writing, and creating for many more years to come.

I wish you all luck in the coming days with your reflections and resolutions, and even more luck in the coming year creating the life you want to have. Blessings to you all, and Happy New Year.

Saturday Summary, December 24, 2011

2011-12-24T12:33:00.000-05:00

It's been an absolutely insane couple of weeks here. My hope is to get things back on track starting next week, but in the meantime, I'll try to sum up the past several weeks here ...

Music -- Aside from quite a bit of last-minute writing of pieces for my various groups at church, I've just finished an arrangement of "Now Thank We All Our God" for handbells, and have started some work on a couple of other pieces. The next week looks to be fairly free, so as a belated Christmas present to myself, I'm going to grant myself the time to actually do some composing before school starts back up in January.

I've also played an insane amount of music these past few weeks. From church services to school programs to our church's Christmas concert last weekend, I've probably spent a good fifteen or twenty hours over the past month doing nothing but playing non-stop Christmas music. I know I'm not alone in this -- most musicians do just as much if not more -- but let me tell you, it can, at times, make you never want to hear another Christmas carol again.

Writing -- I've thought about working on revisions on Fealty and Fire, but haven't actually done any.

Publishing -- Several of my newer works are showing up on publishers' and retailers' sites -- check Handbell World or J.W. Pepper to find them, see samples, and hear recordings.

I also received word just a day or two ago that Grand Mesa Music will be publishing my string orchestra arrangement of The Huron Carol. That's only my second string orchestra piece in publication, and another brand new publisher. Exciting times!

I think that's about it from here. Now that performance season is winding down, I'm hopeful that my creative season can ramp back up. I've got several projects on my plate for the coming weeks and months, and I'd much rather get them done sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, I wish you all safe travels, fun times with kith and kin, and the very merriest of Christmases. God bless us, every one.

Maintaining Energy

2011-12-14T09:13:00.000-05:00

There's no other way to put it: it's "That Time" of year. The holiday season is a hectic time for nearly everyone (perhaps with the exception of the very young, who are a cause of a good deal of the hecticness). Between upcoming vacations and holidays and trips, the end of one year and the start of the next, parties to attend, events and concerts to watch, gifts to buy and wrap and deliver and receive ... it's enough to make anyone crazy.

For musicians especially, it's worse. Far worse. We have the same demands on our time as everyone else ... but for some reason at this time of year, people expect us to become trained monkeys, performing on command and as frequently as possible to help add to The Holiday Cheer. I am down now to just five musical events for which I am either performing, waving my arms, organizing, or all three. Just a week ago, that number was eleven.

So, how do we musicians keep our energy up -- physically, mentally, emotionally -- at this time of year?

Physically

Sleep -- It is so easy in all the insanity to forgo our proper amount of sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you open yourself up to a host of problems, from mistakes and emotional trauma caused by fatigue, to a decreased immune system and illness.

Eat, and eat healthy -- Many are the day where I have so much going back-to-back-to-back that just skipping a meal is all to easy (or, I'm so busy that I simply forget that I need to eat). Then all too often when we do eat, we hit the nearest fast foot joint for whatever greasy concoction is both cheap and possible to eat while piloting a moving vehicle. Introduce some fruit and veggies into your day, eat regular meals at regular intervals, and your energy will stay high.

Drink -- And I don't mean the sort you have to be over twenty-one to have (that's for after the season's over). Not getting enough fluid -- and especially water -- in your system is a recipe for exhaustion and that run-down, I-can't-make-my-brain-work feeling. Stay hydrated.

Mentally

Do all of the above -- Everything you can do physically for your body will also help you emotionally: eating regular meals, staying hydrated, and getting adequate sleep. If your body's physical needs aren't met, your mental needs won't be met, either.

Take a little bit of down time every day -- Even on my most hectic days, I find a half hour of an evening to sit and watch an episode of some sitcom or other, something that I'll enjoy and have a couple of good laughs over ... and that will allow me to relax. Much of what goes on for us this holiday season is stress-inducing. If we don't give our brains a little chance to relax, the stress will eat us alive. Face it -- at the end of a long day, your brain is already nearly shut down already, so what else can you really accomplish? Take that little bit of time for some brain-care, and everything will go smoother the next day.

Keep your materials with you at all times -- This one is a pain, but right now, I have every piece of music I'll need to play in the next two weeks in a burgundy tote bag that I am carrying around with me everywhere I go. I never know when I'll have an unexpected fifteen or twenty minutes where I can practice a piece, look over and plan my conducting, or even work on the program for a concert. If I don't have it with me, I'll be kicking myself for "wasting" this unexpected gift of time.

Post-it notes are your friends -- Even if you buy generic, keep a handy supply of sticky notes on hand. Right now, I've got three stuck to the keyboard in front of me, each reminding me in very visual fashion of one activity that I need to accomplish in the near future. It may be something I can't do right now, or it may be something more involved that I need to be working toward little by little. Regardless, using these little notes helps keep me on track and make sure that when I remember at 1:00am that I need to call someone to organize something, I'll also remember it when the call's recipient will be a little more receptive ... and awake.

Emotionally

Do all of the above -- Just like your mental needs can't be met if your physical aren't, your emotional needs won't be under your control unless you have yourself sorted around physically and mentally. Anything that helps keep your mind fresh and able to do all the things it needs to do will help keep your emotions on track.

Learn that not everything is under your control -- There are going to be so many things that are beyond your control, despite your best efforts. You can bring your ensembles together, rehearse them, badger them, complain to them ... but you can't control how much they work on the music on their own, or how prepared they are. You need to learn that you can only do so much ... and then leave the rest up to luck. Or fate. Or faith. Whatever you leave it up to, just realize that you can't control everything.

Find some compliments and treasure them -- I've received a lot of compliments this season: compliments about music I've performed, music I've written, and music where I've done nothing more than wave my arms at some other musicians. These compliments mean so much to me, because they let me know that, even when I start to wonder why I'm doing all this or wonder who cares that I'm doing it, that there IS a good reason for me to do this, and that people DO care.

I also have enjoyed seeing comments and compliments people have made about other people's music. I'm on a mailing list with a bunch of handbell "people," and the number of compliments about concerts and pieces flying back and forth has just been incredible. Even though I have nothing to do with these pieces or performances, it does help to remind me why WE all do this, all of us musicians. They say that when words fail, music speaks ... and all these compliments remind me of just how true that really is.

For those of you fellow musicians out there, I hope you're all surviving your last couple of weeks before Christmas. Hopefully you found something here to help keep the energy up, the mind focused, and the emotions from getting the best of you. Until next time, good luck, keep the faith, and (when you find the time) keep on creating!

Saturday Summary, December 10, 2011

2011-12-10T09:01:00.000-05:00

It must be the Christmas season when I totally spaced -- again -- writing a Wednesday post. I have one event firmly crossed off my "list of events I'm playing at this season," though there are still about 9 left before I sit down to brunch on Christmas Day, so I've got the molehill behind me and the mountain ahead. (That is how that metaphor works, isn't it?)

Anyway, here's what creative work I managed to cram in this week:

Music -- I took a break from working on an arrangement of There's a Song in the Air to quickly throw together a twelve-bell arrangement of Away in a Manger for our church Christmas concert. The other title our handbell trio was going to do is being done elsewhere in the concert (violin instead of handbells), so we needed a different title to play. I was just so thankful this week for the blessing of being able to write a piece of music like that when we need it, instead of frantically trying to search around for something at the last minute.

Writing -- Nope. Nothing. Nada. Don't look for anything here until at least after the weekend of the 18th.

Publishing -- I received my complimentary copies of Lead On, O King Eternal from AGEHR, as well as a nice rejection letter from Alfred on a couple of string pieces I sent them. Those pieces will be on their way to look for a new home before I leave for rehearsals this afternoon.

That's about it from here. I think my Wednesday morning is clear, so I'm hopeful I can get up an actual normal blog post ... though if things have gone too crazy and hectic, don't expect one this week, either. Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas season thus far. We'll look for you back here next week.

Saturday Summary, December 3, 2011

2011-12-03T12:13:00.000-05:00

It must be the holiday season when I don't realize until Saturday at noon that I forgot to do a Saturday Summary blog post ... or a post the previous Wednesday, either. Chalk it up to the insanity of the season.

Music -- Most of the little I've worked on this week has been extra touches for our upcoming Christmas concert at church on Sunday, December 18. It should be a wonderful afternoon of singing and ringing and playing, so anyone in the Indianapolis area who wants to stop by Irvington United Methodist Church on Sunday the 18th at 4:00, we'd love to have you for our concert.

I have a few things to work on in the coming days, but at this point it's hard to say what I'll actually accomplish. Check back next week to find out what I actually managed to finish...

Writing -- Wednesday was the last day of National Novel Writing Month, and yet again, I made my 50,000 word goal, if just barely. By the end, I absolutely loathed my novel -- probably went hand-in-hand with starting on the first of November with no idea what I wanted to do with it. Still, I met my goal, my students at school did an amazing job (nearly 700,000 words written by 150 3rd through 6th graders in one month), and I have another eleven months before I need to figure out what I'm writing next time.

Publishing -- I got an email from Bill Griffin, and it looks like I've got several more coming out in the coming releases with Beckenhorst. In May, they'll be releasing Fum, Fum, Fum; Sleep in Heavenly Peace (a very nice Silent Night arrangement that my church choir is doing this year -- come to our Christmas concert on December 18 for an advanced listen!); and Steadfast Assurance, an original that holds the title of my most-rejected piece. I'm so glad it's finally found a home!

Then, next fall, they'll release their Spring 2013 pieces, which will include In the Garden; Were You There? (which will be premiered at the Capital Area Young Ringers' Festival in Raleigh, NC this coming February); and Nocturne, another original piece.

I also received a contract from Jeffers for my upcoming arrangement of For the Beauty of the Earth. I think that one will be released in the next six months or so, but again, I usually know when I get either my composer's copies or the promotional CD and booklet.

That's about it from here. It's back to Finale for some more frantic and frenetic composing and arranging. Hope you all have a great week. Don't look for a post Wednesday ... well, probably not any Wednesday in December, actually. If time presents itself, I'll post, but until then, happy creating!

Saturday Summary, November 26, 2011

2011-11-26T08:54:00.000-05:00

Today's summary is going to be quite short. Because of Thanksgiving week, I've done next to nothing, save add quite a few words to my novel for NaNoWriMo (which, to be honest, at this point I don't really care about at all, but have decided to reach my 50,000 word goal just out of sheer stubbornness). I'm still behind where I'd like to be for the month, and will need to pick up the pace to finish on time, but I'm determined to get there no matter what.

Other than that, it's been a quiet week. I hope to have more next week since November will be ending and I can, hopefully, get back into something resembling a normal groove once more. Until then, have a fantastic week, and happy creating!

Apprehension

2011-11-23T08:11:00.000-05:00

I think I would best describe my mood this morning as apprehensive. You see, in about an hour, my wife and I will find out the gender of our baby, who is due in late March. This is a source of interest for us both, a source of excitement ... and quite definitely a source of apprehension. What type of clothes will we need to buy? Will we be buying ballet slippers or football pads? Will we be buying Barbies or comic books? Will we be buying in to extremely cliche and out-of-date stereotypes?

The thing is, finding out the gender of our child -- like a great lot of things in our lives, and especially our creative lives -- should not be a source of worry. Why? It's already been decided. All the worry in the world won't change a thing about it right now -- not my worry, not my wife's, not our families' ... nobody's. What we are apprehensive about is the discovery, about actually having that knowledge, no matter the result.

Even though I've now got something like eighty pieces of music accepted by publishers, I still get the same feeling every time I open a letter or email that looks like it might be from a publisher. Did the piece get accepted? Did it get rejected? Will the note be full of snide comments about my inability to adequately modulate between two keys?

The thing is, though, by the time the letter or email shows up, there's not a thing I can do about the outcome! If I had wanted an increased chance of a piece getting accepted, the time for worry and concern -- and action -- was back when I was writing it, not when the editor is giving me a decision. Despite this fact, though, I still get that little twinge in my gut when I click on the email link, wondering what it will say, even though the time for my ability to influence it is long past.

Now, granted, without a lot of genetic manipulation and strange Mystic Rites, there wasn't a whole lot my wife and I could have done to pick the gender of our child. However, being apprehensive at this point about what the gender will be is a waste of energy and a drain on our lives ... yet we do it anyway. This, I'm sad to say, is just plain ol' human nature.

So, what can you take from this? If there's anything in your life you feel apprehensive about, ask yourself, "Can I do anything to change it now?" If the answer is yes, then do it. If the answer is no, then ask yourself when the time for attempting to change things was ... and then next time, make those changes at the appropriate time.

In the meantime, I'm going back to being apprehensive about something I can't change. Sometimes, human nature just wins out.

Saturday Summary, November 19, 2011

2011-11-19T08:26:00.000-05:00

I have been decidedly bad about posting on The Creative these past couple of weeks. I haven't done a single Wednesday morning post (though I've thought about it -- just haven't had the time), something I hope to change starting next week.

Of course, I haven't had much time for doing much of anything else, either -- including my creative work. With it being National Novel Writing Month, and with me helping now four grades of students through the adventure (plus one eager second grader who, despite the fact I'm not providing class time for her to work on it, is still out-writing most of the other students in the school), I'm spending far more time this month being a cheerleader than a creator. Great for the kids, a wonderful feeling for me ... not so good for helping out my to-do list, which is staring at me and sneering from the whiteboard on the wall.

Music -- I worked a little bit on an arrangement of Now Thank We All Our God. There are parts I'm happy with, and other parts I'll probably end up chucking out on their ears. Actually, I'm not even convinced I'm happy with the key I've set it in, so this one might need some major overhauls before it's done.

Writing -- I've done a fair bit of this, but only because it's NaNoWriMo time, and I'm now a little over 6,000 words behind. I hope to play some catch-up today and reduce that deficit by a fair bit, but finding the time to sit down and do it is a hard thing.

I've also come to the realization that the second book in The Sadonian Chronicles, Fealty and Fire, isn't going to be done by December as I had hoped. My new goal is to have it done sometime in the spring -- more updates as I get closer to setting a final date.

Publishing -- I received my proof this week of We Adore Thee! from Alfred. I'll look it over and get corrections back, and then it ought to make an appearance in Spring or Early Summer 2012.

That's about it from here. My hope this weekend and next week is to have some much better news come next Saturday -- a two-day school week next week ought to help that -- and a much more manageable to-do list. I'm starting to get behind on my composing again (not a place I like to be) and even my non-composing tasks are starting to mount. Instead of bemoaning the fact here, though, I'm going to go get busy. I wish you all luck today, as well, in whatever creative endeavors you undertake!

Saturday Summary, November 12, 2011

2011-11-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've written. After a fantastic couple of days last weekend in Raleigh, I returned home this week to a funeral, a Veterans' Day program (neither of which I had practiced for before Monday night) and an upcoming church service tomorrow, along with my usual teaching duties and adding in the fun of shepherding my students through their own National Novel Writing Month journies.

Needless to say, not much got done this week, but since it's been two weeks since we've had an official summary, here we go ...

Music -- Right before leaving for Raleigh, I finished up a couple of pieces I sent off to Bill Griffin at Beckenhorst for his consideration: Sleep in Heavenly Peace (a nice arrangement of Silent Night that I think turned out really well); In the Garden (a fairly straightforward version of the piece); and Nocturne (an original that ought to come in around a 2- level, give or take -- nothing too difficult, though there are some bell changes).

I've got several projects lined up to work on in the coming weeks, but who can say when I'll be able to get to them. None should pose too much difficulty, other than the difficulty of finding the time to accomplish them.

For those keeping score, here's the current count on the year:

Handbell pieces -- 20 -1
Piano pieces -- 20 9
Choral pieces -10 9
String pieces -- 4 0
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 23

Yes, I've gone over my 20 handbell pieces, but on the whole, I consider that an okay thing.

Writing -- Most of my free time the past week and a half or so has been spent working on my National Novel Writing Month novel, a strange modern-day sort of Arthurian story. I'm not sure anything good is going to come of it, but it's fun to write for now, and I always like the yearly reminder that even insane projects with unrealistic deadlines are doable.

I've also pretty much decided that the second book in the Sadonian Chronicles, Fealty and Fire, will not be released in December. There's just still too much to get done on it to have it ready in the next two to six weeks, so we'll push the release date back to the spring. That ought to be more reasonable ... I hope.

Publishing -- There's been no major movement here, other than some checks coming in. I know my pieces are showing up on publisher and retailer sites and are available for purchase, so that's a good thing, but at least lately, there's been no more yeas or nays on any pieces. As busy as the week has been, honestly, I'm not sure I'd have noticed one way or the other.

That's it from here. This coming week ought to afford me some more creative time, so I'll hope for some better news next week. In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful fall weather, and keep on creating!

Saturday Summary, November 5, 2012 -- 12:30 update

2011-11-05T12:35:00.000-04:00

Things are going really well here at the NC State Fairgrounds. The 500 assembled ringers are putting in some excellent work, and Fred Gramman is an amazing clinician. Can't wait for the upcoming Raleigh Ringers concert (25 minutes and counting) and then the afternoon rehearsals and final concert. Such wonderful folks out here in Raleigh, and especially at the Festival. More later.

Saturday Summary, November 5, 2012 -- Capital Area Handbell Festival Edition

2011-11-05T06:59:00.000-04:00

Not much time this morning for a Saturday Summary (though there is news), since my wife, sister, and I are all getting ready to head out for the Capital Area Handbell Festival here in Raleigh, North Carolina. If it's like last year, I think there's free wireless internet on the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, so I'll do my best to provide updates throughout the day. If I don't, trust that there will be an extra-long Saturday Summary next weekend detailing everything.

In the meantime, have a great day, and happy creating!

Flying By the Seat of Your Pants

2011-11-02T21:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday started National Novel Writing Month 2011. It was my sixth time starting a novel, and for the first time, I had an interesting problem:

I had no ideas.

I got to school, opened my netbook to write, and like some of my students, I had not the first Earthly notion of where my story was destined to go. I had a name floating around in my head, and that was it. Charles was the name, though I've since changed that to Carlton. Not much for the basis of a novel.

But as I stared at the screen, the most wonderful thing happened: ideas started flooding into my head, just when I needed them. I thought, "What if this poor middle-manager type discovers he's actually a medieval hero? More than that, what if he is actually the reincarnation of King Arthur, and he needs to help save the world from annihilation?" As I've continued to write, ideas have come to me, at just the right time, and in just the right way.

Now, this is not going to win any literature awards. Not by a long shot. But is it enough that I can complete the 50,000 word challenge for the month? Yeah, I'm thinking it is.

Oftentimes, we Creatives sit there waiting for the Right Idea, or the Perfect Idea, or the Divinely-Sent Idea. When that doesn't come, we bemoan the fact we have no ideas and do nothing, when we in fact have many ideas, just none that we feel measure up to what we deem "Perfect."

Other times, we fail to start a project because we don't have any ideas at all, "Right" or otherwise. Quite frequently in the creative realms, the work brings forth the ideas, not the other way around.

Whatever project you think you'd like to tackle -- from a 50,000 word rough draft of a novel to a new handbell arrangement to a life-sized sculpture -- instead of waiting for that perfect inspiration to hit you, why not try starting to work with what you have, even if what you have isn't much of anything at all. You just might be surprised when amazing things come forth, ideas you didn't even know you had, and never would have found if you hadn't just sat down and done the work.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a novel to finish...

Saturday Summary, October 29, 2011

2011-10-29T09:54:00.000-04:00

It's been a good creative week here, and, despite a brief run-in with the stomach flu, a good week overall. Read on to hear the latest...

Music -- I finished up a brand-new handbell arrangement of Silent Night this week, entitled Sleep in Heavenly Peace. It's a nice, peaceful arrangement, and on the whole, I'm pretty happy with it. I then got most of the way through a handbell arrangement of In the Garden. It's still in the rough draft stage, but I'm hopeful that if I can find a good couple of hours to work on it today, I can bring it on through to completion.

Writing -- I've started formatting Fealty and Fire to be printed by CreateSpace. I still don't have all the comments and corrections in, but I can make the changes no matter the size of the book.

I'm also gearing up for National Novel Writing Month, which starts Tuesday. After much soul-searching, I think I'm going to work on the rough draft of one of the later Sadonian Chronicles books. I had vowed never to do this in November, but I just don't have any other ideas that even remotely interest me. I suppose I could just take a flying leap and make something up off the top of my head ... hmm. We'll see what transpires.

Publishing -- I believe Tammy Waldrop at Alfred is pretty happy with the new arrangement of Go Tell It On the Mountain I sent her (the email was short and complimentary, and since it didn't end with "... but we won't be publishing it.", I'm going to assume it's good news). That one, and the arrangement of the Ode to Joy, entitled We Adore Thee!, should be out from Alfred around the middle of next year (unless I've got my production schedules all messed up again, which, let's face it, does happen).

I've also discovered that it seems I'll have five new releases from Beckenhorst Press this time around. I guess my arrangement of Gustav Holst's Thaxted (the slow part of "Jupiter" from The Planets), entitled I Vow to Thee, My Country will be out in the next month, as well. I thought it was a little crazy to have four pieces released at a time back in May, but it looks like I just out-crazied that. I'll be sure to post when audio samples are available, but in the meantime, if you want to buy them sight-unseen, they're up on the Beckenhorst Press site, as well as at J.W. Pepper.

I also received a contract this week from Lorenz for three more of my piano pieces, including two original compositions (not arrangements). That brings up to 14 the total number of piano pieces I've had accepted for their Church Pianist magazine, and, if I read the shorthand right, I should have at least one piece in every issue of the magazine from January 2012 through January 2013.

That's it from here. My creative work will be curtailed a bit at the end of this coming week as I travel to Raleigh, North Carolina for the Capital Area Handbell Festival. Fred Gramman is the conductor, so it promises to be a wonderful afternoon of music-making. I still hope to post some updates throughout the day from the fairgrounds, and the regular Saturday Summary will be back the following week.

Until then, have a fantastic and creative week!

Interruptions

2011-10-26T10:19:00.000-04:00

It never seems to fail: you get working, nice and settled in your creative groove, when all of a sudden -- BAM! -- there's an interruption in what you're doing.

My interruptions this morning come from a pair of handymen who are doing some work around the ol' homestead. We have a drippy tub faucet and a door that won't lock properly, so they're here making it all right (since it would take me a good couple of days and an awful lot of counting-to-ten episodes to have the same result they can achieve in just a few hours). It's stuff that needed to get done, and I'm glad it is ... I just wish it didn't have to interrupt my creative time.

The rest of the week doesn't get any better. I'm at school all day tomorrow, and then just had a meeting scheduled for Friday morning. Bang go another couple of mornings of work.

So how is a creative to get done everything he needs to? Quite simply, by repeating this simple mantra:

My creative work is important work.

How many of us, deep down, feel like the time we spend doing creative work is free time, negotiable time, down time? If we were at our "real" jobs, our 9-to-5 jobs, we'd never dream of giving in to an interruption such as a handyman visit or a friend coming to call. Yet for our creative time, it seems all too easy to abandon the creative work we're doing and go off to do whatever else calls for our time.

My creative work is important work.

Is it? Is it really? Of course your creative work is important, otherwise why would you be spending time on it? Yes, it may sure feel like play, but what you are doing is no less that answering a deep calling from your soul, a cry from your most authentic "you" to help it figure out who you really are and what this world is really all about. They may say the meeting at work is important, but compared to helping your soul define itself? There's no comparison.

My creative work is important work.

How often I finish a period of composing -- be it ten minutes or two hours -- and I'm exhausted, mentally and, occasionally, physically. I don't get mentally exhausted when I stare at the TV. I don't get physically exhausted when I'm talking to a friend. If something that tires me mind and body can't be called "work," then I don't know what can. If my composing, my creative output, meets that definition of "work," doesn't that make it just as important as any other bit of work that calls for my time?

So what do we do when something else does call for our time and attention? It's hard to do, and sadly it won't work every time, but try to do what you would do for any other job you have. If you were at your desk in your office at work and a friend wanted to just chat, what would you tell them? "I can't right now. Maybe later." Do the same for your creative work.

Do you schedule meetings in an appointment book or on a calendar? Do the same for your creative time: if Wednesday morning from 9:00 till 11:00 is blocked out as "Composing," it's a lot harder to put anything else in that slot.

For some of us, more and more our creative work really is that -- actual, honest-to-goodness, paid work. Granted, I don't make as much from composing as I do from some jobs, but it's no longer a negligible amount, the sort I might expect in a Christmas check from a relative. As my composing becomes more and more financially viable to me, it becomes even easier to put aside other so-called "obligations" in favor of doing work that is "legitimate" in both a spiritual and fiscal sense.

So the next time someone or something tries to interrupt your creative time, step back and ask yourself just how important your creative dreams are to you. Don't let interruptions completely derail the train of your creative goals.

Saturday Summary, October 22, 2011

2011-10-22T09:45:00.000-04:00

After a good day of handbell ringing last Saturday, I'm now officially a week behind on my Saturday Summaries. I'll do my best to catch everything up here ... but no promises.

Oh, and should I repeat myself, I hope I'll be forgiven ... it's been a crazy couple of weeks. (Aren't they all?)

Music -- I finished up my assignments for Tammy Waldrop at Alfred: a level 1 arrangement of Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee, and a level 3 arrangement of Go Tell It on the Mountain. I've got another couple of handbell pieces I need to work on in the coming weeks before turning my attention to some other musical things around the first of the year.

Here's our status update on the year:

Handbell pieces -- 20 2
Piano pieces -- 20 9
Choral pieces -10 9
String pieces -- 4 0
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 26

Am I going to get those last 26 pieces written in the next 9 weeks? Almost certainly not. Will I be able to polish off another category or two before the year's done? Almost certainly.

Will my Handbell Pieces number drop into negative digits because I wrote more than 20 this year? I'm sure hopin' so.

Writing -- National Novel Writing Month starts up a week from this Tuesday, so I plan to spend most of today getting myself organized for that fun event. I also (and this isn't technically writing, but it's closer right now to writing than anything else) need to get myself organized to submit a proposal for a couple of classes I'd like to teach at the Handbell Musicians of America National Seminar next July. I hope to have that proposal finished by today (it's about half-way there right now) so I can finally cross that off my list.

I also hope, some time this week, to start back in on Fealty and Fire, doing my own edits while I wait for my last couple of readers to finish up. I may also start formatting the book from regular normal-sized 8.5" by 11" pages to the smaller size that will actually print in the paperback version. That formatting takes up an incredible amount of time, so I would be wise to do that now while I have time, and then make the edits (which, relatively speaking, are much easier) as the book gets closer to being ready for print. We'll see.

Publishing -- Quite a lot of movement here, actually. I can't recall if I mentioned this before or not, but I received my comp copies for my four upcoming releases from Beckenhorst Press: Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus; All Creatures of Our God and King; Antiphonal Fanfare; and (the one I'm most excited about) Resounding Fury. I got to sample an early recording of the last one, and I've got to say, it kinda floored me. It's a level 4 which, sadly, puts it outside what many groups are willing to attempt, but I'm still excited by the piece nonetheless.

I also received my comp copies of my newest release from Lorenz, Fantasia on "Trentham", also know as "Breathe On Me, Breath of God." The recording for this one is up on the Lorenz site, for any who want to take a listen.

I signed a contract this week with GIA for my arrangement of the beautiful Italian carol, Dormi, Dormi, O Bel Bambin. It's actually one that I wrote several years ago, then pulled back out and tweaked it until it was -- for lack of a better word -- playable. Really glad this one is going to see the light of day.

I do have a new one coming out from Hope Publishing, Come, Christians, Join to Sing. It's up on the Hope website right now, and I'm pleased to see that it's been given a J.W. Pepper Editors' Choice nod for 2012.

I do have two also coming out from AGEHR Music: Fanfare and Reflection (which won an Area 2 contest last year) and Lead On, O King Eternal. They're available for purchase right now, though there are no recordings available yet.

I think that's all from here. It was a wild and crazy couple of weeks, so if I missed something, I wouldn't be at all surprised. Regardless, the batch of spring 2012 releases are coming out over the next couple of weeks from those publishers that do them (a couple publishers do just one release yearly in late Spring/early Summer, but about half of them do two releases a year), so be sure to keep your eye peeled. I'm thrilled that my name will be showing up several times.

We've got one more "regular" Saturday Summary next weekend, then the weekend after that, it will be time for my annual Capital Area Handbell Festival version of the Saturday Summary, live from the North Carolina State Fairgrounds (provided their wi-fi is as reliable and free as it was last year). Looking forward to that trip and getting the chance to work under Fred Gramman. Have a great week, and keep on creating!

Faith

2011-10-19T09:57:00.000-04:00

Over the past several weeks, we've been talking about some of the more potent forces in the universe. First, uncertainty, that which plagues every minute of every day. Then came fear, the brainchild of uncertainty, its minion and hench-person. Last week, we talked about hope, that blind, stupid belief that everything is going to be okay. And now we come to the most potent of these forces, the one that lets us get through our days, both as Creatives and as Regular People.

I'm talking about faith.

Now, I'm not just talking about spiritual or religious faith (though both are important), but rather good ol' generic faith. Some might not like the word and want to call it trust -- same beast, different moniker.

Since I've couched the past several weeks in terms of my creating, I'll do the same with faith; realize that most of this can be applied, with varying degrees of success, to your regular life, as well.

When I sit down to write a piece, I'm uncertain about how to start, where it will go, or if it will be any good. Fear follows along in its Master's footsteps, causing varying degrees of mini freak-outs. I throw wide the gates of my soul and out rushes hope, dancing and singing and flinging flower petals of Goodness and Light and Lollipops everywhere. Consider it the equivalent of sending a Chihuahua out to attack a mountain lion.

Yet that hope has a secret weapon, one that allows it to triumph again and again, despite the fact that, on its own, it has no clue what it's doing. That weapon, is faith.

As I stare at the piece before me, I have faith that it all is going to go well. Faith is neither blind nor uninformed; faith comes from a deep knowing. I know I can write a piece, because I've done it before. I have faced this problem time and time again, and have come out on top time and time again. I went to college for four years to learn how to do what I do, and since they let me graduate, I must have the tools necessary to do the task. I've written countless pieces for countless reasons, and every time, the piece ends up finished and, usually, not half-bad. In short, I have faith that I can do this.

Much like religious faith, I don't need to know what; I only need to know that. I don't need to know what forces are at work in my life, only that those forces have come into play for me time and again, and are more than likely to do so this time, too. Ask any spiritual or religious person, and many of them will say the same thing: they may not know what God is, but it's enough to know that He is.

I've never had a satisfactory answer for the question, "How do you write your music?" I have no idea. None at all. In fact, when it comes to writing my music, there's only one thing I'm sure of: it's not the mass of neurons between my ears and behind my eyes that's doing it. There is Someone or Something that is helping me do it, even though I don't know what It's called. Every time I go to start a piece, I sit down, and I ask this force to help me write it, and I trust (I have faith) that whatever benevolent force has helped me in the past will do so again.

One of the recurring themes from one of my favorite TV series of all time is the simple phrase, "Faith manages." I've seen it happen in my life too many times not to know it's true. Have faith that the help you need to create (or just in your life in general) will be there when you need it, and see what wonderful things happen.

Saturday Summary, October 15, 2011

2011-10-15T08:00:00.004-04:00

This week's Saturday Summary is on hold, potentially until next week. I'm spending all day today at a local handbell event, and, as much as I like writing about my own activities and accomplishments, the chance to play bells for a day wins out. Look for an official update later today or (more likely) next week. I do have exciting news ... but you'll all have to wait to hear it.

Until then, keep creating, and have a fantastic day!

Hope

2011-10-12T09:16:00.000-04:00

Over the past few weeks, we've tackled the heavy topics of uncertainty and fear, both kindred spirits, both determined to do their utmost to halt us in our tracks. So, what is it that lets us keep going even when those two brothers are conspiring to keep us down?

Hope.

Someone once described hope as a little bluebird of happiness. I'm not sure any assertion could be farther from the reality.

Hope, my friends, is an earthworm. It is blind, living its life in the dark both literally and metaphorically. It is surrounded at all times by dirt and grime and filth and the most disgusting things one can possibly imagine. It is lost, confused, and frequently ignored. What, then, keeps that earthworm moving forward, through the dark, through the muck? Hope. Hope that something better lies just through the next mouthful of dirt, hope that cleaner soil is in its future, hope that it's not going to stick its head out of the ground by accident and become lunch for a passing bird.

Hope can ignore all the awful things going on around us and give us the strength to keep on despite overwhelming odds. Hope can let us turn a deaf ear to the taunts and jeers of our detractors. Hope can bring light to an otherwise dark world.

But hope is stupid.

Hope is a powerful tool, but it reacts the same at all times. Hope sends us the same message ("We're going to live!") whether our situation is minor ("I just got stung by a bee!") or dire ("That asteroid the size of the moon is about to smash into the Earth!"). Hope doesn't care where we are or what we're doing -- it tells us at all times that what's ahead is going to be much better/not what we feared/just fine, regardless of what our rational mind is telling us.

Does that mean hope is useless? Far from it.

Take gasoline, set a flame to it, and it explodes. Every time. Without fail. What use is that?

Stick gasoline it in a confined space (such as the combustion chamber of your car's engine) and set fire to it, and that explosion becomes something incredibly useful, without which I wouldn't be getting to work today.

Hope is the same: it's powerful and potent, but unless we use something else to temper it and bend it to our aid, it will be nothing but a hindrance to us. Next week, we'll talk about that oh-so-important tool that will turn hope into the Creative's most powerful weapon.

Saturday Summary, October 8, 2011

2011-10-08T08:34:00.000-04:00

Another Saturday and another summary. The temperatures have shot back up into the 80s again here, this after a week or two of nice, comfortable, upper-60-degree days. I'm not a fan of warm temperatures, so this seems like an ideal day to stay in and get some creative work done.

Music -- I spent the better part of this week working on two level 1 handbell arrangements: a 2-3 octave arrangement of 'Twas In the Moon of Wintertime, and a 3-5 octave arrangement of Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. Both are nearly finished and just need to be polished and finalized.

Writing -- I hope to spend at least part of my day today going back through the returned copies of Fealty and Fire and making all the necessary changes and corrections there. I did this week give out my last copy to one of my first readers, and hope to have that back in the near future. I still think a release date of December is doable, though I'm a bit in denial of all the work that will need to happen between now and then for that to occur. We'll still keep our fingers crossed (though not for too long, as that makes typing difficult).

Publishing -- So much here ... where to start? I'll start with the simple first -- in the mail yesterday, I received my complimentary copies of my four forthcoming Beckenhorst pieces: All Creatures of Our God and King; Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus; Antiphonal Fanfare (which I'm really excited about); and Resounding Fury. I know the Raleigh Ringers did the demo recording a week or two ago, so that means that it'll soon be time to unleash them on the public. I also know some other publishers are in the middle of recording their various demos, so that must mean that the Spring 2012 releases are getting ready to make their debuts in the world.

Speaking of debuts, you can also go to the Lorenz site and check out some of my newest pieces already available -- Fantasia on "Trentham" from Lorenz, as well as Fanfare and Reflection and Lead On, O King Eternal from AGEHR. There's a recording available for the Fantasia, and I expect recordings to be up in the next several weeks for the two AGEHR pieces.

This week, I submitted several piano pieces to Lorenz for their Church Pianist magazine, and it looks like there's a fair chance they'll take at least a couple of them. They asked for a couple of changes, and I've sent the altered copies back, so now I just need to wait for some sort of official word on the matter.

I also got an email this week from Tammy Waldrop at Alfred asking if I'd be willing to do up a couple of arrangements for them. I'm in the midst of getting those together for her, and I have a good feeling they'll ultimately be accepted. It's by no means a guarantee of acceptance, but I have yet to have a piece passed on after a publisher has asked me for it. Oddly enough, it seems, when a publisher asks for exactly what they want, and then you turn around and give them exactly what they've asked for, it tends to make for a happy publisher and an equally-happy composer.

That's it from here. I've got a full day of creating ahead of me, plus several mornings this coming week and a majority of Thursday (parent-teacher conference day, a day I don't have to go in to school) to work, so I expect to have a full report next Saturday.

I also need to get my thoughts ready for National Novel Writing Month, which starts three weeks from this coming Tuesday. If you've ever wanted to write a novel before, or even just want to check out the insanity, check out the website at nanowrimo.org. Hope to see you there, but even if I don't, I wish you all a very happy and creative week!

Fear

2011-10-05T09:18:00.000-04:00

In last week's post, I talked about all the uncertainty in my life right now, and how my career as a composer has shown me how to master that uncertainty. This week, however, is all about fear.

Fear is a big thing. Fears, like dogs, come in many breeds and varieties, each one distinct and different ... and all of them dangerous.

Fear of the Future. Fear of the Unknown. Fear of Looking Foolish. Fear of Failure. Fear of Success. Fear of Commitment. These are just a couple of the different breeds of fear we each face in our lives. And for a creative, each of these is a very real part of our creative work and creative lives.

Fear of the Future -- Let's face it, friends: the future is a big blank, and quite literally anything can happen (though, thankfully, it usually doesn't). For the creative, we worry what our next creation will be, when we'll have time to work on it, if that big project at work or that family reunion or that business trip will keep us from getting our creative work done. We worry that when we sit down to create, we'll have nothing to say and won't remember how to do what we do.

Fear of the Unknown -- When we do sit down to create, we have an empty nothing staring back at us, and as we stare at it, we can see through to the millions of possible things that can come from what we're about to do, many of which we know nothing about. We fear not knowing how the work will go, when we'll get to work again, how long the project will take, or who we'll have to interact with to get the project through to completion.

Fear of Looking Foolish -- And so we create our work, and most of us ultimately share it with someone. What if they don't like it? What if they think it's the biggest piece of junk they've ever seen/read/heard? What if it's so bad they actually laugh at it? What if we say something stupid, or paint something childishly, or put in a nonsensical-sounding chord?

Fear of Failure -- Worse still, what if they're not the only ones who think that? What if the piece falls flat on its face everywhere it goes? What if we send it to a dozen publishers and they all reject it? What if we give it to a group to play and they turn their noses up at it? What if we show our book or our painting to some People In The Know and they rip it to figurative (or literal) shreds?

Fear of Success -- Even worse than that, what if they like the piece, and then they expect us to be able to do that same thing again? What if it all goes so well that they start to make demands of us and our time, start to want so many things from us and of us that we don't have the time we want or need for other things? Yes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, but for those of us who don't change sizes, the harder falls come from bigger heights. With every success, we have that much farther to fall should one of our other fears come to pass.

Fear of Commitment -- After enough time doing this, we start to realize we're on this path, and probably for the long haul. But what if we don't want to stay on this path? What if we want to explore other paths, other arts, other disciplines, or even abandon our art altogether? We fear we're setting ourselves up for a lifetime of doing this, of meeting other people's expectations, and of living on fear nonstop.

Sound familiar? Most of us have felt these at one point or another (and for some of us, more frequently than that) in our lives. Now, here's the exercise:

Think back to a time you had a lot of fear about something -- it can be one of these fears, or more than one of these fears (better), or even a fear that isn't listed here. Try to remember how the fear felt, what you worried would happen. Then, ask yourself if what you feared came to pass.

Repeat this exercise until you start to see a pattern. It shouldn't take very long, because for most of us, our fears never come to pass, or if they do come to pass, they are so inconsequential that we don't remember them until some creativity blogger asks us to drag them up from the depths.

But fear is a powerful enemy, and while he's staring at you, he seems unbeatable, invincible ... and completely, totally right. He's not. In fact, Fear is scared that you'll realize he's a fraud. Yes, my friends: fear suffers from himself.

There's a book out there that, sadly, I've not read, but I've heard some great reviews about it, and it's title is, I think, the perfect solution here: Feel the Fear ... And Do It Anyway. We never get rid of fear, and we never defeat it -- we only learn to tolerate and ignore it. Press on despite the fear, knowing that it is not the master. Press on, knowing that most of your fears will never come to pass. Press on ... and create something wonderful.

Saturday Summary, October 1, 2011

2011-10-01T09:44:00.000-04:00

October! The weather has finally decided to leave summer behind (good riddance!) and fall is here ... though the way our past couple of autumns have gone, winter will start next week. (Of course, with the onset of winter, that means more time cooped up inside, which means more being creative ... so it's not all a bad thing.)

Music -- I spent this entire week working on a couple of piano pieces. Two are originals I wrote some years ago, but which needed modifying, so I modified them. The other is an arrangement of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. I'm hoping to throw together one more Christmas arrangement this weekend and send them off to Lorenz for consideration for their Church Pianist magazine. I've got several coming out in that publication over the next several months ... but not in the Christmas issue, a matter I hope to rectify with these pieces.

With the start of a new month, I suppose I ought to update my totals for the year again -- remember the number crossed out was my original goal, and the number beside it is how many I have left to reach that goal ...

Handbell pieces -- 20 5
Piano pieces -- 20 10
Choral pieces -10 9
String pieces -- 4 0
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 30

Of those, 12 of the handbell pieces and 6 of the piano pieces have already been accepted for publication. Of course, I'm at 50% of my year-long goal with 75% of the year already gone, so that's not quite where I'd like to be ... but I'm working on remedying that, or at least making it a little less unbalanced.

Writing -- Later this week I'm planning on going back through my returned copies of Fealty and Fire and making corrections and changes. I've still got two readers I'm waiting on (and a third who will get her copy Tuesday -- she's fast on getting back with me, though) and then the editing will begin again in earnest. So far I haven't had many comments overall -- just mainly corrections. Still, to get it all around and ready for release in December is going to be a major undertaking, even with very little to change and rewrite.

Publishing -- I really can't think of anything new. I think all the publishers are in that nice inter-release period where the fall release is done, and they don't have to start worrying too much about the spring release for another couple of weeks. I'll just consider no news good news and go on from there.

That's all from here. I've got a full day of composing and autumn-enjoying ahead of me. I wish you all a fantastic Saturday, and we'll see you back here Wednesday.

Uncertainty

2011-09-28T08:00:00.057-04:00

To put it mildly, life is rife with uncertainty. Every minute of every day brings mild and minor levels of the stuff, and as any of us peer a week, a month, a year, or a decade into our futures, we can feel the gathering forces of uncertainty laid out before us, unifying to form a screen past which we can't see what waits for us.

This subject has been much on my mind of late. With a baby due in just about six months, I've got the universe delivering uncertainty by the truckload on a daily basis. Of course there are the mundane questions of uncertainty -- Will it be a boy or a girl? Will it be human? Will it have enough fingers or toes to get by in base ten math? -- but the ones that worry me more are the ones of child raising, of educating and guiding our child-to-be, and just the ones that accompany each and every one of us in life -- uncertainties that will not only plague our child but, by extension, my wife and I.

And regardless of these doubts swirling about in my head, I sit down at the computer every day to compose ... and fresh every day I come to the realization that I am uncertainty's master, and it need not trouble me.

Indeed, aren't all Creatives masters of uncertainty? We sit down to a blank page or a blank canvas or an empty stretch of space or time, little knowing with what we'll fill it. And yet we move forward, blundering our way in the dark much of the time, and we fill that emptiness with life, with emotion, with substance. Emptiness takes on form, and form takes on life, and by our own hands have we made the uncertain certain.

I open up Finale to compose a new piece, and I have, by program default, about 30 empty measures staring back at me, with a nearly-infinite number of ways to fill them. Uncertainty leers from behind every bar line, daring me to impose order on what I see before me. So, what do I do? I blunder forward, throwing notes into measures, a bit slapdash at first, but with more finesse and confidence as the piece takes shape. I also come to realize that there are no mistakes -- something I don't like or feel to be in error can always be corrected with the right amount of effort and intent.

Even with a finished piece sitting before me, uncertainty hasn't left the scene. For one who tries to make his living from composing, writing the piece isn't enough -- I need to get it published. At least with composing a piece there is some small amount of certainty -- I know I'm putting notes into measures. With publishing, the uncertainty lurks in a thousand shadows, and until I send my piece off into those shadows, I don't know what hides there in the darkness, if anything.

But then, when a piece gets published, I'm out of the Forest of Uncertainty, right? Regrettably, no. A piece being published means that I and at least one other person on this Earth like the piece -- two people out of seven billion or so. Having a piece in print is no guarantee that others will like it, that it will sell well, or that it won't ruin my reputation and career as a composer.

Uncertainty is as constant a companion in my life -- or the life of any Creative -- as oxygen and sunlight. Much like a man stranded in a rowboat at sea, I strike out in the direction that seems best to me; even upon finding land, however, there's no guarantee of safety and security. If you get rid of the sunburn and potential for sand fleas, the analogy is pretty much identical to what a Creative faces every day. And despite that, I undertake the journey time and again, perhaps with a small bit more confidence each time, because I've made the trip before and survived.

So, is there a Great Big Unknown on my horizon? Oh, yes.

Do I know how to deal with it? Yes. Yes, I do.

But that doesn't mean I'm not still fearful ... and that's what we'll talk about next Wednesday....

Saturday Summary, September 24, 2011

2011-09-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

It was a good week all around -- productive both in my creative life and in my other work. It was capped off last night with watching a wonderful performance by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, and the Indianapolis Children's Choir of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. I've loved the piece ever since I first played it back in college, yet I still get goosebumps every time that first chord gets played. They just don't make chords like that any more ...

Music -- I spent most of the week finishing up the rough draft of a commission for three simultaneous bell/chime choirs with timpani, cymbal, wind chimes, and (yes, I kid you not) vibraslap. It's an exciting, energetic piece, and way too infectious -- it's been driving me crazy all week as it's been playing non-stop in my head. Most pieces don't burrow in this deep, thankfully, or else I'd be insane by now.

I also pulled out some of my old piano pieces and started tweaking them to get them ready to send out into the great wide world. I hope to also arrange a couple of Christmas tunes for piano and get those sent out, as well.

Writing -- I did talk briefly this week with Paula, my illustrator, about some rough ideas for illustrations for Fealty and Fire. I tend to leave up to her what she chooses to illustrate, though I did ask for ink drawings this time around (the ones in The Coming of the Heroes she did in pencil, and they just didn't scan well enough to truly do the pictures justice). I've also had some readers asking me when that second book will come out. That's always a nice feeling, and I tell them that it's December. Now, I just need to get everything ready to make that happen...

I'm also trying to get myself going on jotting down some ideas for my novel for National Novel Writing Month. Yes, in addition to everything else I'll be doing in November (composing, school, church, editing Fealty and Fire), I'm going to attempt to write another novel. It won't be one of The Sadonian Chronicles -- I just flat-out refuse to write one of those in November -- but it will likely be a complete re-attempt of a novel I wrote a couple of years back. More details to come ... maybe.

Publishing -- I've wracked my brain, but I don't think I've had any movement on this front this week. I'd better get myself in gear and get writing some more ....

That's about it from here. On a personal note (and I assume I'm okay to tell this here -- we've told everyone else under the sun and posted it on FaceBook), my wife and I are expecting our first child this coming March. Needless to say, this is quite a transition for both of us, as well as a big change to pretty much everything in our lives. Many of the posts coming up on The Creative will focus on this forthcoming event and its potential impacts (like creative ways to keep a child asleep so his/her composer father can get some work done). Stay tuned, and by all means, if you have any advice you think will help, don't hesitate to share it.

Oh, and if you'd like to help send our future child to college, you're always free to buy a copy of The Coming of the Heroes (print, kindle, ebook).

A Wednesday Morning Haiku

2011-09-21T09:23:00.002-04:00

No new post today.
I have too much work to do.
See you Saturday.

Saturday Summary, September 17, 2011

2011-09-17T08:36:00.000-04:00

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.

And there went another week.... I swear, they're getting shorter and shorter. If nothing else, my mornings here at home to work have been far nicer since I've been able to open the windows and get a bit of a breeze through the house. My two creative consultants have enjoyed it, as well, and have spent far more time sitting in open windows than they have crawling across my piano keyboard while I've been trying to work.

Music -- I've actually spent most of this week working on a commission for Centreville United Methodist Church in Centreville, Virginia. It's an original composition for one five-octave set of bells, a separate 5-octave set of chimes, and another separate three octave set of bells (plus timpani, cymbal, and -- I really think I'm going to do it -- vibraslap). My hope is that, as I'm getting it ready for publication later, that I can boil it down so that it can be played by just the one 3-5 octave group, with the other ensembles and instruments as optional and additional parts. If nothing else, it's a challenge, and the piece is infectious enough that it's stuck in my head about 24/7 (or at least 17/7 -- I never remember what I dream, so I don't know if I'm hearing it while I sleep or not).

Writing -- Still waiting on first readers to get me comments on Fealty and Fire. I plan on going back to it no matter what the first or second week of October to start making final edits.

Publishing -- Had a really unexpected envelope from Lorenz last Saturday afternoon. They've accepted eight of my piano arrangements for next year's editions of The Church Pianist magazine. That's really exciting for me, not just because I'm getting published, but because for 10 out of the 12 months of next year, subscribers to the magazine are going to have my music (and in most cases, more than one piece of my music) thrust before them and will, hopefully, start to recognize my name. It's a sad fact that, oftentimes in music, it's not just the quality of the music itself that sells, but also the name attached to it. Still, if that's the way the game works, then I guess that's the way I'll have to play. Regardless, if you're looking for some good music to use at any time for a worship service (or just want some nice new music to play at home), check out The Church Pianist.

That's all from here this week. There are some very big things on the horizon for me in the coming weeks and months, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to start sharing some of them with you next week. Until then, close the web browser, go wherever you do your best work, and then create something. You'll be glad you did.

In Praise of Hard Work

2011-09-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

Being a Creative is fun. I can't think of any greater joy in this life than sitting down and making something where before there was nothing. Composing, arranging, writing ... even drawing ... it's all a wonderful way to spend my time.

But how does a Creative take that fun, that entertainment, and turn it into something that others are willing to pay for? In short, how's a Creative supposed to make a living?

The answer is both simple and difficult -- He has to work hard.

As the end of 2011 starts drawing to an end, I can look back at this year and see just how profitable my year has been. In terms of exposure and networking, it's been a really good year. More people know my name, know (and seem to enjoy!) my music, and are playing my pieces. The financial side of things looks rosy, too. I won't give specifics, but let's just say that composing has been very good to me this year. It wasn't a "let's buy a vacation house in Hawai'i" year, but it was definitely the sort of year that, were that income taken away, our household finances would take note of it.

The funny thing about composing, though -- the income I get this year is a direct result of my hard work from the past 12-36 months or so. I could start today and work my tail off for a solid month, and I wouldn't see the fruits of that labor for probably at least a year and a quarter, possibly longer. Such is the nature of the beast.

But as I look at the numbers from this year, I can look back and remember all the time I put into making those pieces, all the hours staring at my computer screen or sitting at the piano, or going over proofs note by agonizing note. It was a great time, don't get me wrong, but for the sort of success I've been blessed with this year, I had to really work for it.

I think of two of the most successful composers I know -- both have a significant number of pieces published, far into the triple digits. Both are able to make a living from nothing other than their composing and the activities that go directly along with it. Both write wonderful music and are wonderful musicians.

These are also two of the hardest-working people I know. For either one, on the occasions I send an email, I have a response within a day, and in many cases, within the hour. These two seem always to be working. Despite their great talents, despite their incredible success, neither one is slacking off and riding the wave of their success. Both are still very much out there in the musical world, both still publish numerous pieces each year (again, easily in the double or triple digits). They don't work hard because of their success; they have their success because they work hard.

As you look at your own creative live and work, ask yourself if you're enjoying the level of success you'd like. Many creatives are in it just for the joy of creating -- if that's you, then I wish you that joy for years to come. But if you want more out of your creative life, look at your work habits and ask yourself if you're truly giving your creative life everything it wants and asks for.

On the door to my office is a wooden over-the-knob hanger my wife painted for me many years ago. On one side, it says "Working Hard." On the other side, "Hardly Working." Which side are you showing to the world ... and which side do you want to show? If you choose to change, the first step is as simple as flipping the hanger over the other side.

The other steps, I'm afraid, will require quite a bit of hard work.

Saturday Summary, September 10, 2011

2011-09-10T08:29:00.000-04:00

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 weeks seem to be just flying by. It seems like I was just here for this, and now I'm back. That should be a sign of just how crazy the week was. Extra to do at school, combined with gearing up for the first Sunday back for our choir at church, combined with handbell rehearsals starting up again, has meant less time this week for being creative. It'll get better once I get acclimated to the schedule, I know, but for now, it makes my job this morning painfully easy...

Music -- I worked on a handbell piece in fits and starts this week but didn't actually finish anything. With this being a free Saturday, I hope to forge ahead on it later today.

Writing -- I did receive back Fealty and Fire from one of my early readers. Once I get the rest of the copies back, I'll incorporate their edits and then have another go at it myself before I deem it fit for human consumption.

I also started selling The Coming of the Heroes to some of the students at school this week (with a large portion of the price going back to the school library as a donation), so I'm now up to maybe around 40 people world-wide who've purchased my book. If you'd like to join them, you can purchase it here, or by using the links at the left of the page.

Publishing -- All quiet on the publishing front this week.

That's it from here. I'll be hoping for more and better news next week, and in the meantime, if any of my six or seven readers out there has anything they'd like me to write about Wednesday (my last several posts have all been inspired by some of my readers here and I've gotten spoiled), feel free to let me know. In the meantime, have a wonderful week, and keep creating!

Deadlines

2011-09-07T09:29:00.000-04:00

I love deadlines. I like the wooshing sound they make as they fly by.
-- Douglas Adams

We all have things we have to get done by a certain date -- projects at work, home improvements, Christmas gift shopping, taxes. Deadlines are hard for most folks, but I think they're just a bit harder for creatives.

Creatives are, by their very nature, flighty people. We don't do it on purpose -- we just get caught up more easily in what we're doing than most other folks. Ask an accountant when the last time was he got so engrossed in his work that he lost track of time and the answer's likely to be, "Never." Ask a creative, and it's probably been some time in very recent memory.

For most of us, our work is also our play. When I compose, it's very real, serious work ... but to create that real, serious work, I have to play, be free, make connections, and generally be relaxed and easy-going and -- sad to say -- flighty. I never know what I'm going to get accomplished any time I sit down to compose because no two hours are the same. One hour I might sit down and come up with no ideas, so instead I change two notes in a four-minute-long piece. The next hour, inspiration might hit me upside the head, so I might add seventy measures to a piece while scarcely stopping for breath.

Where this really hurts us is with our deadlines (just the word in and of itself conjures up terror -- deadlines? Ominous...). Depending on the type of creative you are, deadlines might or might not be an issue. When I was first starting out composing, I had no external deadlines; any deadline was self-imposed, and more often than not, I set no deadlines, but simply wrote what and when I felt like it.

Things have changed for me now. I have publishers who ask for a certain type of piece by a certain date. I've got a commission or two with firm deadlines, which if I don't finish in time, loses me money. A publisher will get me a proof of a piece and ask for corrections within two weeks.

It's not just me. Other composers I know have a backlog of commissions, all with due dates staring them in the face. One friend of mine is down to just about two weeks left to write the forward to a book. As good as their donuts are, let me tell you, the world doesn't run on Dunkin' -- it runs on deadlines.

Deadlines inspire fear and dread and inertia. They make us want to do nothing because we're terrified we won't get it done in time ... or that we will get it done in time, but it will be junk. How is a creative to overcome this dread?

Realize that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- When you start a project with a deadline, you don't have to finish it in one sitting; you just need to begin. Slow and steady isn't just the best way to win the race; most times, it's the only way.
Make the deadline public -- Tell a friend, a spouse, a child, a colleague -- or put it out on your blog. The fact that other people know of the deadline is a strong incentive to get the project done on time. More often than not, those folks you tell will provide encouragement along the way. The thought of disappointing them and having to fess up if you miss the deadline is often enough to get the job done.
Have a reward ready -- Promise yourself a nice meal, a trip to the movies, a spa day -- but only after you've finished the project. Let the reward match the project -- if the project is a two-minute handbell piece, a trip to the ice cream parlor might be just the thing; if it's a 700-page fiction novel, then a day at the spa followed by an enormous meal might be more along the right lines.

Like it or not, deadlines are just something we have to live with. But, with a little change in how we look at them and a couple of tricks, we can set ourselves up so that we no longer experience that joy of hearing them woosh by.

Saturday Summary, September 3, 2011

2011-09-03T08:17:00.000-04:00

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.

It was a good week -- not the best week, but a good week. The fact it's now a three-day weekend doesn't hurt matters any, either. It should be a nice, relaxing time to get some work done, spend some time with family, and have a day out with my lovely wife.

But you're not here because of my weekend plans ...

Music -- This week, I finished up both an arrangement for my choir of the text "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep," as well as a string orchestra arrangement of "The Huron Carol" (which most folks know as "Twas In the Moon of Wintertime"). The choral piece is unison choir since I wanted something easy to start off our season -- we'll be singing it for our first Sunday on September 11 (which ought to be a really cheery service, I'm sure).

Now that I have those both out of my way, I'm clear to turn back to some handbell stuff, including some pieces that are sort of hanging over my head with due dates. I hope to have some good news on those fronts in a week or two.

Writing -- Nothing to report here, though I did sell a copy of The Coming of the Heroes this week, which is always exciting. I think that, by now, there might be almost thirty people out there who own a copy of the book. It's almost become a tiny-suburban-neighborhood-sized phenomenon!

Publishing -- Some really good news here. I sent off my arrangement of Were You There? to Bill Griffin at Beckenhorst and he accepted it. (Want to play it before it's published? Bring your youth choir to the Capital Area Young Ringers Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina in late February 2012!) I also checked up with him on my arrangement of Fum, Fum, Fum, and that's been accepted as well. (For the record, Matthew, that puts me at 57 or 64, depending on how you look at it. Here I come!)

I also finished up going over my proof of Escape Velocity, which will be coming from Jeffers in a year or two. I just know this in going to be one that's so far in the future I forget all about it until it shows up on my doorstep in a couple of years. Still, I'm really excited it's getting published -- can't wait to see it in print.

That's about it from here. I wish you all a very safe and creative Labor Day weekend, and we'll look for you back here on Wednesday.

La Creatividad

2011-08-31T09:18:00.000-04:00

For the past several months, I've been studying Spanish. After spending five years in high school and a year in college studying French, and three years in high school and two in college studying Japanese, I wanted to make a stab at learning a language I might actually speak with some degree of ability some day. I can understand basic things said to me in French, and I can tell with decent reliability if the language I'm hearing is Japanese or Something Else (not that I have any clue what's being said), but that's ... well, that's it.

I figured Spanish would be a great language to learn since a) it's a Romance language like French, so much of the basics of the grammar and many of the roots of the words are already familiar to me, and b) there are a whole lot of Spanish-speaking people in this country (including a fair-sized Hispanic community just down the road from my church, if the signage is any indication).

So, I've been doing the Rosetta Stone thing -- I have the program on my computer, I had my three months of online access to their extras (despite having beaucoup free time over the summer, I somehow managed to squander those three months and will be paying for another three at some point so I can get the extra practice) ... but somehow, that's not enough. I want to actually be able to speak the language, to read the language, to understand it ... and I won't be able to do that with just twenty or thirty minutes per day of Rosetta Stone.

And so, in true Creative form, I've started looking for alternative, creative ways to get better at this language. When I took French in high school, you were basically limited to whatever was in the textbook, and whatever audio cassettes you could find at the public library. My, how the times have changed!

Audio CDs -- I know this is borderline old-school tech, but it does help me take advantage of spare minutes during my day. Being a one-car family, I drop my wife off at school every morning, then head back home for my creative time before I head in to work. That gives me quite a lot of time in the car, and I can now put that extra time to use. If I didn't want to do CDs, I could just as easily rip the CDs to my computer and stick them on my MP3 player.
Podcasts -- There are an incredible number of podcasts in Spanish (and many, many other languages) available out there, both for learning the language, and just listening to people speaking the language. Downloading them and sticking them on my MP3 player is, again, a great way to practice.
Dictionary and Google Translator -- I don't use either of these for big things, but for looking up a word here or there, expanding my vocabulary one piece at a time, they're great.
TV -- If we had cable, I'm sure we'd have more to choose from, but even with over-the-air TV, we still get quite a variety of Spanish-language programs. Our local PBS station broadcasts the Spanish-language channel VeMe, and many of the programs we watch elsewhere are dubbed in Spanish on the second audio channel. For the past several nights, we've watched Family Guy in Spanish with English subtitles, and I've taken to watching the occasional Simpsons episode from our DVD collection in Spanish, as well. If I want to practice on some easier, more kid-friendly program, shows like Jane and the Dragon are dubbed in Spanish, as well.
Movies -- Much like my Simpsons episodes, more and more movies on DVD and BluRay are dubbed over in Spanish, or at the very least have Spanish subtitles. Using one or both of these (or Spanish dubbing with English subtitles for a bit of help) is some great extra practice.
Muttering and Talking -- I've taken to muttering to myself in Spanish, talking to my cats in Spanish, and even saying about half the things I say to my wife in Spanish. She can't speak Spanish much, but she's gotten to where she can understand me (though half the time I do end up translating for her). It gives me practice speaking extemporaneously (something that always gave me pause with speaking French or Japanese), and if I do make a grammar mistake, I'm usually able to stop and correct myself, or else realize I have no idea how to say what I want to say, which then sends me to the dictionary or Google to figure it out.

Most of these things are things I would do anyway ... except now I try to include my language learning as part of them. Most evenings, sorry to say, will find me watching an hour of Family Guy. Now, instead of wasting away during that hour, I'm tuning my ear to listen better for Spanish. Instead of riding along singing at the top of my lungs with songs I've sung a thousand times before, I'm repeating phrases that might one day be useful to me.

Best of all, though -- I'm having fun. I've always enjoyed languages and learning how other cultures view the world. I may not be progressing by leaps and bounds, but I do see consistent improvement day-by-day, and I get really excited when I say something to my wife and realize that not only did I say it correctly, but it was a more difficult sentence than I'd ever said correctly before on the first try.

I could draw a lot of parallels between learning a language and my composing and writing, but I'll save that for another post. Ahora, voy a beber un poco más café y practicar un poco de español. Hasta luego!

Saturday Summary, August 27, 2011

2011-08-27T08:20:00.000-04:00

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.

It's Saturday again. Unlike some weeks that fly by, I felt every minute of this week as it battered my body, mind, and soul. It was one of those run-run-run sort of weeks where I was busy a lot of the time, but didn't actually get much accomplished.

That being said, I'm counting my blessings today for living in a city nearly a thousand miles from a major body of water, and sending my thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes to those friends, colleagues, and random strangers who are today being buffeted about, drenched, and otherwise assaulted by Irene. May you all stay safe and as dry as possible.

Now, on to the update:

Music -- Sum total of time I was able to spend for the entire week on composing was somewhere just north of an hour. Needless to say, not much got done. I did start in on a unison choral anthem for my choir at church that I hope we'll be able to sing our first Sunday back (which is September 11, so you can guess what sort of happy, uplifting piece it's going to be), and jotted down some ideas for a commission I just received a week or two ago. Beyond that ... nada.

I did want to update my yearly totals, since I've not done that for several days:

Handbell pieces -- 20 5
Piano pieces -- 20 13
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4 1
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 35

I hope to change those numbers drastically in the coming days, but I'll just need that all important commodity -- time.

Writing -- I got even less done here than I did on my music (though I did see that someone else bought a copy of The Coming of the Heroes on Amazon -- thank you, whoever you are!). Still waiting for comments to start coming in on Fealty and Fire so I can start tweaking it.

Publishing -- I finished my first look-over of the proof for Escape Velocity. It's a weird thing, but the more difficult the piece itself is, the fewer errors I tend to find in the engravers proof. My theory is that there's so much happening on the page that the engraver is more careful than usual when putting the score together, hence fewer mistakes creep in. Of course, it's just as possible that there are a ton more mistakes in there and the piece is just so nutty that I'm not seeing them in all the confusion ... but I really doubt that's the case -- the proofs I get from Jeffers are all top-notch and quite nearly perfect before I ever get hold of them.

So that's it from here. Again, my East Coast friends, stay safe, and we'll hope to see you all back here again on Wednesday.

Being Creative When You Don't Have the Time

2011-08-24T08:34:00.000-04:00

This week is an absolute misery for me in the creative department for one simple reason: time. My mornings are my prime creative time -- my brain is freshest, my energy is highest, and my muse likes it when I pay attention to her before anything else in my life. This week, however, my mornings have been a mass of doctor appointments, meetings, and car maintenance (got to love Honda's maintenance minder that tells me it's time to get my oil changed).

Now, I could do some creative work in the evenings, except that by the time I've taught elementary students for several hours, all my get-up-and-go done got-up-and-went. Add to that the fact that two of my evenings are occupied with piano lessons, and my creative time this week is pretty close to nil.

So, what's a creative to do?

Take advantage of the time you do have -- Just because I don't have scads of time doesn't mean I haven't worked. I eked out an hour on Monday morning and got about half a rough draft of a vocal piece thrown down. It's not perfect, and in many places I just threw down the chords so I'd know where to start from later, but it's something. I didn't spend that free hour bemoaning the fact I didn't have more time to work -- I just sat down and worked.

Look for "useless" time -- Even if I can't delve deeply into my creative work, I can still create. Delving deeply is great for fleshing things out and finishing things up; the sort of time I have this week, however, is great for idea generation. My mind can play around with ideas, lyrics, themes, melodies, harmonies, and rhythms while I'm driving, cleaning, teaching, walking, brushing my teeth, or taking a shower. Just last night, I had an idea come to me as I was changing the cats' litter box. I used that quiet, alone time to think through the idea several times (mainly so I wouldn't forget it) until I could get in and spend five minutes jotting it down. I now know that I won't lose it, and even in that otherwise-occupied time, I got something useful done.

Recharge the batteries -- As I sit there of an evening, my brain having turned to mush, I can still be helping my creativity. I spend time playing games on my Nintendo DS (lately it's been Picross 3D, which is a very addictive puzzle game), but I also do crosswords, sudoku, and even the occasional game of Mario Kart. All of this gives me a chance to let my brain relax and have fun, because I've learned that the more relaxed my brain is, the more at ease and playful it is, the better my creative ideas and creative work will be when I do sit down to do them.

So this week, even if you're not getting the creating done you'd like to, see where you can sneak in a few minutes of work (like I've done this morning before I'm clocked in at school). Even if you're not churning out symphonies, you can be thinking of the notes; even if you're not composing novels, you can be watching the characters. Little bits of creativity are still creative -- enjoy them!

Saturday Summary, August 20, 2011

2011-08-20T08:33:00.000-04:00

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.

Despite this being my first full week back to school, I had a more productive and exciting week than I've had in quite a while.

Music -- I finished up not one, but two handbell pieces this week, both of them projects for the Raleigh Ringers. I'm not at liberty to really say much about them at this point, other than that they're loud and fun.

I also am nearly finished with the piece commissioned for the Capital Area Young Ringers' Festival, an arrangement of the hymn Were You There?, which, as I was composing it, ended up with a bit of What Wondrous Love Is This thrown in. After my initial attempt to put the piece together, which went miserably, I had started to doubt whether I'd picked the right piece to arrange, but this take on it is much better. I hope the kids will like it.

I also had a handbell director from out in Virginia contact me about doing a commission for her church's upcoming anniversary. We're still working out the details, but I'm hopeful this will come through.

Writing -- Aside from the occasional blog post or email, I didn't do any writing this week. I'm still waiting on my first readers to get back to me with their comments on Fealty and Fire, which ought to take another couple of weeks. I know there will be a flurry of activity as I get closer to December and try to get the book ready for print, so for now, I'm enjoying the time off.

Publishing -- When I get an email from my string editor saying, "Please call me," I panic -- I liken it to the look a kid has on his face when you tell him to go to the principal's office. Turns out that the set of three intermediate violin Christmas solos they accepted is getting pushed back a year before being published, and that in the meantime, they'd like me to write another four pieces to create a larger set.

I've got a couple of months on that, so I've added it to The Board ... but The Board is starting to look a bit heavy with pieces to write, and I'm starting to feel just the least little bit of apprehension about whether I can get it all done in time. Don't get me wrong -- I'm thrilled to have so many publishers and people wanting my music, but to see the deadlines looming close like so many ravenous wolves is a bit terrifying. The nice thing about writing on spec is that you write when you want, as you want. Of course, there's much less guarantee of getting published, too....

So that's it from here. Again, a lot of stuff happening in a very short period of time. Very unhappily, as I look ahead to the coming week, I think every single one of my mornings except Friday is taken up with something (and the way next week's looking, I'm sure something will edge its way into my Friday morning before long), which means my time to compose will be greatly reduced. Like all Creatives, though, I'll search for the time to work, take it by hook or by crook, and get the work done. In the meantime, I wish you all the best in the coming week. See you Wednesday!

A Little Creative Competition

2011-08-17T09:34:00.000-04:00

As part of my Saturday Summary this past weekend, I posted that my latest acceptances marked "my 55th accepted handbell piece (though my 62nd accepted handbell title, if you count the individual parts of multi-piece sets)." This prompted fellow handbell composer Matthew Prins to comment:

You're at 55? Crud, I'm only at 62 (~80 including parts of collections). Need to work harder to stay ahead of you...

I'm not sure if Matthew intended it or not, but his comment got me thinking about the role a little creative competition can play in the life of a Creative.

Whether we Creatives like to admit it or not, we do compare ourselves with others in the same field. We ask if their work is better than ours, more prolific, "greater" (whatever that means), or is selling better. For the most part, this sort of pointless comparison does little more than make us feel woefully inadequate and cause us to start doubting our own creative output. I know that when I first started composing, I spent quite a lot of time comparing myself to others and their works. I would rejoice at my successes, take a sick sort of schadenfreude at any of their missteps, and get downright depressed when they had a huge success.

It was a miserable way to live.

In the past few years, however, I've realized (thankfully) that this is the wrong way to look at things. Oh, I still compare my work to others, and count my pieces versus theirs, but now I use it as a catalyst, something to -- for want of a less graphic visual -- light a proverbial fire under my equally proverbial rear end. I can look ahead to where other Creatives are and use their successes as a driving force to try to meet their accomplishments. When I sit down at the computer and would rather just surf Facebook, having a goal of achieving what another Creative has already achieved can get me back to work, back on track, and help turn an otherwise unproductive span of time into something productive.

So when I saw Matthew's comment, I realized that it worked the other way, too -- even as he sees me with a number of published pieces growing closer to his, it will (I hope) inspire him to stay at work, to produce more and bigger and better, to try to stay several steps ahead of me. That, in turn, will cause me to push myself to try to get ahead of him, and the cycle -- call it vicious if you wish, though I don't -- continues.

Here's the kicker, though -- I don't wish Matthew any ill will or bad luck. Quite the contrary, I'm rooting for him and his composing almost as much as I'm rooting for mine (though for anyone other than me, it's on a mostly subconscious level). The more success he (and every other handbell composer out there) has, the more it will drive me to work for my own successes. The better the pieces he creates, the more I'll have to work to make mine equally good. Instead of looking at fellow composers like Matthew as people I'm competing against, I now look at them as people I'm competing with, and the more success any of us has, the better we all become.

So, thank you, Matthew, for your inadvertently-declared challenge. Best of luck to you in all your composing, and may you soon reach 100 pieces!

Though not before I do....

Saturday Summary, August 13, 2011

2011-08-13T08:38:00.000-04:00

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.

It was the first week back to school. As exciting (and tiring) as that was, it got me out of my regular creative groove. I'm still in the process of finding that groove again, so my creative output this week was less than stellar. Still, in the interests of consistency, here's the Summary for this week:

Music -- First, some exciting news: since it's up on their website, I think I can now safely announce that I will be the guest conductor for the Capital Area Young Ringers Festival in Raleigh, NC this February. If you're a young ringer and live somewhere in the Raleigh area, I invite you to check out the event information at rr.org and think about attending. It should be a fantastic day!

I did get a bit of composing done this week on a special project I'm not going to say much about at this time. Suffice it to say it's a fun piece that I hope is one I'll get to share with everyone in the next year or two.

Other than that, I didn't get much done. I had a few ideas for things (including the piece I'm writing for the Young Ringers Festival) but nothing I actually put down on paper.

Writing -- I did receive copies of this draft of Fealty and Fire, and have distributed four of them to my First Readers. I'm now waiting for their comments (a painful process, both the waiting and the sitting through their comments, but both very necessary) and will then start getting this thing closer to completion.

Publishing -- It was a fairly well-balanced week, as I had two choral numbers rejected a couple of days before I had my handbell arrangement of Dormi, Dormi, O Bel Bambin accepted by GIA Publications. That marks my second acceptance with them, and my 55th accepted handbell piece (though my 62nd accepted handbell title, if you count the individual parts of multi-piece sets). Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.

That's it from here. I've got a good day of creating ahead of me here, and I'm hopeful I can get back into a regular school-year creating rhythm this next week. Now that all the beginning-of-year things are starting to sort themselves out, things ought to settle down into a regular rhythm, and I hope to capitalize on that. Until then, have a great week, and we'll see you back here on Wednesday.

New Beginnings and Conquering Fear

2011-08-11T09:38:00.000-04:00

This week's Wednesday post is a day late for two reasons:

1) Yesterday was my birthday, and as the song says, "It's my party, and I'll skip my blog post if I want to."

2) It was the first day of school.

Yes, after a summer off doing little more than composing and writing, the new school year started. Around three hundred children poured through the doors of our school to all sorts of new and exciting things: new teachers, new rooms, new subjects, new friends. For many, it was probably a terrifying experience.

It was also a new and exciting day for their teachers: new students, new rooms, new subjects, new colleagues. For nearly every single one of us, it was a terrifying experience, too.

Why? As much as our brains crave novelty and the stimulation that newness provides, we also fear it. Franklin Roosevelt quipped that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. The novelty of a new school year is rife with fear of the unknown: Will the students like me? Will they behave? Will I be able to teach them? Will I be able to suffer that dratted alarm when it goes off at the same insane, early hour every morning?

As the day progressed, I felt my fear melting away. This struck me as strange, since I don't even start teaching students until the school day's half over. I finally realized why: I'd been facing novelty -- the fear of the unknown -- every day, all summer long. Every single time I sat down at the computer or the keyboard, ready to embark upon another excursion into composing or writing, I had the unknown staring right back. The questions weren't quite the same, but similar: Will my work today go well? Will the notes and words behave themselves and get into nice, orderly patterns? Will I be able to do anything with the work I produce today? Will I get anything done before the day's over and I have to quit?

By the time yesterday rolled around, I'd faced that fear countless times. I don't think you ever really become fearless -- I think that's an illusion perpetuated by too many action movies. I think you can, however, acclimate yourself to the fear so that the next time it rears its ugly head, you've faced it enough, dealt with it, conquered it, that it's nothing more than an annoyance, something to be dealt with ... but not something all-consuming and paralyzing.

And so this morning, as I sit back at my desk and prepare to get back to my creative work, I know the fear will be there waiting for me -- Will I be able to get anything productive done? Will it be any good -- but I also know that I've learned how to manage it, and that all the new experiences I encounter, despite the fear, and just opportunities to the next good thing in life.

Saturday Summary, August 6, 2011

2011-08-06T09:24:00.000-04:00

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.

This was my last full week before heading back to school next week. Even as I tried to make the most of it, some other part of me realized this was the end of my vacation and so rebelled against doing any great amount of work, which left me in a sort of strange limbo where I sat at my desk for long periods and tried to appear productive even as I got next to nothing done.

Music -- I tried to work on several different pieces this week and succeeded in getting a whole lot of not- much done. I did manage to finish one string piece, an easy one entitled Simple Hoedown. I'm in the middle of trying to write it a friend so I can send them both off into the wilderness to try to get published. I also tried to write a handbell piece or two, but for whatever reason, I just wasn't feeling it this week (probably the aforementioned end of vacation syndrome).

So, that makes my goal look like this:

Handbell pieces -- 20 8
Piano pieces -- 20 13
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4 1
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 38

I'm slowly embracing the fact that I'm probably not going to get this done (especially those 10 choral pieces -- don't know what I was thinking there), but I do know I'll get more done if I try to hit that goal than if I totally punt it, so I'm going to just keep on writing like I'm going to get all of that done.

Writing -- It is with great joy and fanfare that I can announce the title of the second book in The Sadonian Chronicles. After months of referring to it simply as "the second book" or SC2, I can now say that the new Sadonian Chronicles book is entitled: Fealty and Fire. I will be giving it out to my "first readers" here in the next week or so, then once I've assimilated their comments and added my own new tweaks, I'll start the long, drawn-out process of formatting, proofing, and all the other good things that go into making a book print-ready (both on- and off-screen). I still think I'll hit my December goal of having it available.

In the meantime, if you haven't yet explored The Sadonian Chronicles, I invite you to check out the print version, the Kindle version, and the other various electronic versions at Smashwords.

Publishing -- Only one big bit of news here, and that's the news that I've added a new publisher to my list: From the Top music will be publishing both my original piece Sympatico, as well as the arrangement of Jingle Bells I wrote for the Raleigh Ringers a few years back. I'm thrilled that both of those pieces will see the light of day in the near future, and thrilled to be part of one more publishing "family."

That's it from here. I'd love to say I know that next week's Summary will be full of fantastic news and great tidings, but hey -- it's the first week back to school. If I'm still upright and coherent by the end of the week, I'll consider it a victory. Until then, though, keep creating, and best of luck in all your creative pursuits!

Celebrating Milestones

2011-08-03T08:00:00.074-04:00

I reached a creative milestone yesterday -- I finished the fourth draft of my second novel and handed it over to my wife for her comments and corrections. Taking this story from one that is solely mine -- a work only I have indulged in and only I know about -- and including anyone else in the process is a big step and milestone in the story's progress from amorphous mind-goo to finished product.

My reaction as I let my wife know I wanted her to read it? I hope she hurries up so I can get on to the next draft.

Yes, after working with this novel for the better part of seven or eight years -- the past three months very intently working on it -- my reaction upon reaching this auspicious milestone is to want to blow on by and get on to the next thing.

We all do this, though: we reach some important milestone in life -- the birth of a child, the purchase of a new house, a promotion at work, or some great creative achievement -- and we usually have one of two reactions:

We try to come to an absolute stand-still, basking in the glory of this one achievement and willing time to stand still at this one glorious moment for all eternity.
We give the achievement a half-second nod and then turn toward the next step in the process, the next achievement, the next item on our to-do list.

I've done both of these, and I'm pleased to say that -- despite my current feelings and reactions -- I know there's another way.

Yes, after my first composition was accepted for publication, I basked in my own joy and perceived glory for the better part of a year before I submitted anything else -- not exactly a healthy reaction.

And yes, I've had a publisher accept a piece and before I've even finished reading the acceptance email, I've already been thinking, Well, yes, that's all well and good, but I'm still behind where I ought to be.

There is a middle ground: we can enjoy our accomplishment for an hour, or a day, or two -- whatever seems appropriate to the achievement -- and then we can use this success to spur us on to the next step in our evolution. For Creatives, this is so tremendously important. Our Inner Creative Being (ICB) is a playful one, but it is also a very insecure one. When we reach a milestone and fail to celebrate it, our ICB can't help but think it's done something wrong, or that what it did wasn't good enough, and so it retreats into the shadows. This is not good for our creative souls.

On the other hand, if we let our ICB indulge in weeks or months of celebration and revelry, it will never, willing, on its own, continue on to the next creative task. Much like the average child won't eat his or her vegetables unless required to do so, our ICB won't move on to the next project, the next step in the process, the next creative endeavor, unless we make it.

So, I celebrated my success by taking the evening off, playing some piano, and guiltlessly watching a movie. I pampered my ICB as a reward for all the great creative truth it sent me as I worked on the story. And I'll allow my wife as much time as she needs to read my novel, and resist the urge to ask her every five minutes if she's finished yet, how far along she is, and if she likes it.

And now this morning, I'll sit back down at the keyboard and move on to the next creative project, knowing that I've done well, but that much more of my creative journey still lies ahead of me.

Saturday Summary, July 30, 2011

2011-07-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

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.

This was one of those weird weeks where I'm not sure how I really feel about it. Part of my mind feels like it was a fantastically creative week and I got a ton of things accomplished. Another part of my mind says, "Yeah, it was a good week, but it wasn't that good."

It was also a week in which I totally forgot to make a Wednesday post. Given the fact I didn't realize this fact until sometime on Thursday, it ought to tell you how caught-up in my creating I was.

Music -- It was another music-heavy week. I started off last weekend by finishing up both a handbell arrangement of Fum, Fum, Fum and an assignment from Doug Wagner for Lorenz: a handbell arrangement of a choral piece entitled Christmas Toys on Parade, which is a mixture of March of the Toys, Toyland, and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.

I then started a 2-3 octave medley of a couple of hymns, but soon turned away from that and wrote a string orchestra piece entitled Morning Flight. I managed to finish that one, as well as get most of the way finished with one entitled The Knights' Tournament. The latter is one I originally wrote back in high school, but have completely revamped to incorporate some of the writing skills I've learned in the last ..... years.

So, with all that, here's where the count stands on the year:

Handbell pieces -- 20 8
Piano pieces -- 20 13
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4 2
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 39

Again, I'm still behind for the year, but I'm catching up, slowly but surely.

Writing -- I took an hour yesterday and added to my draft 3 of SC2 some hand-written edits I just hadn't got around to incorporating yet. Then today, I'm going to start on draft 4 -- going over the thing top-to-bottom, correcting errors, fixing bits of it that don't quite work. No idea how long this draft will take, but it ought to be a quicker job of it than draft 3 was.

Publishing -- I received comp copies of the September/October edition of The Church Pianist magazine, which contains my arrangement of O God of Every Nation. I also received and corrected proofs for my upcoming The Bread and the Cup collection from Lorenz -- a set of 5 communion tunes for 2-3 octaves of bells that can be played individually or can segue into one another, with optional repeats to make the piece as short or as long as an ensemble needs for their own particular communion service. I also got most of the way through correcting the proof for Christmas Toys on Parade.

In writing news, I discovered that The Coming of the Heroes is now available at Barnes & Noble.com for their nook e-reader. I suppose that's the next logical step in trying to get folks to read the book -- getting it out there in as many different places as I can. I don't really hold out much hope that thousands of people will read the book (though I'd be okay with that), but if I can even make it to 50, I'll be happy.

That's it from here for this week. Have a great one, try to stay cool if you're in one of those many states where sidewalk egg-frying isn't just an expression anymore, and we'll see you back here Wednesday (provided I remember this time around) for our regular posts. Until then, keep on creating!

Saturday Summary, July 23, 2011

2011-07-23T12:29:00.000-04:00

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.

It was a wonderful long weekend up in Minneapolis for the Handbell Musicians of America's National Seminar. I got to talk to so many wonderful musicians and hear so much great music. It was quite the rejuvenating experience. My wife and I got back home late Monday evening, and at least part of this past week was spent just catching up and recovering from being gone for six days.

Despite all that, I actually got some work done.

Music -- I worked on three different pieces this past week, finishing one and nearly finishing two. The first one was my "Jingle Bells," which I wrote for the Raleigh Ringers a few years ago. It had just been sitting here collecting dust, so I picked it up and dusted it off (which involved making it playable for groups from 5 to 7.5 octaves of bells) and it's now ready to be sent off for submission.

I also worked on an arrangement of "Fum, Fum, Fum" -- I originally wrote this arrangement several years ago, but it's never been quite right. I've started over from scratch (while still keeping several of the old ideas) and I think I've finally got something that will work.

Then, I got a sort of last-minute assignment from a publisher that I spent some time working on, and should have finished up in the next day or two, hopefully. It sort of came up out of nowhere, but I tend to work fairly well when I have a very specific task and a short deadline.

Writing -- I devoted this whole week to music, so I did no writing. My hope is to go back to SC2 this week and begin work on draft 4 (which ought to be a faster affair to finish than draft 3, the one I got done right before we left for seminar).

Publishing -- I did receive word from Lorenz that my piano arrangement of "O God of Every Nation" will be in the September/October edition of their magazine The Church Pianist. That will make my second piano arrangement in print, so I'm pretty excited about that.

That's about it. After so much intense work on my novel the past month and a half or so, it was really nice to get back into the swing of composing for a change. I hope to finish up some things in the next several days, so hopefully next week's summary will contain some good news on that front. Until then, stay cool, and have a fantastic week.

An Open Letter

2011-07-20T09:09:00.000-04:00

I just got back Monday night from the Handbell Musicians of America National Seminar in Minneapolis. It was a fantastic four days filled with music, ideas, teaching, learning, more music, and meeting and connecting with a lot of friends, both old and new.

It was also a chance for me to talk with several of the people who publish my music -- more than I had need to connect with last year at Pinnacle in Nashville. As invariably happens when I talk with editors, the conversation turns to my music and what of it they publish. During one such conversation, the editor was apologizing that the piece of mine they wanted to publish wouldn't be coming out for something like a year and a half or more. I tried to express to the editor that this was just fine, but the explanations continued despite my protests.

It occurred to me that the whole reason this was happening was that this editor was used to dealing with other fledgling composers and felt the need for all the caveats. It also occurred to me that this editor -- as well as the several others who publish my music -- probably didn't know my own philosophy of my composing career. It also seemed to make sense that the best way to help them understand -- and perhaps to help other composers out there, as well -- was to write an open letter to them, detailing my philosophy ...

Dear editor,

First of all, thank you for spending time getting back to me. I know that you, like many of your colleagues, are not just an editor, but also a composer, church musician, teacher, director, clinician, as well as a mother or father, (perhaps grandmother or grandfather), son or daughter, and spouse. The fact you took a bit of your hard-fought-for time and not only looked at my music, but then responded to me personally, means the world to me.

That being said, I want to help you save even more of your time. I'm going to lay out for you, in short bullets, exactly my own feelings and beliefs of my creative career, in the hopes that the next time we communicate, you don't waste time trying to allay fears I don't have.

I understand you work for a company, and therefore can't publish every piece that comes past your desk. I know this because I'm also a church musician, and I can't have my groups perform every piece of music that I see is available. I know this because I see this in action everywhere from the new car lot to the grocery store -- I have to pick and choose, and so do you. And, I know this because I've been published enough years now (though still a small number compared to many other composers) to realize that you have a limited number of spots and need a variety of pieces published. Simply telling me that a piece won't fit your catalog right now is sufficient -- I'll understand what you mean.
I understand you're passing on the work, not rejecting me as a composer. On those occasions you do pass on one of my pieces (I hesitate to say you "reject" the piece because it sounds harsher than what you're actually doing), I fully understand that it's not me you're passing on, it's the piece. Now, it's possible that the piece has got some inherent flaws, but again, I realize it's more likely that it just won't fit your current publishing needs. I won't take it personally -- I'll just send the piece elsewhere to try to get it published. Saying that you like the piece but have to pass on it is a more than sufficient reply.
I understand that publishing needs change, and that pieces you might once have published you no longer will. Again, I understand that publishing -- as much as we might wish it were otherwise -- is a business, and businesses want to make money. That means that if publishing my piece has a strong potential to lose money for the company, you can't take the risk. I understand -- really, I do. Just let me know that you won't be publishing that sort of piece for a while, and not only will I accept the news, but I'll probably stop wasting your time with further similar pieces.
I'm in this for the long haul. When I first started getting pieces published, waiting nine months from acceptance to print seemed like a painfully long wait. I had just set foot through a door into an unknown world and I had no idea how big that world was. Now, I'm here; I'm in this world of publishing, and quite frankly, I happen to like it. I'm staying, for as long as I want to, or as long as those who publish my music and for whom it is published will have me. That being said, if you're accepting my piece, don't apologize if you can't publish it for a year or eighteen months or two years or even three. I'm not going anywhere, and (I hope) neither is my music. Just let me know when you expect it to be released (I'll probably forget not long after that, or else get confused if by "Fall 2012" you mean it shows up in Fall 2012, or it's available for people to play in Fall 2012 -- either way, I'll realize it's being published when comp copies show up on my doorstep), and that's good enough for me.
I appreciate everything you do for me. I know that without composers, publishers wouldn't exist ... but I also know the reverse is true. It would be much harder for me to be a composer and share my works with others if it weren't for you and what your company does on my behalf. That being said, I know my place in the scheme of things and what my part is to play. I understand enough of the process to know how I relate to it and it relates to me. As much as I have sent you my works to try to help your company make some money, I appreciate all the help you have provided me in return -- suggestions for corrections, changes, ideas for pieces, general philosophies on publishing, etc. -- that have helped me get further in this field. Moreover, I appreciate the fact that for many of you, I'm starting to consider you a little less as editors and a little more as friends.

Thank you for your time in reading this. I hope it will help you realize that I'm here to stay (if you and those out there will have me), I'm not going to take a rejection personally, and that I'm just thrilled to be a part of this wonderful and exciting world. Have a great day, and we'll be in touch soon.

Musically yours,
Jason

Saturday Summary, July 16, 2011 -- HMA National Seminar Edition

2011-07-16T08:00:00.001-04:00

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.

Today I'm posting from the Handbell Musicians of America (formerly and still sort of currently -- long story -- the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers) National Seminar in Minneapolis. The Seminar is halfway done and so far it's been wonderful. Being around so many talented and enthusiastic bell ringers is always an exciting time, and seeing so many people who are fast becoming friends is a real treat, as well.

So, while I'm here learning about and sharing excitement for handbells, needless to say, I'm not doing a lot of creating of my own. Today's summary, therefore, will be painfully brief:

Music -- While sitting in a couple of classes, I've jotted down a couple of notes (literally) that may turn into pieces -- just being in this atmosphere tends to cause things like that to happen. I'll keep you updated if anything actually comes of those notes.

Writing -- Just the day before I left town, I finished the current (I think it's the 3rd) draft of the second Sadonia book. I'll let it ripen for a week or two after I get back, then tackle it again and see if I can't make it even better. I think I'm still on track for a December release, but I'll know more in a few weeks.

Publishing -- Aside from touching base with a lot of my publishers in-person here in Minneapolis, I did just sell my first copy of The Coming of the Heroes through Smashwords, and just found out yesterday that it has been accepted for inclusion into their Premium Catalog, meaning that in the near future, it will be available for Nook, Sony Reader, iProducts, and other places. Look for it to show up in those catalogs in the next week or two.

That's it from here. If I get around to it, I may post a quick update tonight or Sunday to update on how Seminar is going. Until then, have a great weekend, and we'll see you back in the land of corn fields and large oval racetracks for our regular Wednesday post.

Part of the Tribe

2011-07-13T08:00:00.081-04:00

By the time you all are reading this, I should be on my way to the beautiful (I'm assuming -- I've never been there, but I figure it's best to start off with positive assumptions) city of Minneapolis for the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (who now want to be called Handbell Musicians of America) National Seminar. It's four straight days of classes, roundtables, shopping, ringing, listening, eating, breathing, and swimming in handbell goodness, surrounded by hundreds of other folks who are all eating and breathing and drinking it in, too.

In short, I'm going to be with my Tribe.

We spend our lives surrounded by countless people, and we all bear unique and diverse relationships to them. Some people are related to us by blood; others by marriage. There are the friends we go shopping with, the friends we play sports with, the friends we go to dinner with. There are people we associate with at work, people we associate with at our child's school, people we associate with at businesses we frequent. Even at work, there are unique groups: people who are above us (like bosses and managers), people who are our equals, and people who are our subordinates, and we relate to each of these groups in very different ways.

None of these is our Tribe.

I, too, have these relationships -- at school where I teach, with the students and the parents of the students I give piano lessons to, with people at church, with people at the local Starbucks (yes, I drink a lot of coffee). I love them all in their own unique ways and am thrilled they are a part of my life ... but they're not my Tribe.

We all have a Tribe, and in many cases more than one. Our Tribe consists of the people who have the same passions in life as we do, the same calling. What we do with most of our lives is often not what we are passionate about. The people around us may love us, support us, wish us well ... but they don't feel the same yearnings in their heart of hearts as we do. Our Tribe supports us ... but they give us more -- they give us a sense of belonging, or rightness, of acceptance. Our Tribe lets us know that our passions, our deep desires are fine, right, healthy, and good. Our Tribe feeds our minds, strengthens our convictions, and nourishes our souls.

My tribe is musicians, and specifically handbell musicians. I do many things with my life, but I am a musician and composer. Any time I do things with other handbell musicians, I am with my Tribe.

Our Tribes don't have to be local -- my mother is a quilter, and she is part of a vast Tribe who regularly post pictures of gorgeous and elaborate quilts on their own blogs, and comment copiously on each other's blogs. Her Tribe is spread across several countries on at least three continents, and I'm fairly certain that for at least a couple of them, English is a second language, perhaps a third of fourth. I interact with members of my own Tribe from coast to coast via email and Facebook.

But it's a wonderful thing when members of a Tribe all gather together in person. The synergy in the room as multiple people of like mind share their ideas, their contagious enthusiasm, their love and their passion for a thing is indescribable. My mother gets together with members of her Tribe once or twice a year for quilting retreats where they sit, sew, compare fabrics and patterns, and generally have a good time being quilters. My trip today is the same thing -- getting together in person with my Tribe to share ideas, grow, expand, and rejoice in our shared interest.

I could go on here (and may in later posts) about the Tribe -- like the fact that we may belong to more than one, or even that the Tribes we belong to may well change with the years or phases of our lives -- but I think you get the idea. If you don't know who your Tribe is, take some time today to contemplate what you're really passionate about, what you would do with your spare time if you didn't have to work for money and wouldn't make money doing it. If you really want to earn your brownie points, search the internet to find people and groups that share your passion, and see if you could connect with them. For most Tribes, all you need to belong is to care about what the Tribe cares about. Try it ... I'm betting they'll welcome you with open arms.

Saturday Summary, July 9, 2011

2011-07-09T09:22:00.000-04:00

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.

It has been a fantastically creative week here. I've composed, submitted, written, and even done a bit of visual art just for fun (playing with some new oil pastels -- cool medium to try). Having basically the whole week just to myself helped immensely, and gives me a wonderful window on what my life would be like if I did nothing but creative and artistic work full-time.

Music -- I decided this week I was going to start incorporating music back into my work (instead of focusing single-mindedly on editing my novel). The result is I finished one in-progress piano arrangement and wrote another two, all of which will be played in church tomorrow. I enjoy writing music, but it always gives me an extra little thrill when I can take a piece I've written and turn it around and put it to work doing what it was designed to do.

It's been a while since we've seen this, but I actually needed to update it today, so ... here it is:

Handbell pieces -- 20 10
Piano pieces -- 20 13
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 43

I'm still behind where I want to be for the year (yeah, by quite a lot), but I also realize that if I can have a week like I had this week in terms of writing music, then getting caught up -- while difficult -- isn't beyond the realm of possibility.

Writing -- A lot of movement here. Since I'm heading off to AGEHR's National Seminar next week, I wanted to have this current draft of SC2 finished before I left. Thanks to a marathon editing session yesterday (23 pages edited while fighting a migraine headache all day), I'm back to the point where I think getting this draft finished is quite possible. This won't be the final draft by any stretch of the imagination, but is nonetheless one step closer to the book being done. (Of course, another major step to getting the book done is actually coming up with a title, but that's a battle for another day.)

Publishing -- The first publishing news is about my writing: just a reminder that The Coming of the Heroes is half off this month at SmashWords in countless e-book formats -- only $2.00. You don't need a handheld e-reader to take advantage of this. There are many free e-reader programs available online, and you can also read the book in PDF or plain ol' HTML format. One purchase gives you access to all those formats, so you can try one until you find one you like. Please, check it out, and encourage your friends to do so, as well.

Once I finished the aforementioned three piano pieces, I sent them and several of their brethren off to Lorenz to see if they'd like to publish the lot. So far, all my published piano works have been through Lorenz, so I figured that was a good place to start. (The fact their piano catalog is impressive doesn't hurt matters, either.)

I also sent off my handbell piece Sympatico to AGEHR to see if they want it, and sent off Escape Velocity to Kevin McChesney at Jeffers for his consideration. Escape Velocity is the one I wrote for the Raleigh Ringers, and which they've been playing at all their concerts this season. I've had more people I've never met make nice, positive comments about that piece than any piece I've ever written, so I'm hopeful it will be available for folks that want it sometime in the future.

I also got a royalty check from the folks at SoundForth. They're one of the publishers that give royalties twice a year, so neither check is as large as some others, but they come more often. Regardless, it was a nice little find in my mailbox.

I think that's it from my corner of the world. Look for a regular post on Wednesday morning, then updates and posts at random times from AGEHR's National Seminar in Minneapolis later in the week. Should be a great time with a whole bunch of people crazy about handbells (and crazy handbell people) getting together for four days of ringing, learning about, listening to, and breathing handbells. Have a great weekend!

Publishing vs. Self-Publishing

2011-07-06T08:00:00.133-04:00

I got an email earlier this week from Nick Barnard, who asked an interesting question about publishing:

I've been following your blog recently, and I noted that you were working on submitting pieces to publishers and those were rejected. On the other hand, I know you've got a few books via Amazon that are essentially self published. I'm kind of struck by the dichotomy that you're publishing the books via print on demand, but you're looking for the music to be picked up by a publisher.

I've had folks tell me that part of this is because of the promotion... Is this all of it? From what I see, most publisher's promotion really consists of a mailed catalog twice a year or so. Am I missing something?

It was a good question, and one I had already thought long and hard about, especially as I was planning on self-publishing The Coming of the Heroes. It comes down to three factors: the submission and evaluation process, the available market and promoting to that market, and my own personal goals and desires.

Submission and Evaluation -- The submission process for nearly all of my music is a very straight-forward affair: send an email to the editor or the submission department with my contact info (a nice greeting and thanking them for their time are a good addition), and attach PDF or Finale files of the manuscript, as they wish. Some of the publishers also want a recording of the piece, but a simple MIDI recording almost always does the trick.

Submitting a novel is a whole other beast. It usually looks something like this: A cover letter (in which if you can't sell them your novel in about one paragraph, they're no longer interested), a 2 to 3 page summary of the novel, a longer 5 to 15 page synopsis of the novel, and the first couple of chapters. The problem is, no two publishers or agents want exactly the same thing submitted -- some want a longer summary, others want a Statement of Purpose, and still others want to know your thoughts on the last five books you read. Every time I would submit some writing, it took anywhere from a day to a week to get it ready, mainly because I had to sweat and fret over the submission packet as much as I had over the actual work being evaluated.

When a music publisher is evaluating a submission, they're evaluating the work itself; when a fiction publisher or agent is evaluating, they're evaluating your ability to sell yourself in a tiny package that has only limited relation to the actual work you've submitted, and if you can get past that hurdle, then maybe -- maybe -- they'll actually evaluate part of your work ... but only part. Imagine a music publisher evaluating Beethoven's 5th symphony based on the first four bars: "Well, I like that da-da-da-DUH part, but then you just repeat it again. Didn't you have anything new to say? No, sorry, we'll take a pass."

The final consideration here is the amount of time it takes a publisher or agent to respond. There are some music publishers who take six to nine months to get back, but they're in the minority. Most take four to six weeks, and many are faster than that. Some (especially Doug Wagner at Lorenz and Kevin McChesney at Jeffers) seem to make it a point of pride to respond yes or no within twenty-four hours. With writing, hearing a response within a month is almost unheard of; half a year is not at all uncommon, and there are times where your submission will simply be lost (as happened to me with one agent), and their advice in such a case (after having waited a good nine months to find this out) is to resubmit your work, and they'll add it to their slush pile. Not exactly a strong vote in favor of going the traditional route, at least in my book

Available Market and Promotion -- Part of my decision to self-publish my novel was the available market for it: depending on where you look, the literacy rate for the US is anywhere from 77% of the population on up. Now true, not every one of those Literate Americans is in the target market for my novel (though I like to think it has a wide appeal beyond just young adults), but if I talk to five random folks on the street, odds are good four of them can read, and at least one or two of them will be at least slightly interested in the book, enough to at least check out the sample chapters or mention it to someone else.

With my music, it's a different beast. A far smaller percentage of the population is what I'll call musically-literate (around 17% according to the folks at ChaCha), meaning they can read music and reproduce what is on the page. Add to that the fact that a flautist really has no interest in piano music and a violinist probably has no interest in handbell music, and the market for any given one of my compositions is now frightfully tiny. Factor in that, at least with an ensemble like a handbell choir or a string orchestra, while a dozen or more folks may play the piece, there's a much, much smaller number of people who actually buy the music for them to play.

To me, that's the advantage to putting my music out with a traditional publisher -- they have already identified the people who are most likely to buy the music they publish, and they have well-established methods for getting new music in front of them. If I were to try doing this with my music, it would be an unmitigated disaster (and heaven forbid I should try my five-random-people experiment as I did theoretically with my novel -- I'd have to talk to at least three or four-hundred random people to find one who might be interested in buying one of my handbell pieces). In this case, though the amount I make per copy is pretty small (10% is standard, but it's still just 10%), most of what I'm giving up in royalties I'm making up for in the publisher's knowledge and legwork in getting the music into the hands of the people who will buy it.

Personal Goals and Desires -- Despite all my time and energy put into my writing, I still really view it as no more than a hobby. I enjoy writing my Sadonian Chronicles books; I love interacting with the characters and seeing them come to life on the page. Would I like to make some money from writing the books? Absolutely. Am I expecting these novels to be my bread-and-butter in later years? No, not at all.

Don't get me wrong -- I think the books are good, well-written, and have a lot to say. My own personal goal in writing them, however, is not to try to make a living; it's to write a good story. Getting the book available for people to read is enough of a reward for me. If people share it with others, that's so much better. Since I'm not trying to earn a wage from these books, I opted to go the self-publishing route where I do make more money per book, but I also don't sell nearly as many books as I might otherwise.

On the other hand, I do see myself at some point in the future being able to survive on what I make from my composing (with my wife's salary as a teacher added in, of course), and so going the traditional route there makes more sense with me. Add up the number of copies of handbell music sold in this country in a year, and stack it up against the number of books sold in this country in a single day -- it's no contest. Music buyers look to this small handfull of publishers to provide them the music they need, and so being part of that makes it possible for folks to find my music.

As with anything, the decisions I made (and continue to make) are personal and based on a number of factors. For me, the ease of submitting music and the enormous benefits that come from being part of an established publisher's catalog make the decision easy; the arguments go the other way for writing publishers and agents. Now, if my life-long dream had been to write novels, then I'm sure I'd be putting up with that system and jumping through all the hoops, trying to become a "real" published author.

I'm happy with the choices I've made, and I hope that some of what I've talked about here will help those of you facing the same decisions. Realize, though, that intermingled with the few facts I've put in here is a whole lot of opinion and preference -- making the same choices as I have won't bring you happiness if they're not the right ones for you. Good luck with your choices, and no matter what route you follow, remember to keep creating ... otherwise all these questions are moot.

The Coming of the Heroes -- Half Off at Smashwords!

2011-07-04T22:11:00.002-04:00

As part of Smashwords' July Summer/Winter sale, you can get The Coming of the Heroes half-off, now through the end of July. The e-book version is available for nearly any e-book reader you can imagine, as well as other electronic formats you can read on the computer of your choice. Check it out today, and be sure to tell your friends -- the 50% off deal ends July 31!

Saturday Summary, July 2, 2011

2011-07-02T10:30:00.000-04:00

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.

And here we are again on Saturday. The time -- and my summer -- are flying by. I'm not terribly pleased about that.

First, an apology for skipping this past Wednesday's post. I got caught up in the middle of some of my other creative projects, and when the momentum is working in my favor, stopping to do anything else -- even a short blog post for The Creative -- is enough to kill that momentum, so I made the decision to keep on with my project. Posts will return this Wednesday.

It was another of those weeks where I got a ton of stuff done, but on a project so large that there's really nothing concrete yet to show for it. Read on to see what I mean ...

Music -- I did some minor edits on my Escape Velocity, which I wrote for the Raleigh Ringers. As a part of getting it ready for their concerts this year, they worked with me and made some changes that really helped the piece, but I, being generally lazy about such things, failed to incorporate those changes into the final score. Thanks to Keith Burt of the Raleigh Ringers, I've now got their changes incorporated into the score, so I can get it ready to send out for hopeful publication.

I've taken a break from composing these past few weeks so that I can concentrate on editing my next book, but starting today and moving on through the rest of the summer, I'm going to start incorporating composing back into my daily schedule. I'm drastically behind where I wanted to be at this point on the year in terms of composing, and well behind where I was last year, and that just depresses me. Look for more pleasant information to start appearing here in the coming weeks.

Writing -- More editing on SC2. I've got about 100 pages left to go in this draft before I stick it away for a couple of weeks to ferment ... then I get to tackle it again. This is really more than an "edit." It's more like a semi-partial rewrite. It's been a good seven or eight years since I wrote the rough draft, and in that time, my writing has improved (I think) fairly dramatically. A large part of what I'm doing here is trying to make the text more understandable, while also making it sound better. The story is staying the same; how I'm telling it is changing. Fortunately, the next time I go through the whole thing should require much less tinkering and more fine-tuning, spell-checking, and actual editing.

Publishing -- First of all, don't forget that The Coming of the Heroes is still available for purchase in hard copy, for Kindle, or for Nearly Every Other Electronic Format Known to Mankind. Tell your friends.

I also received a proof of a forthcoming piece from AGEHR -- my arrangement of Lead On, O King Eternal (which can also be called The Day of Resurrection for when you're playing it at Easter). It took very little time to go over it for several reasons: it's relatively short, it's no more than a level 2, it's for only 2 to 3 octaves ... and whoever does the proofs for AGEHR does a great job transcribing things over, so there's very little that I as a composer have to have them change. I'm not fully sure when this one is coming out (let's face it, I just can't keep track of it. I only know when any of my pieces is being released when I find it available online.), but I'm betting it's in the next twelve months or so.

That's it from here for this week. Look for regular posts next week, then the following week, things will get a little strange as I'll be up at the AGEHR National Seminar in Minneapolis. I'll try to post some pics and extra posts from up there. If you're there, feel free to say hello.

Taking Time Off

2011-06-29T15:55:00.000-04:00

I know it's Wednesday and I'm supposed to be posting here on The Creative, but I'm taking the week off to concentrate on my writing and editing. Look for a Saturday Summary this weekend, and a regular post returning next Wednesday.

Thanks for understanding, and have a great week!

Saturday Summary, June 25, 2011

2011-06-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

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.

It's been a fantastic week here in Indianapolis. The highlight of the week, of course, was last Monday's Raleigh Ringers concert, which went off without a hitch (okay, a very minor hitch -- the A/C didn't work in the theater and it got a bit toasty, but with such fantastic entertainment, most folks didn't mind). A huge thank-you to Dave and all the Ringers for bringing such beautiful and inspiring music to around 700 handbell enthusiasts from Indiana and Surrounding Areas.

Of course, after such a performance, life returns to normal, though a normal that's just a bit better than it was beforehand. With that in mind, here's this week's Summary:

Music -- Still no finished pieces here, though I have got a couple of ideas for some new pieces percolating. I also revisited my piece Escape Velocity (which I wrote for the Raleigh Ringers and which I got to hear live for the first time Monday night) and edited it to be playable by ensembles other than ones with 7 1/2 octaves of bells and 6 octaves of chimes. I hope to start sending it off to publishers here in the near future.

Writing -- I've progressed a bit on SC2, though not as far as I'd like to. I had a couple days this week where I just got no editing done, and a couple where I got a respectable amount done. I'm hopeful that after the Patriotic Concert at our church tomorrow, my time will open up a bit and give me more freedom to work some longer hours on it. I still want to get this round of edits done by the end of July, though I wouldn't complain if I got them done a bit sooner.

Publishing -- About the only thing that happened here was that I checked on The Coming of the Heroes at Smashwords and found that there was an error that prevented it from being included in the online stores for the Nook, iPad, and all the other various readers. I think I've fixed the problem, but it will take them another week or two to check the file again and give it final approval. In the meantime, if you have a Nook, iPad, Kindle, or any other e-reader, I invite you to check out the book. When you purchase the book at Smashwords, you actually get access to multiple formats of the book, so even if you don't have an e-reader, you can still read the book in HTML or PDF format on your computer, or download one of the free e-reader programs out there and read it in e-book format directly on your computer. (Of course, you can still purchase a print version of the book here.)

I've also dropped the price on the electronic version, down to $3.99 from $5.99. I want to get as many folks as possible reading the book and getting into the land of Sadonia, and I don't want price to be a barrier to their journey.

That's it from here. If you're in the Indianapolis area Sunday afternoon (June 26), I invite you to check out Irvington United Methodist Church's annual Strawberry Festival from 12:30 to 4:00, and our free Patriotic Concert at 4:30. Until Wednesday, then, have a great weekend, and keep creating!

The Power of Staying Stupid

2011-06-22T08:00:00.061-04:00

This week, I started reading Steven Pressfield's book Do the Work. I'd read his The War of Art before and found it a concise, simple-to-understand treatise on how to make art, so I figured his new book would be, if nothing else, an enjoyable read.

Even though I'm only halfway through (it's a short book and a fast read), one thing really struck me as both counter-intuitive and completely accurate -- his claim that, to make a truly great work of art, we must "Stay Stupid."

On its surface, that sounds like a preposterous claim, but once he explains it, it's remarkable how accurate his assessment is.

When Pressfield says to "stay stupid," it has nothing to do with intelligence, knowledge, or general ability to navigate your way around your world. No, his stupidity has to do with maintaining a healthy ignorance of the true ramifications of the work you want to create, the headaches and roadblocks that await you. He claims, rightly so, that if we stop to think about all the turmoil and strife and angst and agony we'll go through in creating a work of art, we'll never begin because we'll realize just how crazy an idea it truly is.

Case in point -- the recent Raleigh Ringers concert our church sponsored. I had no experience putting on and promoting a concert; neither did anyone in our music ministries. None. I've done a concert or two at our church, but the people who come to that tend to be members of the congregation or family and friends of the performers. For our church to put on a concert of this size, we'd have to get more people to come -- many more.

Then there were the financial risks: not only did we have to pay a respectable amount for the performers, but we would also have to rent a venue for the Ringers' considerable stage setup. Add to that costs of promoting and mailing things, and the argument for forgetting the whole thing gets stronger still.

Then there was the man-(and woman-)power issue: our church is not enormous, nor is our music ministries. For a church with 100 people in the music ministries, the work for each becomes manageable; for our church, with only about 18 in our music ministries, the labor becomes substantial.

And yet, despite all that, we went ahead with it. Why? As the ringleader of the whole thing, I maintained a healthy dose of stupidity. I embraced the motto "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" -- I hurtled headlong toward putting on this concert, and because I was moving rapidly with my head down, many others thought I must have had some clue what I was doing, and so followed right along with me. Of course, once they were rushing forward, they had little choice but to keep running with it.

So, what was the result? The Raleigh Ringers performed in Indianapolis to a crowd of about 700 people from all over Indiana, western Ohio, eastern and central Illinois, and northern Kentucky. The financial hole we dug ourselves into when we agreed to do this got filled in, with a little dirt left over for other uses.

This is but one example of a universal truth: if we stop to think rationally about those things we feel called to do, we'll often find enough arguments against doing the thing to stop in our tracks and turn around. Yet look at some of the greatest achievements of mankind, and see if they didn't come about because someone adamantly refused to "listen to reason." Look at all the explorers, inventors, artists, and entrepreneurs who achieved tremendous success and fame -- nearly every one of them had to battle the Voices of Reason to get started, but once they proved that their unreasonable endeavor could be achieved, their work became the stuff of history.

Ask yourself what you feel called to do, drawn toward, but which you're not doing because it's "unreasonable." Ask yourself if some well-cultivated stupidity would help you out. If the worst that happens by proceeding is you'll be out some money or risk looking foolish, then why not take the plunge? (By corollary, if proceeding has the risk to potentially leave you disabled or dead, think a little bit more carefully before you decide to follow this advice. Please.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find some other crazy endeavor to stay stupid about ...

Saturday Summary, June 18, 2011

2011-06-18T10:33:00.000-04:00

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.

It's been another busy week here, yet one that leaves me very little to report. One last time, you get the advertisement, then that's it:

The Raleigh Ringers concert in Indianapolis is THIS MONDAY, JUNE 20. If you don't yet have your tickets (and they're going fast!), visit rrindy.com.

Okay, end of Public Service Announcement. On to the summary:

Music -- I did compose a bit this week, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. Still, some composing is better than none.

Writing -- I'm now past the half-way mark in this revision of SC2. My hope is to wrap this revision up within the next four weeks, and with the Raleigh Ringers concert done this Monday and the Patriotic things done at church a week from tomorrow, I ought to be able to get that done.

Publishing -- I heard back from Bill Griffin at Beckenhorst, and they'll be publishing my arrangement of the Holst tune I Vow to Thee, My Country. That should be showing up, I would guess, about a year from now. I also had a couple of rejections on various pieces, and sent those on to look for homes elsewhere -- all part of the game.

I also sold another print copy of The Coming of the Heroes (which still isn't a great number I've sold, but it's better than zero). I've had a couple of people download my sample chapters from Smashwords (and I, of course, invite you to do the same). It should be available through their partner retailers (Barnes and Noble, Sony, iTunes, etc.) sometime in the next few weeks -- I'll keep you updated.

That's it from here. Have a wonderful weekend and a great week, and we'll look for you back here next Wednesday.

The Importance of Play

2011-06-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

For the past three weeks, I've been following the program Julia Cameron sets out in her book, The Artist's Way. It's billed as "A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self." Now, why I'm doing it, I'm not entirely sure -- on the whole, I feel like I've discovered my Creative Self, and have little I need to recover from. Still, I've heard great things from various people about the course and the book, so I figured, "Sure, why not?"

Now, to be fair, I'm not going whole-hog on the thing. There are tasks about writing letters to your former self or to people who may have blocked you creatively in the past (and then, of course, not mailing the letters) that I'm just not doing. I'm not keeping up with the Creative Affirmations like I should. I'm not so much swimming deep in the waters as taking a comfortable ride down the river on a spacious paddle boat -- I get to see the scenery and appreciate the beauty without all the effort of actually swimming.

I started the program the last day of school, which means I ought to get through most of the twelve-week program before the little ones show back up in mid-August. Right now, I'm starting "Week 4: Recovering a Sense of Integrity." This is the week of "Reading Deprivation" (evidently creative folk tend to turn to other people's words as a form of escape, drowning out the voices of inspiration in our head) wherein I'm not supposed to read ... well, anything. I'm not applying it to drastically important emails (with the Raleigh Ringers concert in 5 days and me being the main contact, I can't exactly do that) or any writing I'm working on myself (second book of The Sadonian Chronicles), but I'm trying to be good about all the rest. Ironically, that means that while I can write this blog post, once it's published, I can't read it, at least until next Wednesday.

Now usually, of an evening, I'll sit with my wife in the living room, and we'll watch some TV (right now we're in the middle of re-watching the 3rd season of Lost) while I dabble on the computer and check out various sites and blogs. Occasionally I'll have a book beside me and I'll read. We even have subtitles on the TV screen (though, to be fair, right now they're in Spanish as we try to learn that language together).

For the next seven days, that's all off. I can't sit and read websites, I can't progress in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets either (rereading it, for about the 5th or 6th time). What will I do?

I'm a fairly obsessive and compulsive person, normally. If I'm not working on one thing, I'm working on something else. Anytime I'm doing anything, a deep part of me needs to feel that it's accomplishing something useful, moving me forward in some way. One side benefit of this program (and this week in particular) is that I'm going to have to remember how to play.

Do you remember playing? I'm not talking sports or music (though those are good, too), but when you were a kid, and the sun was high overhead and a gentle breeze stirred the leaves on the trees, and you'd go running out the screen door and shout over your shoulder to your mother, "I'm gonna go play!" You had no idea what you were going to do, just that you were going to "go play".

I've tried to get back that sense of play these past few weeks, at least in some small way. Instead of spending every waking moment on one of my jobs or creative pursuits, or something related to one of my jobs or creative pursuits, I've started doing things that have nothing to do with any of them, things that won't (expressly) move my career forward:

I've spent some time playing video games (something I did quite a lot as a child and a teen, and something I've done less and less as Real Life has crept in and taken over).

I've started drawing with colored pencils. I'm not great (I've discovered I can do mountain ranges really well -- everything else, not so much), but it's been fun filling an 11" x 18" piece of paper with streaks of color that actually look, somewhat, like something.

I've even started spending more time with my cats, just petting and playing and talking (Marcus doesn't say much, but he always nods knowingly at all the right times).

So often we get caught up in being Responsible Adults that we forget how to play. It doesn't have to be big, or drastic, or expensive, but playing -- doing something just to do it, whether or not there are any practical benefits to doing it -- can be wonderfully liberating. It frees the mind and the soul, and shows us that not every move, every action, every step we take has to have a well-defined meaning. We can do things for the sheer experience of doing them. It's these experiences that our minds and souls combine and build, mix and meld, ferment and foment into the works of art we create.

Spend some time today just playing. Think of something you did as a child that you haven't done in a while ... then go do it, even if on a vastly limited scale. Get in touch with the child inside -- or at least that child's playful side -- and just see where the experience of playing takes you.

Remember the lesson we all learned from watching The Shining (which my wife and I watched last week -- the book is better; way better): "All work an no play makes Jack want to attack his family with an axe."

Or something like that ...

Saturday Summary, June 11, 2011

2011-06-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

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.

This week's post will be short since this week's creative work was fairly monotonous, albeit productive. A few items before I get to the actual Summary however:

If you live in the Indianapolis area and have not yet bought your tickets for the Raleigh Ringers concert on Monday, June 20, check out rrindy.com to get your tickets. It should be an incredible concert.
The Coming of the Heroes is now available in most e-book formats on Smashwords. You can get it in PDF, HTML, or for your iPhone, iPad, mobile device, Nook, Sony Reader, or pretty much any other device you can conceive of.
You can now go to the Sadonian Chronicles website and sign up for the Sadonian Chronicles mailing list, where you'll get news and updates about the series, as well as the occasional sneak peak or promotional code.

Okay then, on to the update:

Music -- Oddly enough, I did no composing this week, choosing instead to devote all my time and energy to editing SC2.

Writing -- I forged ahead with my edits on SC2, though not as far as I would have liked. I've discovered that I can edit between four and eight pages a day, depending on how long I work and how good my writing was in the previous draft. At that rate, I should be done with this round of editing by the end of July (SC2 is just a little longer than Coming of the Heroes). At the very least, I've discovered that I don't need to make my edits by hand and then copy them to the computer -- my brain is capable of skipping that very tactile step and still making good fixes, changes, and corrections straight on the screen.

Publishing -- I had a publisher this week reject some of my choral works that have been making the rounds, and had not one but two publishers pass on my arrangement of the Gustav Holst hymntune THAXTED. All those pieces are once more making the rounds.

I had my latest releases from SoundForth show up at the Handbell World website, so that's exciting. I also haven't mentioned the Jeffers' Hot 40 list in a while (it's their weekly list of their top-selling pieces for the past 90 days). Beneath the Cross of Jesus from Beckenhorst was on there for several weeks this year, starting back in late February or March and going on through Easter. The past couple of weeks, Requiem and Remembrance from Ringing Word has been on there. There's no telling what that equates to in terms of sales, but it does at least tell me that someone is out there buying those pieces, playing them, and (hopefully) enjoying them.

That's it for this week. I have one more week of relative sanity before the most hectic week of the summer hits (a Raleigh Ringers concert on Monday the 20th, a final dress rehearsal for a concert on Thursday the 23rd, and a Patriotic Concert on Sunday the 26th -- oy!). Have a great week, best of luck in your creating, and we'll see you back here on Wednesday.

Oh, and check out The Coming of the Heroes!

The Shouldas

2011-06-08T09:03:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past two days working. They've actually been rather productive days, good ones, the sort that leave me happy and giddy by the time evening rolls around.

So what have I done?

I've spent time studying Spanish with Rosetta Stone. Several hours over the past two days, in fact. I can now say the utterly useless phrase "Este es mi sombrero en invierno." I even did one of their online things today where I actually spoke Spanish with other people. It didn't kill me, so, in theory, it just made me stronger.

The other thing I've spent my time on is editing the second book in my Sadonian Chronicles series (hereinafter known as SC2, because I'm tired of writing the "the second book in my Sadonian Chronicles series" over and over). In the past several days, I've edited a good fifteen or eighteen pages, and I feel like I've really made the story stronger. After so long away from the novel, it's nice to dive right in and reconnect with the characters (not just reconnect with them, but also gain some new insights about the story and its world I didn't know before -- always a treat).

The problem is I shoulda been composing. I've got a list of pieces fifteen or twenty long that I want to compose -- handbell pieces, piano pieces, string pieces, choral pieces. The list goes on.

Now, why does it really matter if I'm studying Spanish instead of composing, or writing instead of composing? I'm still being productive, right? I'm still getting things done, right?

The reason it matters -- at least to the rational, button-down, work-a-day part of me -- is that composing is what pays the bills. (Well, it doesn't exactly pay the bills, but it does more and gets closer to that dream every year.) If I don't compose new pieces, if I don't get new releases in publishers' lineups, my income won't increase, and I'll never be able to survive solely on my composing. While I do have one book for sale, I'm not making enough for more than the (very) occasional latte. (Don't even get me started on Spanish -- I can't even remotely begin to see how I'll make any money from being able to speak a second language.)

Sometimes as Creatives, we don't always do what we "should" do, or at least what the world or society or our Common Sense tells us we "should" do. What lets us be successful as Creatives, however, is that we listen to our own inner voices, our own secret urgings, and do what they tell us to do. Today, mine told me to edit SC2, so I did. As a result, I got about eight or nine pages edited, far more than I would usually do on a normal day. Had I fought that urge, had I spent my time composing instead, I'm sure I'd have something to show for it ... but my thoughts the whole time would have been on how I'd rather be writing, and neither my writing nor my composing would have lived up to their potential.

The next time you sit down to do something creative, ask yourself if you're doing what you truly feel called to do, or what you feel you "should" do. Take financial gain, prestige, ability, recognition -- take them all out of the equation: what do you feel called to do? What will go awry if you give in to that calling and work on it, right now? Gravitate toward what's calling you -- whether or not it's what you shoulda been doin' -- and see if your creative work and your creative life don't come out better for it.

Saturday Summary, June 4, 2011

2011-06-04T09:16:00.001-04:00

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.

This week seemed to go much faster than last week, perhaps because I had a ton of time for all my creative pursuits. Monday was a day off, Tuesday was the last day of school, and with the exception of a few piano lessons Wednesday and a couple of hours of rehearsals Thursday night, the week's been all mine. Very nice.

One housekeeping thing while it's on my mind -- some of you may have noticed that the section at the top left is no longer called the "Daily Haiku." Well, I was missing more days writing than I was making, so I decided instead of failing at writing a daily haiku, I could succeed at writing a haiku whenever I felt like it, which usually is the same day I write a post.

I also should update the Haiku archives, too, but we'll get to that later. For now, on to the update:

Music -- I finished up a 3-5 octave arrangement of the slow part from Holst's Jupiter. He later set that tune to lyrics for the hymn "I Vow to Thee, My Country" (the hymntune is THAXTED -- big in England, not so much on this side of the pond). It has other titles, but I chose that one because it will go well with our church's upcoming Patriotic Concert, and we needed another piece to play.

I also updated my whiteboard with a list of pieces I want to write this summer, and it's a doozy. If I can actually get really moving on those, it ought to be a wonderfully productive summer.

Here's where my count of compositions stands for the year so far:

Handbell pieces -- 20 10
Piano pieces -- 20 16
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 46

Looking at my whiteboard, I think I'm going to overshoot the handbell number by quite a bit, which I'm just fine with. Sadly, that means I may undershoot (is that even a word?) some of the other categories, but we'll see what transpires.

Writing -- I didn't get to it much, but I did spend some time editing the second book of The Sadonian Chronicles (hereinafter "SC2," because I'm already tired of typing and writing "Sadonian Chronicles 2"). I had made some edits by hand to a hard copy of it, but just hadn't transferred them to the computer yet. I'm still in the midst of that, and it's going well. Sadly, I fear for when those hand edits run out and I've still got two-thirds of the book to edit from scratch. It wasn't great progress, but it was something, so I'll take it.

Publishing -- Aside from submitting I Vow to Thee, My Country for publication, all that happened here was I finished editing the four proofs for my upcoming Beckenhorst releases. By the time the end of December rolls around, that will make eight pieces of mine that Beckenhorst will have released this year alone. All in all, a really good year for my publishing.

That's it from here. I'm off for more coffee, and then some fun (I've promised myself I get to play an hour of Civilization V as this week's "Artist Date" for The Artist's Way), then some recycling -- the sad part of cleaning out (some would say "gutting") two offices in two days is you end up with a lot of trash, a lot of dust everywhere, and a ton of stuff that needs to go various places to be recycled. Still, once that's gone, our house and our lives will breathe easier, and we'll reclaim half our garage.

Until next time, happy creating!

So Much Time, So Hard to Do

2011-06-01T08:33:00.000-04:00

The meteorological calendar says I've still got three weeks, but as far as I'm concerned, summer starts today. School is out, the bulk of my private lessons have ended for the time being, and I have the whole summer ahead of me to do creative work. As I envisioned this moment from the safety and sanity of the school year, it looked like a paradise, and endless expanse of creative beauty just waiting for me to enjoy it.

As I stand here before it, however, it looks like a great gaping chasm, an endless expanse of nothing, upon which I'm going to flounder in my attempts to impose some sort of order and meaning.

My wife and I have visited the beautiful island of Kaua'i twice now, and as I think about this summer, I'm reminded of those trips. From the safety and security of my office on the mainland, Kaua'i is an idyllic setting, peaceful, beautiful, charming.

Flying to Kaua'i is sheer terror. If you fly out on a cloudless day, you can look down and see that there is NOTHING below you except vast quantities of water. On the six-and-a-half hour trip from the mainland to Kaua'i, nearly five-and-a-half hours of that flight involve looking down at salt water and nothing else. At such a time, it's difficult to think that you're actually heading for a safe haven of land in the middle of this unwelcoming ocean.

I know how to create -- I know how to compose and arrange, to write and edit. The problem is that all that creating doesn't work in a vacuum: it needs some semblance of structure, however trivial. My everyday job in the media center at school provides that basic structure -- most days, I need to leave home between 10:45 and 11:00 to make it to school in time for my job to start. That means I have no more than three hours of a morning in which to do all my creative pursuits. Minimal structure, but it does the job.

Summer, however, is a different beast. I get up (usually in the 7 o'clock hour, thanks to my feline creative consultants), and I go to bed usually in the 11 o'clock hour (at night, not morning, thankfully). Beyond that, there's no structure.

In response, I find that I try to overcompensate during the summer. My school-year job gives me just enough structure: I've got three hours to work. The frightening abyss of summer causes me to take that basic, simple structure and try to impose my will on it: Okay, I'll write my morning pages until 8, then I'll compose for an hour and a half. I'll take a bathroom break and get some breakfast at 9:30, then back to work at 9:45, composing until 10:58. A two minute bathroom break, then ... It starts to get a bit ridiculous.

The other problem that arises is the fact that since I'm not following someone else's schedule, I tend to be less than rigid with my creative time. Someone calls up and wants to do something, and I'm more than a little likely to put my creative work aside to go with them. No way could I do that with a "real" job.

So how will I organize my time this summer to ensure I get done what I want?

Set work hours at the start of each week and stick to them. They may be different hours each day, but during those hours, my time is my own, belonging to me and whatever creative project I feel the need to work on.
Don't over-schedule. It's enough to say, "My creative time today is from 9:00 until noon, then again from two until six. Don't overthink it, and don't micromanage it.
Set to-do lists. Once I've got my creative time set aside, I'll come up with a simple (and relatively short) to-do list of what I want to get done on a given day or during a given work session. Too much on my list and it's overwhelming, so keep it to a couple of small, finite things.
Be kind to myself. The nature of creativity is that it doesn't always go the way we think it will. As long as I show up to the desk when I say I will and make every attempt to do what I said I would, I won't stress the results. A ton of finished pieces and a pretty finished draft of a novel would be great, but my goal is to sit here every day and work -- no more, no less. I leave the results to a power greater than me.

Even then, it's a tricky process. I'm sure that at some point this summer, I'll find myself adrift in a sea of I-don't-wanna-do-nuthin'. I'll discover new and creative ways to waste time. I'll become addicted to a video game for a whole week. Despite all of that, I know that I'll do my best to stay on task, to live the creative life I know I'm supposed to live, and to do the creative work I know needs doing.

Saturday Summary, May 28, 2011

2011-05-28T08:37:00.001-04:00

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.

It's been a good week, all in all. Sure, I've been fighting off a cold the past few days, and I haven't done quite as much as I would have liked, but it was the last full week of school, which means that summer is right around the corner, which means that a drastic increase in creative time is finally here.

I also started working through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. For those of you not acquainted with the work, it's a twelve-week program that is primarily geared toward "blocked" creatives, or people who want to create more but have some mental, emotional, or spiritual block standing in their way. I don't exactly fall into that category, but I figure that going through a rigorous twelve-week course devoted to creativity wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for me, especially since it shouldn't keep me from doing any of my other creative projects. Of course, I'm going about it somewhat loosely -- the "Morning Pages" I'm supposed to do first thing every morning upon rising aren't happening then. One day I did them at lunch, one day I did them over breakfast, and then today as I sat down to start this blog post, I realized I hadn't done them yet. As with all things, I suppose, it's the thought that counts ... or something.

Anyway, on to the update...

Music -- I did finish up my 5-piece handbell set of communion titles and sent it off to Doug Wagner. It's called The Bread and the Cup, and is a really exciting set of pieces, at least in my opinion. I also finished off a piano arrangement of the hymn tune FOREST GREEN that has been sitting here half-finished for a couple of weeks. At long, long last, the music-writing engine is revving back up. Here's where I stand on the year:

Handbell pieces -- 20 11
Piano pieces -- 20 16
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 47

It's still behind where I'd like to be, but it's moving in the right direction, thankfully.

Writing -- Now that The Coming of the Heroes is actually published, I'm going to move all commentary on it to the "Publishing" section of the Saturday Summary, letting me focus in this section on the work I'm getting done on the revision of the second book in the series ... which was none. I do hope to start in on it this coming week and get up to a full head of steam by next weekend.

Publishing -- After looking at the pieces for a couple of days, Doug Wagner did officially accept The Bread and the Cup at Lorenz, which was my first acceptance in a while. One of my plans for this coming start-of-summer week is to go through my spreadsheet of submitted pieces and see which piece is where and who I need to poke about pieces that have been under consideration for far too long.

It was a good week for The Coming of the Heroes, too. I've now sold four copies online, and completely sold out of the initial batch of 10 copies I ordered to distribute on my own. I had another 20 copies show up yesterday, and I know I've already got buyers for several of them. Now, if this were a traditionally-published book, I'd be dismayed at this few copies sold at this point, but given the fact that I'm the only one out there promoting the book, I consider this pretty good for now. I'm not going to get rich doing it this way, but I'm about ten books away from breaking even on the money I've put into the book already. If this insanity of mine can pay for itself, so much the better. You can help by buying a copy of the book!

My plan this long weekend is to clean my office. I rearranged the layout of everything two weekends ago, but just couldn't bring myself to clean things when I did, so all the piles of junk just moved to new homes. Today, I'm going to actually go through the piles of junk, hopefully toss a bunch of it, organize what's left, and start off the summer with a neat, clean workspace just ready for me to create myself silly. Here's hoping you all have great creative plans this weekend. Until Wednesday!

The Art of Self-Promotion

2011-05-25T08:00:00.083-04:00

I've come to the realization that I stink at self-promotion. Every time I open my mouth to tell someone else about my novel, I feel ... dirty somehow. I feel like a braggart, like I'm showing off or being boastful. I feel like I must be the most annoying thing on the face of the Earth, thinking I'm good enough at something like writing that someone else might actually care about it.

I place the blame for this squarely on my parents (well, not really). They always taught me growing up to be modest. I was a fairly intelligent child, and had they not instilled that lesson in me, I ran the risk of being the smart kid that nobody liked because he was a stuck-up jerk. Fortunately, that never happened. (Thanks, Mom and Dad.)

Unfortunately, it also taught me to downplay every accomplishment or achievement I ever received. Win an award? Aw, it's nothing really. Got a scholarship? I just got lucky. Got a piece published? Great, but it's all about the music and the people who will play it. Little could my parents anticipate that teaching me not to be a pompous airbag would be such a detriment to my creative career.

The sad part of being a Creative is that not only are we expected to come up with original, inspiring, and entertaining content, we're also expected to be our own biggest promoters and advocates. This does not come naturally to me. Every time I make an attempt, it hurts. I feel like a fraud, like people are going to see my attempts to promote my work and think, "Well, doesn't he just think he's so high-and-mighty." It never occurs to me (or occurs and is instantly discounted) that people might actually have an interest in what I'm trying to sell, or that at worst, they'll completely ignore my attempts at advertisement, placing no value judgement on the attempt at all.

I'm now at the point of hoping that success at self-promotion will help me get over my reluctance. I let the parents of my private piano students know about the book and sold a copy. I advertised the book in the teacher's lounge at school and sold at least four. My wife emailed some teachers at her school and another copy suddenly showed up in my online sales. A post on Facebook and another one's sold. In fact, it feels like every time I talk about the book somewhere else, another copy gets sold and into someone's hands.

What's really weird is that I would have absolutely none of these reservations if I was recommending a book a friend of mine had written, or even one by a complete stranger. I'd have not the least reluctance going on Twitter and posting, "Just read Hunger Games -- awesome book! The rest of the series, not so much," yet going on there and saying, "Just published Coming of the Heroes -- awesome book! Buy it today!" is nearly a cause for hyperventilation. Aside from the fact my name's on one cover and not the other, how different is it, really?

And so my struggle to find the fine line between self-promotion and overzealous egotism continues. If anyone out there has any advice or words of wisdom (even if those words are, "You've got a book -- we get it! Enough already!"), I'd love to hear them. In the meantime, good luck in your own creative pursuits, and good luck in promoting that most important of creative individuals -- you.

Now On a Kindle Near You ...

2011-05-22T18:18:00.000-04:00

Just a brief update to let you know that the Kindle version of The Coming of the Heroes is now available. You can check it out here.

If you haven't already, I do invite you to check out the book's site -- www.sadonianchronicles.com -- and see what it's all about. If you've already bought the book, I thank you, and ask you to let your friends know all about it. The best way for a book to sell is from word-of-mouth recommendations, so I hope the story has enough impact on you that you feel like sharing.

Thanks, and have a great week!

Saturday Summary, May 21, 2011

2011-05-21T08:16:00.000-04:00

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.

It's been a long, long week, but oddly enough, it's also been a very productive one, as well. In all fairness, it probably would have been even more productive if I hadn't broken down and bought Rosetta Stone Spanish (found it for a good price on Amazon) and hadn't been spending hours working on it. Sadly, the most intelligent thing I can say so far is El no tiene un bolígrafo, which, as I pointed out to my friends on Facebook this week, is only useful for assuring those people with crippling fears of writing implements that their doom isn't imminent.

Anyway, on to the update ...

Music -- I've finished the rough draft of my set of 2-3 octave communion pieces for Lorenz. I just need to have my proofreader (my lovely wife) go over them to make sure I didn't pull something Earth-shatteringly dumb before I send them off to Doug Wagner to see what he thinks. I won't count them (yes, they're one set, but I'm counting them as five individual pieces -- you can't stop me!) in the yearly total until I actually send them off, but that number will -- thankfully! -- be dropping, and soon.

Writing -- Well, if you've missed my posts this past week, I'll reiterate here one more time: my first novel, The Coming of the Heroes, is now available for purchase. You can buy it via the link at the left of the screen, or else find it at Amazon.com. I'm really excited to have it available to the world at large, and against all odds, have actually sold a copy through Amazon. Sadly, that doesn't get me to my primary goal to sell 50,000 copies, but it does get me halfway to my secondary goal of selling two. If you'd like to be the one to get me to that secondary goal, feel free to check it out at the link above.

I hope to have the Kindle version available this week. Sadly, it's not just a matter of taking the same document and sending it somewhere else. There are strange formatting things one must do if one wants his book not to look stupid, and one just hasn't yet taken the time to do them. Rest assured, when The Coming of the Heroes is Kindle-ready, you'll hear about it here.

If you're still not sure what it's all about, feel free to check out some sample chapters and other info about the book at the website, sadonianchronicles.com.

Publishing -- I got a nice, fat envelope from Beckenhorst this week with my proofs and contracts for my four upcoming pieces from them: two arrangements, and two originals, including a really cool antiphonal piece that can be played by one three-octave set of bells. Normally, when you do an antiphonal piece (the group is split across a distance so you get a nice stereo effect), you need two sets of bells, two brass quintets, two orchestras, or whatever. With this one, all you need is one three-octave set of handbells and some folks willing to play some non-traditional bell assignments. I'll post more on these pieces as they get nearer publication.

That's it for this week. I'm so thrilled to be almost done with the set of pieces for Lorenz -- that's been hanging over my head since Pinnacle last July, and has a deadline of this July 1. I like beating deadlines by freakishly-long amounts, so to only beat this one by about a month had me edgy. Next week should be an even better week for working, since my church groups won't rehearse, my piano lessons are done for the year, and the school year is in its waning hours. Until then, keep on creating, and have a great weekend!

Oh, and check out The Coming of the Heroes. Tell your friends!

When Is "Good" Good Enough?

2011-05-18T08:56:00.000-04:00

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." -- Voltaire

As you most likely saw in my last post, I finally have unleashed my Sadonian Chronicles on the world. The decision to do it myself through CreateSpace -- and not trying to find a traditional publisher -- was a hard one, but one I ultimately came to for two big reasons:

It dawned on me that I wasn't in it for the money and the wide-spread literary fame; I had a story I wanted to tell, and I wanted to share it with people.
With The Coming of the Heroes still in limbo -- finished but not public -- I felt like my writing was stagnant. I had no real impetus to move forward on the rest of the Sadonian Chronicles series, nor any real drive to write other things and get them ready for publication.

It's not that I think The Coming of the Heroes isn't good enough for traditional publishers -- I happen to think it is (and I hope, should you buy a copy at the link at the left or from Amazon.com, that you'll agree). Rather, I could spend time and energy trying to submit the book over and over, or I could get it out there by hook or by crook and focus on the more lucrative side of my publishing life, namely my composing.

The decision to actually go ahead and publish it over the weekend was another hard one. Once you submit your files to the CreateSpace folks and they approve them, they send you a proof copy, which you look over and approve, or else make corrections and resubmit your files. The copy I held in my hands this past Saturday was my second proof of this particular iteration of the novel, and something like draft 12 or 13 in the overall scheme of things. (Unlike some authors, I don't number a new draft when I do something minor to it, only when I make major changes.)

By about 2:00 Saturday, I was feeling good; I was over half-way through the proof and all looked good. And then I found them -- mistakes. In the space of about two pages, I had used the word "trapdoor" three times and the words "trap door" twice. Ouch ... but not the end of the world.

Then, the biggie: I'm a grammar nerd, so when one of my main characters, Eslin, says, "You wouldn't have keep something like that from me," I think I actually dropped my head and cried. An entire three-hundred-page manuscript, and just those few errors. What made them all worse was the fact that those errors have been in the book now for about four years. So many people have read the book in that time -- personally, I'd read it no fewer than a dozen times in that span -- and no one had caught them!

That left me a conundrum. I could make those changes and resubmit the files -- waiting another week before a new proof would show up for me to look at again -- or just publish the thing and have done with it. I finally opted for the latter. Why?

First, I thought of the Voltaire quote above, and something about it rang true. We often try so hard to make things perfect that we never actually do anything with them ... because they never will be perfect. It's just not possible. I realized that, even if I made those changes, resubmitted the files, and got the new proof, odds were great I'd find something wrong with the new iteration. How many times would I be content to play this game before I gave it all up as a bad idea and just threw in the towel?

I also thought of a quote I heard from George Lucas, which went something like, "Works of art are never finished; they're only abandoned." I realized that at some point, I was going to have to let The Coming of the Heroes fly on its own, imperfections and all. The story is sound, the characters interesting and believable, the writing is good -- there were just a couple of tiny mistakes. I've read books published by big-name publishers with just as many errors, so it can't be that big a deal, right?

What finally made me let it go is the fact that, again, dozens of sets of eyes have looked over those pages and not found the errors, so they can't be that obvious. I also figured that, what with Eslin being a young adult, his sense of grammar might not be the best anyway, and given the emotional distress he was under, saying something stupid like "wouldn't have keep" wasn't beyond belief anyway.

What are you working on in your creative life that you're loathe to be done with because it isn't "perfect"? Are you denying yourself the pleasure and joy of seeing your work in the world because you're afraid someone will find fault with it and discount it? Laugh at it? Mock it? If the work is sound, a small mistake or two doesn't change that fact -- remember, the Amish purposely design mistakes into every quilt they make, because only God is perfect. Mistakes are part of the human condition, and they're what drive us all to keep moving, keep trying, and keep working ever closer to that elusive -- yet unattainable -- perfection.

It's Here!

2011-05-14T16:50:00.000-04:00

I know I've already posted once today, but I just had to share the happy news:

The Coming of the Heroes, the first book in The Sadonian Chronicles, is now available for purchase!

How do you purchase a copy, you might ask? You can go straight to the web store by clicking on the picture of the book cover at the left of the screen. You can also check out the website of the Sadonian Chronicles series by going to www.sadonianchronicles.com. There you can read some sample chapters, check out a map of Sadonia, and (once I get it done) peruse the encyclopedia of all things Sadonian.

The book will be available for purchase on the amazon.com website soon, and in the next few weeks, I hope to have editions available for Amazon's Kindle and other e-book readers, too. I'll keep you updated as things progress.

Until then, check out the book, and tell your friends!

Oh, and happy creating!

Saturday Summary, May 14, 2011

2011-05-14T08:23:00.001-04:00

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.

This has probably been my most productive week in recent memory, which is kind of sad when I think about how little I actually got done. My one saving grace is that the school year is almost at an end, and my free time will dramatically increase.

Somewhat.

Music -- I continued working on The Bread and the Cup, a set of five communion pieces for Lorenz. I actually borrowed the concept from a set of piano pieces they published that serve the same purpose as these bell pieces. Each piece will have multiple options for repeats to vary the length, as well as the option to segue directly into the next piece in the book (and the last piece will segue back to the first), meaning a choir can play as much or as little music as they need to satisfy the length of their particular communion service. Of course, the trick is getting the pieces to actually behave the way I want and need them to so that whole concept works. I hope to have this set finished by this time next week. Fingers crossed ...

Writing -- I got the latest proof copy of The Coming of the Heroes on Wednesday and have been looking it over, trying to see if it's ready for actual publication. I hope to have some really good news on that front later today.

Publishing -- I don't think a single thing happened here this week. I did see where the editors at J.W. Pepper put up some really nice reviews of my latest Beckenhorst pieces, so that was nice to see. I've also seen that two of my most recent releases -- Faith, Hope, and Love from Lorenz and Two Carols for Christmas from Alfred -- got their Editors' Choice stamp. I've never been able to figure out exactly what that means, but it seems like those pieces get a bit more hype in their catalogs, and as a result tend to sell a little better. I try my best to just let things like that do what they're going to do and focus instead of writing new pieces ... but that doesn't mean I don't notice when they happen. :)

That's it from here ... for now. I hope to have some news later this afternoon (or tomorrow at latest) to share. Until then, keep creating, and enjoy this wonderful Saturday.

Keeping It All Organized

2011-05-11T08:00:00.044-04:00

One of the absolute worst parts about being a creative is that my mind, frequently, is not organized. In fact, I flit -- I start work on one project when something else occurs to me, and then something else entirely interrupts, but that doesn't matter because on the way to do that third thing, I remember the first thing, start back to it, and get sidetracked by my cat.

You see the problem.

Unfortunately, when you're a creative, you work for yourself first and foremost, so you have no one to blame when your disorganization gets you into trouble. Even worse, were some well-meaning soul (probably my wife) to come in to my office and tidy things up for me, I'd have no clue where anything was and likely never be able to find it again.

I've got this weird organizational balance going on right now. Some things are very organized: I keep a very meticulous schedule in a day planner (times I work, times I'm at church, times I teach piano lessons), and I have a very rigorous spreadsheet I use to keep track of submitting my manuscripts.

Other things, not so much: the closet door in my office is littered with about two-dozen post-it notes, each one detailing a piece of music I'd like to write at some point. When I open the window on a nice day (such as today), and the slightest hint of breeze passes through, half of those post-its end up out in the hallway. More than a couple are re-adhered to the door with scotch tape.

Yeah, it's bad.

This weekend, after having this office for almost seven years, I finally did something I've been dying to do for a long time: I bought myself a white board

(I also, after quite a lot of time writing this blog, added a picture to a post -- shocking!)

It didn't take long (about an hour) before I began to wonder how I ever got along without this amazing thing. The top left corner is where I've listed my next couple of handbell projects to work on. Bottom left is other forthcoming music activities. Top right is anything to do with my Sadonian Chronicles series of books. Bottom center is my official work schedule for the week, and scattered elsewhere on the board are other to-do things: things to buy, bills to pay, other miscellany that needs to get done. Different areas and different colors of markers keep it all straight.

Just knowing that I have a place to jot notes to myself (notes that, unless there's a tornado, won't blow away), make (very visible) to-do lists, and keep track of my creative projects frees my mind to focus on the actual work of creating, instead of dwelling and fretting about the minutiae and logistics of remembering it all. Does this white board organize my entire life? No (though that would be really cool if it could), but it keeps me more grounded in the actual projects I have to get done. It makes it far easier to visualize the next step in whatever process I'm working on, and lets me concentrate on that, instead of mulling the entire project over in my head again, trying to see if there's something I've missed.

Do you need a white board to get your life organized? No (though, again, it's really cool -- what can I say? I'm an office supply geek), but having a place where you can keep track of your projects and the steps you need to take on them is a valuable tool. Make it someplace dedicated to that purpose: a tablet of paper at a specific corner of your desk, a list taped to the wall in your office, a bulletin board glued to the door of your fridge. Wherever it is, let this be a dumping ground where you put all your to-do items (the big, the small, the vital, and the trivial) so you don't have to try to remember them. I think you'll be amazed how much it will free up your creative energies to work on what truly matters.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go erase something from a to-do list on my white board. Or pet my cat ... I forget which....

Saturday Summary, May 7, 2011

2011-05-07T07:57:00.000-04:00

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.

It's that time again, and despite the fact that I've been busy on creative projects all week, I don't really have that much to show for it. It was another of those weeks that move me farther along the path, even if I didn't actually reach any way stations.

Music -- My main project here was finishing and submitting a handbell piece for a contest entry. I won't say any more until the results are announced, but I'm still going to count it as one of my pieces for the year, so I'm up to 4 bell pieces and 3 piano arrangements on the year. The good news is, I'm gearing up to get into some hot-and-heavy composing, so those numbers should hopefully start going up quickly, and the ones in the table below (the table of how many pieces I want to write this year) will hopefully start going down just as fast:

Handbell pieces -- 20 16
Piano pieces -- 20 17
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 52

Writing -- The lion's share of my time this week was spent looking at my proof copy of The Coming of the Heroes from CreateSpace. After submitting the files, finding out there were problems, fixing some things, resubmitting the files, then finding out there were still problems but I could proceed anyway, I decided to proceed. I received the proof copy of the book and it looks really nice. It just frightens me how nice some of these print-on-demand publishers can make a book look, and the cost isn't astronomical.

Of course I went over this proof just as thoroughly as I would a music proof, but being a 300-page book, it naturally took longer. I found a few mistakes to correct, a few things I wanted to be different, and have resubmitted the files. The just re-approved them this morning, so I'm ordering a proof of this version, which ought to arrive here early next week. Once it does, I'll look it over and, God willing, will see no mistakes. If that's the case, then I click a button and unleash The Sadonian Chronicles to the world. Rest assured that when the book is available, you'll hear all about it here on The Creative.

Publishing -- Oddly, it was a very, very quiet week on this front. I did sign a contract for my Three Carols for Intermediate Violin and Piano with Latham, but otherwise, nothing really happened on the publishing front. Of course, as I look at my spreadsheet and see how little I have out there for consideration right now, it's not surprising. When my composing picks up in the next week or two and I start submitting things again, I fully expect things to start happening in this category, as well.

That's all from here. I've got a busy day of errands to run and, just maybe, music to compose. Until then, have a great week, and keep on creating! We'll see you Wednesday.

Will It Ever Get Done?

2011-05-04T08:20:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past few weeks trying to get a novel ready for self-publication. I --

No, that's not really true. It's more like four years since I first shared it with people, letting it see the light of day. So, yeah, I've spent the past four years trying to --

Well, no, that's not right, either. I actually started the stupid thing about a decade ago. That was when I sat down and said, "Hey, you know, this whole book writing thing? I think I could do that." So I sat down, played with some ideas, and started. I had no clue what I was doing, but it was fun, making these people up out of thin air and putting them in awful situations.

If only I knew then what I knew now, I might never have let them emerge from my overly-active imagination and come into being on the blank page.

If you've read any of my Saturday Summaries, then you know I have this series of books I've been working on: The Sadonian Chronicles. In a nutshell, it's about this kid from Earth who gets dragged against his will across vast stretches of time and space to the country of Sadonia, where he has to help save the world from an evil wizard. Despite Sadonia being Heaven-knows-where, Phillip can speak and understand people just fine, and indeed he seems to have a strange relationship with this place that he really shouldn't have.

The whole thing started out with me making a list of twenty-five things: seemingly random and unrelated objects and people, which I then started trying to tie together to lay the skeleton for a story. That was in the beginning. Since then, the story has never been far from my mind, even in the times I haven't been working on it. The crazy thing is, even when I haven't been working on it ... I have been working on it: discovering new things about the world, the characters, seeing future scenes, conversations that have to take place. I started with that stupid list of twenty-five things, and I now know so much about the people and the place and the history of this fictional world that I have to finish writing it, whether I want to or not.

I've thought about packing it in a couple times. More than a couple. Every time I make the decision, though, Phillip and Eslin and Atrina come knocking at the door of my consciousness and demand to be let loose. I don't mean that it a metaphorical sense (though I wish I did), I mean there are actually these metaphysical representations of these characters who appear before me like a murdered man's ghost before a Shakespeare character and demand -- not ask, demand -- to be let loose once more. The way I know this isn't just me any more is the fact that they tell me things I don't know, in words I wouldn't use -- these characters, whether I want them to be or not, are alive in my head. Their thoughts and feelings are their own ... and the only way to purge myself of them is to write down their story, clear through to its conclusion.

Will it ever get done? Yes, I'm sure it will, but I find myself constantly asking, "When?" I've diddled and dithered on this book for nearly a decade, and it's almost -- almost -- ready to be turned loose on an unsuspecting public. I've worked on more than just this one book in that time, but still -- at the rate I'm going, I'll get the last book released by the time my grandkids are graduating college (and for those of you keeping score, no, I don't have any kids yet).

Music and composing are easy for me -- I work on a piece for a day or three or a week, and it's done. I send it off for publication, get a response in an hour or a week or three months, review a proof, and it's published -- end of story. With this, I'm so far from the ultimate finish line that I have no idea when I'll reach it ... but I also know I'm so far from the starting line that I daren't go back or stop. My only hope is that, in the end, this all will have been worth it. I'm at the place now where it doesn't matter to me who reads the books or how well-received they are: I just have to write them for my own reasons. Though it take me the rest of my life, I'll keep writing, keep revising, and keep moving my characters further on their paths.

And yes, in the end, I will get it done.

Saturday Summary, April 30, 2011

2011-04-30T08:12:00.000-04:00

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.

It was a good creative week for me, for a change. There was nothing earth-shattering, but it was the sort of week I can look back on and say, "Yes, I did my work this week." It may not be the stuff of legends, but it is the stuff of a creative career.

Music -- I spent the lion's share of this week working on an entry for a composing contest. I won't say anything about the piece just now, just that it's larger than most of the handbell pieces I work on -- 3 to 7 octaves. I've just about gotten to the place where I can reliably wrap my head around 3 to 6 octaves, but adding on that extra octave is a bit harder to do. I think I've got a handle on it, though. I should have that piece finished up before the weekend's out.

Writing -- After some small problems, I finally got CreateSpace to accept the files for The Coming of the Heroes. My proof copy is rushing toward me even as I type this (right now it's sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Indianapolis, and will be delivered to me on Monday), and at that point, I'll need to check it over and, if necessary, make corrections. I'm really hopeful I won't have to do that, since it will add another week and a half to the release date, but I do want this thing done right, so if I have to delay, then I delay. I suppose there are worse things in the world.

Once I get this all squared away (and get some composing done on some looming projects), I plan to turn my attention to editing the second book in the Sadonian Chronicles series. I'll keep you posted on how that's going.

Publishing -- Not much here this week (though after the flurry of pieces and recordings coming out the past few weeks, I'm not surprised). My Two Carols for Christmas is out from Alfred (though no recording yet), and both it and Faith, Hope, and Love from Lorenz are J.W. Pepper Editor's Choice pieces for 2011.

I did also sign a contract with Latham Music for Three Intermediate Carols for Violin, which will make my first instrumental solo piece in print. Fun and exciting times.

That's all from here for now. I've got a busy composing day ahead of me, so I'd best get to it. Until then, have a great weekend, and we'll see you next week.

Just Like Riding a Bike

2011-04-27T08:00:00.045-04:00

I can't tell you how many stories of creative people I've read, and to a one, they all say that they work at their creative projects every day, day in and day out, no matter what. Come heck or high water (which we've had quite enough of in central Indiana lately, thank you very much), famine or flood (again...), they get to the computer or tablet or easel or typewriter and they work.

Me, I'm not that good. I try to be, honestly, but ... well, I'm not. No matter what I try, I get times throughout the year where I go for a day or a week or more with almost no creative work. They're not exactly "droughts," because it's not that I don't have ideas, I just don't have time. Case in point -- I'm just now emerging from a period of about six weeks where I did next to no composing (at least not on anything other than an 8-measure bell processional or something like that). It started after my car accident on March 7 and lasted clear up until we left for our vacation, then the whole week we were gone, and then a good couple of weeks when we got back. All in all, six weeks with pretty much no forward progress on composing.

I will say, I do feel blessed that when these times happen, I don't panic. I've been through times like this before, and I know I will again, and after every one, I've always been able to compose again. Now, that's not to say I like it, but I know it's not a new standard state of affairs.

Even when I'm not working, I am at least thinking about my composing: the pieces I need to work on, ideas for new pieces, planning and plotting the order I'll work on pieces. The subject of composing is never far from my mind, even if the actual time to work is conspicuous in its absence.

What does amaze me every time, though, is how easy it is to get back in to the work. It's a bit tricky to jump back in to the middle of a project, but getting into the process again is remarkably easy. It always seems to me that going back to something like composing ought to be like trying to hop back on a bicycle after a long absence -- wobbly for a bit, then a bit more confident, and finally getting right back to where I was before I left off. Instead, it feels more like slipping on an old glove or thread-worn cardigan: immediately at home and comfortable.

In fact (I prepare to speak heresy here) I sometimes find my composing is better when I come back from an absence like this. I miss the work while I'm away, true, but the time spent on introspection and getting a good, deep feeling for the pieces helps make the final products better in many cases. That's not to say I'm advocating taking frequent breaks from your creative work, just that getting back to the work is usually not as hard as we fear it will be, and taking a working hiatus for a small amount of time can sometimes help make the work better in the long run.

Here's hoping that your creative work is flying along, and that if you're not working, it's of your own choice, and not because life has gotten in the way.

Saturday Summary, April 23, 2011

2011-04-23T08:22:00.000-04:00

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.

Happy early Easter! Hopefully this Holy Week has been a blessed experience for you, and not just an endless torment of chocolate bunny and Cadbury egg denial. For me, it was a productive week in the creativity department, though not in the usual ways. It was also rather daunting, as at the end of this week looms not only a Good Friday service but two Easter morning services, all of them played on organ, which, as much as I like the instrument, is not the one I'm most comfortable with. If they could just figure out how to put a stupid sustain pedal on the organ, it would be so much easier.

A word before we get in to the update. I don't know why, but last night, I signed up for ... (sigh) ... twitter. I can't say yet how much I'll use it or to what end, but if you're the sort that tweets, feel free to follow me on twitter, @jasonwkrug.

Now, on to the important stuff...

Music -- Um, nothing happened here. That being said, I did focus all my time and attention this week on my writing, with the express knowledge that this coming week was going to be a frantic attempt to get a contest entry finished for the Donald Davidson Composition Contest, for which the deadline is Monday, May 2. So yes, I should have good music news to report next week.

Writing -- I spent nearly every spare working minute this week going over the text of my novel The Coming of the Heroes and making sure it was ready to be sent to CreateSpace for publication. Unlike getting a novel published by a traditional publisher, I have to be my own typesetter and proofreader, which was really what I spent the week doing. I think I've now got all the content in the novel that needs put in there, all the punctuation and spelling is correct, and it's ready to go. Of course, just to be on the safe side, I'm having my wife take a look over it, as well. I hope to have some good news on this front again in a couple of weeks.

Publishing -- I did receive one rejection from Lorenz on a couple of my choral pieces, so I sent them back out into the world again. The true fun of this week were the audio files of some of my newest pieces showing up on various publisher and retailer websites. If you head over to the "Compositions" tab up top, I'll be posting audio files soon for some of my newest pieces: Advent Triptych, The Boar's Head Carol, On This Day Earth Shall Ring, and Sarabande. There will be more audio following soon, as well. So head on over and take a listen!

That's really it from here for this week. Once I get those audio files uploaded, I'm off to work on some composing. Until next time, have a great weekend, a blessed Easter, and a creative week!

How to Do Fifteen Things All At Once

2011-04-20T08:00:00.041-04:00

As tends to happen to me on a regular basis, I find myself right now in the middle of a good half-dozen creative projects all at the same time. If you add in all the daily chores around the house and the sundry projects for church and school, it's quite likely that I've got somewhere on the order of fifteen things going at once. And, like all good demands on my time, they're all completely vital, completely important, and all completely adamant that they should be done first.

I'm sure you've all found yourselves in a similar situation. The question then becomes, how am I going to get all of this done in time? And, of course, the logical answer is: multitasking. Right?

Multitasking has taken on ever greater importance in our society, and I'm sorry to say that I have never found multitasking to be the way to get many projects done well and quickly. Indeed, anyone I've ever seen who claims to be good at multitasking always seems frazzled, at the end of his rope, and tends to have poor-quality results.

In my own life, whenever I try to multitask, I end up accomplishing a whole lot of nothing, and end up not actually finishing anything. In fact, about the closest I can ever get to multitasking is working on one project for five minutes before hopping to the next for another ten, then to a third for a couple of minutes. I get a lot of little things done, but it's all very shallow. In order to go deep on a project, it takes time, and multitasking just doesn't allow that amount of focused time.

Case in point: at one of my student's piano lessons this week, the student told me that every time she sat down to practice, she worked on every piece I'd assigned her for the week. Now, I tend to assign five or six pieces to this student, all of them of various lengths and difficulties. That means she probably worked on a given piece for no more than four or five minutes at a time. What tends to happen in a case like this is the pieces come back, and none of them are worse than they were the week before, but most of them are no better.

Instead, I told her to sit down to practice and pick only two pieces, and to work on those two only for the entire 30 or 45 minutes she practiced. The next time she sat down, she should pick two different pieces. In this way, she'll still practice all of her pieces (and probably for about the same amount of time), but she'll go deeper on each piece when she plays it, and ought to get to know it better. We'll see next week if I'm right.

In my own creative life, I do the same thing. Yes, I have three composing projects I'm in the middle of right now, plus one book I'm trying to self-publish, another I'm trying to proofread, not to mention all the things I need to get done for school, for church, and for the Raleigh Ringers concert in June. I could spend five minutes on each of these things, and in the end, wind up with a whole lot of nothing to show for it. Or, I could pick one project and work on it for the next two hours. Then, the next time I sit down to work, I pick a different project and work on it for two hours. I'll get much better work done than I will by flitting from thing to thing, and by the time all is said and done, all the projects will be finished.

The next time you find yourself hopping from project to project, ask yourself if you're really doing your best work this way. Instead, try focusing on one project, even if it's just for an hour, before moving on to the next. Try things that way for long enough, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Saturday Summary, April 16, 2011

2011-04-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

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.

This has been an interesting week in terms of both my schedule and my creative life. It wasn't exactly a breakthrough week by any means, but I did get a lot done.

Music -- I did compose this week, but didn't actually finish any projects, sadly. I know I'm now hopelessly behind on my year-long goal, but I still hold out hope I can catch up. As for what, specifically, I worked on, I plugged away a bit more at an arrangement of I Vow to Thee, My Country, which I hope to have ready by the time of our church's annual patriotic concert in late June. I also worked on an original piece, which I'm going to say very little about since I plan on entering it in a contest later this year (and since contests like pieces to come to them without knowing who the composer is, I figure I shouldn't say anything anywhere about it, other than that I'm working on one).

I also found out this week that my Shenandoah will be one of the pieces featured at Distinctly Bronze East this year. My Winter's Waltz was played there two years ago, so I'm thrilled to have another piece played at this distinguished event. If you want to find out more about DB, you can check it out on the AGEHR website.

Writing -- Okay, here's where things get crazy. Sometime in the past week or two, I made the decision to get heavily back into my Sadonian Chronicles. I have the first book finished and am in the middle of editing the second book. I've also come to the place where I've realized it's more important to me to have the book out there and in print and available for people to read than it is for me to get a "traditional" publisher and try to sell thousands and thousands of copies. I figure I can self-publish these books myself now, or wait three or five or ten or more years to try to go the agent-publisher route, and even then with no guarantee of publication. I have enough on my plate composing and getting my music published that worrying about querying agents and all the crazy effort that goes along with that just isn't worth it.

So, over the next month or two, I plan on getting the first book, The Coming of the Heroes, in print and available for purchase, while at the same time working on getting the second book rewritten, edited, corrected, and finally in print, hopefully by later this year. It's a huge undertaking, but I'm also planning on devoting the lion's share of the month of July solely to this project, so I'm hopeful that will let me get done everything I want to get done on it. Rest assured, I'll keep you updated here as things progress.

Publishing -- For a change, almost nothing happened here this week. I did send corrections to Doug Wagner for my Fantasia on "Trentham", which won't be available for several more months.

That's the story from here this week. Right now I'm off to work some more on all these projects, which are piling up ever higher. Good luck to you on all your creative endeavors this week, and don't forget, if you're in the Indianapolis area, check out rrindy.com for information about the Raleigh Ringers' concert on June 20!

Working On Your Project When You Don't Have Time to Work

2011-04-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm sure there are some amazing Creatives out there who have luck on their side and can work on the project of their choice every day, day in and day out, no matter what. Come rain or shine, fire or flood or famine, they are still fortunate enough that none of that effects them and they can do the creative work they choose, when and as they choose.

For me (and, I believe, for many out there) this just doesn't happen. Life gets in the way. Obligations rear their ugly heads. Work takes precedence. The sounds of lions and tigers and gazelles slithering unseen between the blades of grass outside tell you in no uncertain terms that you have no choice but to mow the lawn today.

Even for those people who have very regular, very predictable schedules, something comes up -- a doctor's appointment, an activity with the kids at school, or the house burns down. Whatever the cause, there are almost certainly going to be days where getting to the computer or the piano or the easel just isn't going to happen.

Today is just such a day for me. Leave the house at 6:40, drop my wife off at school. Head in to church where I'm giving a handbell and handchime demonstration for the children in our church's preschool. Then on to school where I teach for several hours before coming back to church for a few private lessons and a Lenten service plus a brief choir practice before finally heading home, getting in, hopefully, before 9:00. I didn't plan things this way, and if I had my druthers, I'd move some of those things around. It's the day I've got, however, so I have to make the most of it.

That begs the question: what's a Creative to do on such a day as this? Do I just write the day off as a total loss?

Well, the first thing to do is to accept that there are going to be days where you just can't work. You don't have to like it, and you certainly don't want to make it a regular habit, but when it does happen, accept that this is life, not some ideal pen-and-paper schedule, and that, as the song says, Mama said there'd be days like this.

Now, some of you will start screaming, saying that if I really, truly were committed to my work, I'd find a way to get the creative work in, no matter what. I just must not be dedicated. Yes, I could have woken up an hour early and tried to work, but as exhausted as I would have been, that hour would have yielded maybe five minutes of useful work, and at the expense of the rest of my day being a slog through a fatigue-induced swamp. To me, it's just not worth it. As much as this Creative needs to get his work done, he also needs to be kind to the Creative himself, otherwise the punishment I inflict on my body and mind and soul today will propagate throughout the rest of the week, and the rest of the week's creative work will suffer.

The second thing to do is to make sure you leave the house prepared should you find a spare five minutes or more when work on your project is actually possible: waiting in the doctor's office, sitting in the car until Little Jimmy gets out of school, during dinner when your wife becomes engrossed in her McChicken sandwich. Have a pad of paper, sketch pad, manuscript book, or note cards ready for these events.

The third thing is to try some alternative work. Even if I can't sit at the computer and work on revising my novel, I can think about what needs to be done: a new scene to be written, a way to rewrite an old scene. Even if I never sit down at a piano without a choir staring at me wanting me to accompany them, I can still think through the pieces I need to write or dream of new melodies or accompaniment patterns that I can use in my composing. This sort of mental play can not only be useful, but it can actually be good for the creative mind. This sort of play reminds us that what we're doing, even if it does technically qualify as "work," is still an enjoyable thing, and that we should be playful with our ideas instead of marching them where we want them as if they were prisoners.

Even if we end the day feeling like our creative work was a complete bust, it's still possible to go to sleep a better Creative, and further along on our projects than we were when we woke up. Applying the same creative mindset to how to work on our hectic days as we apply to the work itself, we can still bring our creative efforts closer to fruition.

Saturday Summary, April 9, 2011

2011-04-09T09:22:00.000-04:00

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.

By my reckoning, it's been two weeks since I last posted a Saturday Summary. For about half that time, my wife and I were taking a much-needed vacation on the gorgeous garden isle of Kaua'i. The weather was great, the scenery was just incredible, and the whole experience was rejuvenating. I always come back from a vacation feeling so relaxed and so ready to dive back in to my creative projects.

I've now had about a week back and, as I think you'll see in this Summary, the restorative power of a vacation is miraculous:

Music -- Despite taking a day or two this week to get life sorted back out after our trip, and spending even more time trying to sort out the myriad pieces of music I'll have to play or conduct over the next two weeks or so (six church services by the time Easter day rolls to a close), I did manage to get some composing done this week -- hallelujah! One piece is an arrangement of Hosanna, Loud Hosanna that our bell quintet will play for Palm Sunday. It's written for just less than two octaves, so I'll definitely work with it before it gets sent out for publication.

I also started on a handbell arrangement of the hymn tune THAXTED, which most folks know as the slow theme from Holst's Jupiter, from The Planets. It's such a beautiful melody, and one set of words that pairs with the tune has a patriotic bent, so I'm hoping to have it arranged in time for our church's patriotic concert in late June.

The last thing I did was to throw together a quick French horn descant for a verse of Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, which we'll add to our first hymn on Easter morning.

I didn't finish anything major, but I did get decent work done on several things, so I'm happy. For those of you keeping score, here's where we still stand on the year:

Handbell pieces -- 20 17
Piano pieces -- 20 17
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 54

I know I'm painfully far behind, but I'm sure I'll get caught up in the days and weeks ahead.

Writing -- While on vacation, I did actually do some writing on my Sadonian Chronicles series. I do have one rough draft that I tried to edit a bit, but I think that's going to take a more concerted effort than some other things. Some of my creative pursuits, I can do in small bite-sized chunks, but good, solid editing of a novel isn't one of them: if I'm going to do editing work on a book, I need a good two or three hour chunk to sit down and really pound some things out, otherwise the work goes really badly. I'm hopeful to devote more time to this in the days ahead. I'd like to have the second book in the series -- the one I'm in the middle of editing -- ready to go some time this summer. I have more time to devote to it now, so I'll just need to put in the effort.

Publishing -- There's been so much happen on this front that I'm sure I'll leave something out. Still, I'm not complaining -- if there's that much that's gone on here, it's been a good couple of weeks!

Composers Copies -- While on vacation in Hawai'i, I received my copies of Fanfare and Reflection, my first publication from AGEHR music. This is the piece that won the AGEHR Area II contest for their youth festival, where it will be played this summer.

Then, just last night I received a hefty package from Beckenhorst with my copies of all my new pieces from them: Sarabande; On This Day Earth Shall Ring; The Boar's Head Carol; and Advent Triptych (both a 2-3 octave version and a 3-5 octave version, both of which are compatible with each other).

Somewhere in there, too, I received 5 copies of The Church Pianists' Library, a Lorenz periodical with music for, as the title implies, church pianists. My first piano publication, an arrangement of He Leadeth Me, was in there. I've since been in talks with Larry Pugh, the editor, about a second one of my pieces for the magazine, which ought to be out later this year.

I bought a filing cabinet maybe six months ago, just to have storage space for my composing paraphernalia (the important stuff like contracts and correspondence, but also my composers copies), and it's starting to bulge at the seams. It's a good problem to have, I suppose, but I just don't know where I'd put a second filing cabinet in my office.

Proofs -- Shortly before I left, Kevin McChesney sent me a proof of Abide With Me to look over. I got it back to him just this past week, but not because of a glut of errors -- I think I found four (a remarkably small number for a proof), and three of them were questions and not really anything wrong. The sad part of it is, I think this is a piece he told me he wouldn't be able to fit in until sometime in 2013, so it will still be a while before it sees the light of day. The good part, of course, is that now I don't have to do anything with it and it will still see the light of day.

I also just this week got a proof from Doug Wagner for my Fantasia on "Tretham", which ought to be available for Pentecost next year (I think).

Acceptances -- While sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Kaua'i, checking email and getting eaten by mosquitoes (if you've never been to Kaua'i, you should know that nearly all hotel lobbies there -- and many other businesses, as well -- are open air, meaning there's no way to shut out either the elements or the creepy-crawlies), I had a somewhat cryptic email from Philip Roberts at GIA asking for my address. I had my suspicions why he wanted it, but not until I got back did I find the contracts from him for my Jubilation. That marks my first with GIA, and my ninth different publisher for my handbell pieces.

Then just this past week, I got an email from Lynne Latham, and she's accepted a set of three Christmas violin solos with piano accompaniment. That marks my second string-related acceptance (if you don't count handbell pieces with optional violin parts), and my first solo-instrumental piece accepted (if you don't count piano). Either way, it's good news.

That's all from here (and heaven knows it's quite a lot). With a new week stretching before me and some extra time this weekend, I hope to have more good news next week on all fronts. Until then, keep creating, and if you'd like to share your own triumphs and trials, feel free to comment below.

Getting Away From It All

2011-04-06T08:12:00.000-04:00

My wife and I just returned from an absolutely gorgeous trip to the beautiful garden isle of Kaua'i. For both of us, it was our first ever Spring Break trip -- every other Spring Break for the rest of our lives, we've stayed at home. After the hectic spring we'd had, it was more than a little tempting to do the same this time around.

Vacations are fun, no doubt about it, but they're also a lot of work and hassle. Start with the actual booking and planning for the trip. Then there's all the pre-trip preparations, such as packing, readying your house for your extended absence, stopping mail service, making sure all your perishable food is gone from the fridge so you don't return to a hazmat team in your kitchen -- all that good stuff. Add in actually getting to your destination (which for us meant hours in airports and even more hours sitting on airplanes), and the sheer volume of effort of making the vacation happen can suddenly seem overwhelming.

The alternative, of course, is staying right at home for a week. Wouldn't that be better? No packing or planning, no hussle, no pat-downs at airport security. Just spend the week at home sleeping in and taking it easy.

The problem (especially for a Creative) is two fold:

1. You won't actually rest. Huh? What do you mean? Of course you'll rest.

Well, yes, for a day or two, but then you'll realize that you're at home, and you should really get the garden hose out of the garage and hook it up since spring is here. Oh, and the trees need pruned. There's grass to mow. The hall closet needs cleaned out -- it's a mess. And the floors? Suppose you should clean the windows, too. And then ....

We stay home with the very best of intentions, but no matter how good those intentions, you're still at home, and being at home -- and I don't care if you rent or own -- means being around your obligations. You can't be around your obligations for very long before you feel compelled to pay attention to them ... and then you're not resting any more: you're back at work, albeit a different type of work.

They don't call a vacation "getting away from it all" without reason: when you get out of town, away from your work and school and church and family, there's no chance you'll spend your time working without realizing it. Instead, you'll give your mind and body and soul some much-needed down-time, a chance to rest and rejuvenate, which is the purpose of the vacation in the first place.

2. You won't feed and recharge your creative soul. The essence of creativity is novelty -- looking at something completely new, or at something old in a new way. When you stay at home, it's so much harder to provide your creative soul with the new sensations and experiences it will translate into your newest work.

I just think about scenery: in Kaua'i, I saw mountains, cliffs, beaches, ocean, palm trees, bougainvillea -- all things in short (okay, non-existent) supply in Indiana. The next time I need some inspiration, some feeling of new-ness to jump-start a piece of music, I need only think back on this vacation, and my mental storehouses are replete with images and sensations to put me in that mindspace. Had I just stayed at home, I would have had images, but they would have been old, comfortable, familiar: corn fields, grass, maple trees, corkscrew willow. They're images that tell me that I'm home, but creativity isn't about staying at home -- it's about journeying forth (even if it's only mentally or spiritually) to explore new landscapes.

Yes, the trip back from Kaua'i was more of a hassle than we'd hoped for, and it's been hard to get back into the everyday routine, but I find myself bursting with new ideas and new enthusiasm for all my creative projects (and even some new ones) that I never would have had if I had simply stayed at home. Every time I contemplate taking a "staycation" instead of getting away, I just remind myself of the therapy it will give my soul ... and then start looking to make hotel reservations.

Saturday Summary, March 26, 2011

2011-03-26T08:00:00.028-04:00

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.

It's been another hectic week leading up to Spring Break. With my wife's concert for her choirs this past Tuesday and everything else going on, the only thing I managed to get done was to correct the proof of For the Bible Tells Me So for Alan Lohr at SoundForth. That's a big load off my mind, however, so we'll consider it a good thing.

Now, two announcements before I close out this painfully-brief post:

I will be taking a vacation from The Creative for the next week, so there will be no posts and -- most likely -- no new haiku until early April.
When I return in April, I'm going to do away with the Sunday post. I've come to realize that my schedule is starting to get too hectic to allow me time to do my creative work, and while writing a blog post isn't a huge drain on my time, it is still a drain on my time. As much as I enjoy writing about being a creative, I much more enjoy being a creative, and so in that spirit (which is really the spirit of the entire Creative blog) I'm only going to post new content on Wednesdays, with the usual Saturday summary. I also may do away with daily haiku and instead just post them when the spirit takes me, but I haven't decided for sure on that yet.

For those of you who have come to read The Creative on a regular basis, I thank you for doing so. It's nice to know that there is someone out there who is getting some tangible benefit from my ramblings here. And so, until next time, dear reader, have a great week, and keep on creating!

The Composing Process -- Royalties

2011-03-23T20:00:00.056-04:00

The Creative is taking an in-depth look at the steps I go through in composing a piece of music, from first ideas clear through the end of the publishing process. Realize this is only my process -- this may or may not work for you, so use it only as a guide. This is the thirteenth and last post in the series.

And now we come to the end of the composing process, though this step isn't really part of the process, but rather the nice monetary side-benefit of all the hassle you've undertaken to not just create your piece, but to get it out to a publisher, get it accepted, get it corrected and fixed up properly, and make sure it sells well.

Yes, my friends, we're talking about royalties. Just the word conjures up images of best-selling authors sitting in their private writing rooms of a morning, sipping coffee and churning out their latest novel, ending a hard day's work at 11:00 a.m. before spending the rest of the day watching TV or puttering in the garden. How can they work so little? Royalties, of course -- thousands and thousands of dollars just pouring in, the result of a publisher selling their brilliance.

Surely it must be the same for composers, right? We work, we toil, we publish our pieces, and then we're on the gravy train for life.

Um, no. The royalties are a very nice by-product of the composing process, and on occasion are enough to actually register on the seismometer of our finances, but early retirement money, they're not.

How can this be? Simple mathematics. Here we go ...

On the sale of any given piece of my music, I make exactly 10% royalties (before taxes, of course, but that's another matter entirely). Now, if a copy of my music sold for $100, we'd be sitting pretty ... but it doesn't. Most of my pieces sell for about $3.95 each, meaning that for each copy sold, I see a paltry 39.5¢.

Fortunately for me, I write music for handbell choirs, meaning that rarely do I sell one copy of my music -- I sell between 10 and 15. So, let's multiply...

39.5¢ x 15 copies = $5.93

So, one choir buys my music and works it up, and out of that exchange, I make almost six bucks.

Let's up the ante -- say I was lucky enough to sell 500 copies of a piece (in the handbell world, with limited numbers of handbell choirs out there, this is a reasonable number, at least in my experience). So...

39.5¢ x 500 copies = $197.50

You begin to see the problem. In order to make enough off that one piece of music to make a serious financial difference in your life, you'd have to sell thousands of copies. Is it possible? Yes. Likely? No. Of all the pieces I've had published, I've only had one that has earned me over $1000, and that was the first one I ever got published (something which, I'm sure my publisher would admit, is a statistical fluke).

Now, the good news is -- pieces seldom are in print for only one year. I have some pieces that have been in print four years, others for three years, more still for two years, others for a year or less. All of those pieces are out there earning me varying levels of income. True, pieces tend to sell best in their first year, but even pieces that have been out there a while can bring in twenty or thirty dollars in a year. Get enough pieces in your own personal catalog, and you might actually have enough to make a living.

How many pieces, you ask? I know one composer who has well over 2,400 pieces in print. I don't know for certain, but I'd place great odds that he could live on just the income from his compositions. As for me, with 20 or so pieces from which I've actually earned some income, I make enough in a year to take a bit of a vacation, or take a bite out of some of our debt. It's not a fantastic amount, but it's starting to be at the place where it's a noticeable addition to our household income.

But all that is beside the point. The point is this -- you are making money from composing! Some artists toil their entire lives and never make any sort of income from doing what they love. If you receive a royalty check from a publisher -- no matter how paltry -- you are making money from composing. That right there, whether the check is $5 or $5,000, is a humbling thought. I still count myself lucky that not only do I get to take the time to compose music -- which I truly love doing -- but others enjoy my music enough to publish it, and still others love it enough to purchase it.

And there you have it -- the end of the composing process. Of course, as I mentioned when we started out, it's really a fluid process, moving from one step to the next at whim. Steps will overlap, others may be omitted. Usually, I'm in the middle of ten or twelve different pieces at any one time, and all of them are at different stages.

I hope this has been helpful for you in your own creative journey. Until next time, keep on creating.

The Composing Process -- Promoting

2011-03-20T08:00:00.035-04:00

Listing your piece on their website -- They'll put your piece and (most likely) a demonstration recording up on their site. This will let folks browse through titles, find yours, and listen to find out if it's something they want.
Listing your piece on retailers' websites -- Even better, they'll list your piece on the sites of companies that specialize in selling music to musicians.
They'll send out catalogs -- At least in the handbell world, twice a year most publishers will send out a booklet that lists all their new releases. The booklet will have small sample pages from all the pieces, as well as a CD of demonstration recordings. I love to pop these CDs in my car stereo and listen as I drive -- I can determine what I want to buy for my choir at church while I'm on my way to work.
They'll send out emails -- Publishers have built extensive email lists and will often send out advertising emails showcasing new pieces -- hopefully yours.

But what if you don't want to just leave it to your publisher? What can you do to help musicians find and buy your piece?

Share your composer's copies -- You get five or ten or thirty copies of your piece, so why not send it out to people who might know you or have a vested interest in buying such a piece of music?
Mention your piece to others in your field -- If you write handbell music, mention to fellow handbell players and directors that you have a new piece out. Just direct them to one of the retailers' sites.
Start your own website or blog -- Even better, start a website (spend the $10 or so to actually register a domain name, something that identifies you clearly) and direct people there. Depending on how you structure it, you can list your pieces (and even audio recordings or videos), talk about upcoming performances -- anything a prospective player of your music might want to know.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. Promoting your music gives you a chance to stretch your creative muscle in a whole new way, one that can get your music heard by more and more people, and one that can help finance your future creative efforts.

Our series on the composing process comes to an end next time with our final installment, which is all about royalties. Until then, have a great weekend, and keep on creating!

Saturday Summary, March 19, 2011

2011-03-18T08:39:00.000-04:00

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.

To say it's been another insane week is understatement, but I'll say it anyway -- it's been another insane week. On the plus side, I've got paperwork signed and turned in for the Raleigh Ringer concert, which means we've now officially got the venue reserved. We've also already sold tickets as far away as Urbana, IL and Cincinnati, OH, so that's a good thing.

Also, the saga of my car accident has come to a nice bit of a lull. I'm going to the chiropractor for the next several weeks because there's some ligament damage and I don't want things going wrong there. We also picked up our new Honda Civic yesterday, since the old one -- in the process of crumpling and not causing me any worse injury -- was totaled. So, we once more have transportation, I'm getting treatment for the very minor things that are wrong with my body, and life is getting itself back on track.

All that being said, I'll keep this Summary short and sweet -- I didn't compose; I didn't write; and the only thing I did on the publishing front was get a new copy of the proof of For the Bible Tells Me So from Alan Lohr to look over and make corrections. We'd done some rewriting of some sections, and just to make sure I didn't miss any errors, I asked him to change those measures then give me another crack at the proof, which he very graciously did.

I pray that next week will be a productive week, but it's not looking like it. Still, I'll hold out hope that I can actually post something interesting here next week. In the meantime, keep on working, keep on creating, and get over to rrindy.com to buy some tickets for the Raleigh Ringers concert in Indianapolis on June 20!

The Composing Process -- Publication

2011-03-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

The Creative is taking an in-depth look at the steps I go through in composing a piece of music, from first ideas clear through the end of the publishing process. Realize this is only my process -- this may or may not work for you, so use it only as a guide. This is the eleventh post in the series.

The day has finally arrived --your piece is in print! It's a date you will remember for the rest of your life, right?

Like everything else in the whole publication process, your piece actually becoming available for the world to see is less a momentous thunderclap as it is a slow sprawl into existence. That's not to say it isn't exciting, but it happens gradually, a step at a time.

One of the first things you'll see will be evidence of your piece online. For most publishers, this means that the title and other information will appear on their website. There's not much there, and, unless you become a truly big name in your field, odds are this won't actually get anyone to buy any copies. It's more of a, "Hey, I'm here!" announcement that carries little weight.

Not long after that, however, you'll start to see other things on the same website. Most publishers these days will post a demonstration recording of the piece, as well as a PDF file that contains the cover and a page or two of the music. For most people, this is what sells them on the idea of maybe, just maybe, buying your piece.

Next (or sometimes before or at the same time -- publication is the sort of process where it doesn't much matter what order things happen in, so long as they all eventually happen), you'll see your piece showing up on the websites of music retailers. This is where it gets really exciting, like an author seeing his book in a bookstore for the first time. Having the information on the publisher website is nice, but, unless you do a lot in music, how many people really know the publishers in a given musical field, or ever visit their websites? How many times have you gone to the Penguin Publishing website or the Scribner website to see what new books they've put out? You don't -- you go to Amazon.com. This is like that -- most musicians don't visit publisher websites -- they go to J.W. Pepper or Sheet Music Plus or that sort of site.

Fortunately, most music retailers also link to the PDF files and the audio files of your work. You can also see your name alongside the names of other composers you may have admired or emulated for years. If you need an ego boost (and a humbling reminder of where you fall in the pecking order), that will do it for you.

The corollary to this, of course, is actually going in to a music store and finding your music on the shelf (or, in the case of most of mine, in a drawer). Yes, I've done this, and if I'm ever feeling down, it's quite refreshing to walk in and see my music in a drawer with hundreds of other handbell pieces, just knowing that it's there and available for anyone who wants to walk in and purchase it.

The other big thing that will happen during this phase is that you will receive your composer's copies. Every publisher, as part of the contract you signed, will send you a set number of copies of your piece for your own use. The idea is you'll pass them out as promotional copies to try to get folks to buy more, but I tend to give them to family and friends as thank-yous. I also hold on to a copy of each of them myself. Depending on the publisher, this can be as few as 5 copies or as many as 30 (at least in my experience).

This is a momentous event (and, of the whole "publication" part of the process, it's the one I remember best). This is the instant when you see the end result of your hard work and creative talents. This is the point where you actually hold a finished product in your hand. It's a great feeling, and, unlike much of the creative process, it's something you can actually share with the rest of the world.

There's very little left to cover in the composing process, but we'll finish it up next week, as we look at promoting your music, and that all important subject of royalties.

The Composing Process -- The Proof

2011-03-13T16:32:00.000-04:00

Note errors -- these can be single notes wrong, or whole chords. Realize that whoever is copying this over is looking at hundreds and hundreds of tiny black dots on nearly-identical lines. It's easy to misread, incorrectly enter, or just plain get confused on the whole thing.
Articulation errors -- staccato, accent, or other markings that aren't as they're supposed to be. If the notes are confusing, a piece with a lot of staccato notes can be all the harder to keep track of.
Markings -- these can include everything from dynamic markings to crescendos and decrescendos, or even specialized techniques (like martellato and swings in handbells). They can be the wrong marking, omitted, put in when they ought not be, or just placed at the wrong spot.
General readability -- measure numbers (which come EVERY measure in handbell music) hiding behind notes or accidentals or ties. Notes too close together. Notes overlapping. Omitted key signatures (yes, with some older notation programs, it happens).
Other things you usually don't give a second thought to -- things like the aforementioned tempo mix-up. I've seen a proof where my last name was spelled "Drug". Words in performance notes misspelled. You name it, it's probably happened in an engraver's proof.

I usually go over a proof at least twice, more times if it's a particularly intricate piece or has a lot of errors (where there are many errors, it's more likely there are others I missed). It's a lot of time and mind-numbing attention to detail, but I know that every minute I spend looking for those mistakes just makes the piece that much better and stronger. Many are the times I've been in a choir or playing a piece of music for myself and encountered an error. It breaks the spell of the piece, much like a misspelling in a book pulls you out of the mystery. Part of my job as composer is to engulf the listener and the musician both in my harmonic spell, and a mistake takes away some of that experience.

It can be tempting, when you reach this stage, to start slacking off -- I mean, by this point, you've made it, right? But realize this is the absolute last chance you have to make sure the piece the world sees is the piece you want them to see. When you get here, be careful, take your time, and leave no detail ignored.

Next time, we'll talk about that actual happy time when you see your piece finally and gloriously in print! Until then, keep on composing!

Saturday Summary, March 12, 2011

2011-03-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

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.

Well, it's been an interesting week, and nearly none of it had to do with creativity. On Monday, while driving in to teach at school, another car pulled out in front of me and I hit it hard enough to activate my air bag. I'm okay, the other driver is okay, my beloved Honda Civic ... not so much. The good news is everyone walked away; the bad news is this one 2.3 second incident derailed pretty much my whole week.

The good news is -- tickets are now on sale for the Raleigh Ringers concert in Indianapolis on June 20. We've already sold a couple, but we've still got a long way to go to pack the house for this amazing event. Check out details at rrindy.com.

Now, on to business:

Music --I composed nothing this week. (See, I told you the crash threw me off.)

Writing -- Nope, nothing here, either. (See???)

Publishing -- I've got a couple of proofs and contracts still sitting here that I need to go over and return, so I'm trying to wade through those. I have one piece from SoundForth that I've made a few changes to that I need to send back to them so they can incorporate them into the proof and send me a new version before I actually edit the thing. All this I'm trying to get done before our upcoming vacation. Busy, busy, busy.

Sadly, that's it for the week. The good news is, the Math Bowl team I was coaching at the elementary school is done for the season, so I now get back a couple extra mornings every week, which ought to give me time to get my creative life back on track. Things won't really return to a state of normalcy until April, but I can wait that long. Until then, I'll just keep plugging along and doing what I can do, and get my train back on track when I'm able.

Have a great week, everyone.

The Composing Process -- The Contract

2011-03-09T08:00:00.098-05:00

You are giving your work over to the publishing company so that they'll publish it. Yes, after you sign this, the piece is no longer your own, but belongs to something bigger.
The publisher can do pretty much whatever they want to with it. They can print it, let people arrange it, permit people to record it, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Scary, yes.
You promise that this is your work, and you didn't steal it from anyone else. If this is the part that stops you from signing, then shame on you -- don't copy.
You agree to some things -- You'll give them the manuscript (which, if they've accepted it, you've already done), you'll correct proofs, and if someone sues the publisher because of the piece, you'll give them whatever support is necessary.
The publisher agrees to some things -- They'll pay you royalties (usually 10%) on all "regular" copies sold, and other royalties on various other types of sales (like overseas, or if your piece is part of a compilation, plus money for anyone who gets a mechanical license to record your piece). They'll also give you complimentary copies (depending on the publisher, this will be anywhere from 5 copies to 30), promise to sell copies to you at a discount, and let you know when and how often they'll give you your money.

That, in a nutshell, is what you're signing. It's very basic, very straightforward ... and very scary. You are placing a lot of trust in the publisher not to do anything underhanded with your work, not to defile your name, not to ruin your career. These, fortunately, are nearly groundless fears, the sort of stuff you're more likely to read in a novel than experience in real life.

What you should be worried about (and rightly so) is whether the publisher will treat your work with respect, whether they'll do all they can to get it out there and sell it, whether they'll change it so much it will no longer be recognizable as your own. Realize, however, that the entire publishing industry is built on trust -- the publishers need you and your composition, and the compositions of all their other composers, or they don't have a business. It's not just polite for them to try hard to sell your piece, to respect it and the work that went in to it, and not to ruin it in any way -- it's in their best interest. What's good for you is good for them.

Also, if they've agreed to sell your piece, they think it has a better than fair chance of selling, and hopefully selling well. If you've given them one piece that can do this, then odds are you can give them another, and another. They won't jeopardize that future relationship by doing something stupid with the piece you're giving them now.

That being said, don't take my word for it -- this post does not constitute legal advice. Be sure to read your own contract over carefully to make sure it really does say all this and not something else entirely.

Next time, we'll look at the last thing you have to actually do -- correcting the proofs. Until then, keep on composing!

The Composing Process -- Acceptance

2011-03-06T08:00:00.045-05:00

Acceptance does not mean every other piece you write will get accepted -- Despite the validation an acceptance gives you, it is still just accepting your piece and nothing but your piece. Don't assume everything else you write will be snatched up automatically.
Acceptance does not make you an instant success -- Getting a piece published is great, but it won't make you an overnight household name, won't cause members of the opposite gender to hurl themselves at you, won't let you take exotic half-year-long round-the-world cruises. It will, however, get your piece in print.
Acceptance does not eliminate your financial worries for life -- We'll talk about this more in a few weeks when we talk about royalties, but the simple mathematical fact is that a single piece, no matter how well received by the public, is astronomically unlikely to take care of all your future financial concerns. In fact, it's more likely not even to do much in terms of taking care of your immediate financial concerns.
Acceptance doesn't mean you get to stop working -- I learned this lesson the hard way. After my first piece was accepted in June of 2006, I sat back, dreamed about what life would be like with a handbell arrangement in print ... and did nothing. It was over a year later when I got my second piece accepted, and not because I was racking up the rejections, but because I simply didn't write and submit anything for a goodly length of time.
Acceptance doesn't mean you're done with the piece -- Our next couple of posts will look at the life of your piece after it's accepted. Getting that acceptance letter (or more often these days, an acceptance e-mail), doesn't end your relationship with the piece, just your relationship as the only one in its life. Some publishers will be happy with the piece as it is, while others will want you to make corrections and alterations to it. Even then, there are proofs and other considerations that go along with actually getting the piece in print. Far from saying you're done with a piece, getting an acceptance just means you've got more work to do with the piece before you lay it to rest.

As of now, we're leaving the actual composing process and moving on into the publishing process. For any composer who wants to be published, it's a necessary thing, but most of it (at least on the composer's end) is about as far from the art of composing as you can get and still be in the music realm. It's still interesting as anything to be involved in, but it does really make you ache to get back to the keyboard or computer and start composing again.

Next time, we'll look at potentially the scariest part of the whole process: the contract. Until then, keep composing, keep submitting, and good luck!

Saturday Summary, March 5, 2011

2011-03-05T08:00:00.031-05:00

Handbell pieces -- 20 17
Piano pieces -- 20 17
Choral pieces -10
String pieces -- 4
Band pieces -- 2
Other instrumental pieces -- 4
GRAND TOTAL FOR 2011 -- 60 54

I know I'm behind for the year, but my life gets drastically less hectic starting next week, so I'm assuming (hoping, praying) things will pick up.

Writing -- Actually, I'm not sure I did anything on my writing this week. My stories have been a bit more in the forefront of my mind than usual, but I'm not sure I actually put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

Publishing -- I've gone over the proofs of Come, Christians, Join to Sing and O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, and will be getting corrections back to the appropriate publishers soon. I also saw where Lorenz has the sound file up for my forthcoming Faith, Hope, and Love. I'll get that audio (and a couple of other bits of audio) up on the site soon.

That's about it from here. While there wasn't a whole lot done on the creative side of things, I do have other big musical news: details are now finalized for the Raleigh Ringers concert in Indianapolis! I'll be shamelessly promoting the concert here on The Creative for the next several months, but for any interested in attending, the concert will be Monday, June 20 at 7:30 PM at the Warren Performing Arts Center. You can get all the details by visiting rrindy.com. Be sure to share the website with anyone you think would be interested in attending -- the more, the merrier!

Until next time, keep creating, and have a great weekend.

The Composing Process -- Rejection

2011-03-02T08:00:00.081-05:00

The Creative is taking an in-depth look at the steps I go through in composing a piece of music, from first ideas clear through the end of the publishing process. Realize this is only my process -- this may or may not work for you, so use it only as a guide. This is the seventh post in the series.

This week, we look at two sides of the same coin: rejection and acceptance. By now, you've planted your seed of an idea and watched it bloom, then nurtured it into a beautiful piece of music before sending it out into the world to see how it is received. The answer is: either it is accepted or it is rejected.

We'd love to think our creation is so perfect, so amazingly wonderful that anybody in his or her right mind would snap at the chance to take our work and share it with the world. The truth of the matter, sadly, is that the beautiful flower that is our creation is but a single flower in a garden of other flowers, many equally beautiful and magnificent. The image (sadly for us as Creatives) is all too apt. Can you imagine coming upon a field of tulips, all of them a sight to behold, and choosing but one? How do you choose? Which do you choose? What of the ones you didn't choose?

There is always the possibility that the piece you wrote just wasn't good enough. If you're new to the field you're writing for, this is even more possible, but fortunately, it's something that will get better with time. I generally don't jump to this conclusion the first time a piece is rejected, but after the third of fourth rejection, I'll go back and look at a piece and see if I've done something glaringly stupid. I'll also play through the piece and see if I still like it. Sometimes I let a piece go and it frankly just wasn't ready. Often I can clean it up and make it presentable, then send it on its merry way again.

Sadly, most rejections come down to a numbers game. There are a limited number of pieces of music in any particular medium that will be released each year, and for each piece released, there are anywhere from tens to hundreds submitted. There are other publishing matters to take into consideration, as well. What this amounts to, fortunately for us Creatives, is that usually the fact our pieces are rejected has nothing to do with the quality or craftsmanship of the piece itself. This can be a very comforting thought, though it takes some practice to see this in the wake of a rejection.

So why was my piece rejected? There are a few possible reasons:

No room in the catalog -- I'll talk handbell publishing, because that's what I know best. There are six or eight big handbell publishers who put out a release in spring and one in the fall, and another six or eight main publishers who put out one release a year. Add it up, and there are probably no more than 150 or so handbell pieces released in any given year. When those slots are filled, there's nothing else that will be published -- end of story.

Many publishers -- even the ones that take unsolicited manuscripts -- have a "stable" of composers they go to time and time again. You can tell these composers because any release form a given publisher will have at least one -- and often more than one -- title from them. Why do they stick with the same composers year after year? Probably sales -- if you get a composer who sells well on one piece, odds are he'll sell well on other pieces. Think of a rose bush: if you find one rose bush that always gives perfect roses that last for weeks before dying, you'll keep returning to that bush for your roses, even though many other equally lovely (though untested) roses are out there. Sad, but true.

For those new composers who aren't part of the "stable" of a particular publisher, there are only a limited number of slots left. Of those original theoretical 150 spots, there are maybe only 40 or 50 left once the "regulars" have their pieces in. Suddenly, the odds just got worse. All you can do is submit and hope for the best.

Not right for the catalog -- This one's a little trickier but no less important. Each publisher has a certain "sound" in what they release. Some are more artistic, some are more utilitarian. Some are simpler, some are more complex. Some are very rhythmic, others are more interested in complex harmonies and melodies. It's entirely possible that a piece gets rejected because it's just not a good fit in the catalog. If you're looking for red roses, you'd never take a rose from a bush with white roses -- it's just not the right type of flower. Again, it doesn't mean the piece is bad -- you were just hoping to fit a square peg in a round hole.

Something similar in the catalog -- This one really burns, and it's happened to me on more than one occasion. You submit a piece and the publisher responds: They love the piece, but they just released/are about to release/have an old good-selling favorite that's very similar and they don't want them to compete. The worst was a handbell arrangement I submitted where I was told that the editor had accepted an arrangement of the same tune just a week before. There's nothing else to say here except it's pure dumb luck.

BUT -- if you get this sort of rejection, it does mean that your piece has merit and is well done, so your odds of having it accepted elsewhere just went up.

Rejection hurts -- don't get me wrong. But remember, when they reject a piece, they're rejecting the piece, not the composer. Your worth lies in your ability to create beautiful pieces of music, not whether a particular publisher likes/has room for/wants to publish your piece. Take your rejections with a grain of salt, then turn around and resubmit your piece. My rule with my compositions is that I don't let a piece sit with me for more than twenty-four hours: if I receive a rejection, I turn right around and send it back out, often times within minutes (thanks to the joy of electronic submissions). The number of times this strategy has resulted in an acceptance is huge. In fact, nearly half my handbell pieces in print and accepted for publication were first rejected by at least one publisher, and often multiple publishers.

So enjoy your rejections -- you're just one step closer to having your piece published. On Sunday, we'll look at the other side of this coin: getting a piece accepted. Until then, keep on creating!