THE WORKING MUSE PROJECT: CONCLUSION & RESULTS

As regular readers are aware, in late September I started my ‘Working Muse Project‘ as a way to interject focus on my artistic endeavors which had been languishing somewhat. To that end, for a 30-day period, I treated my artistic pursuits as a job by working a minimum of 3 hours per day in an attempt to achieve the following goals.

• Curate all audio, video, photographic and other elements required for my former band’s deluxe release and submit final versions to the record label
• Produce, at least, 40 pages of original fiction
• Enroll in and begin a high-quality online creative writing class
• Write 4 new, original songs & finalize the arrangements on 2 in-process cover songs
• Write 3 new Fates On Fire articles
• Keep a daily journal of progress, insights, learnings, etc.

SO, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

As documented in my original post, the project got off to a rather inauspicious start, but I was able to get to a solid cadence pretty quickly in the 1^st week. That said, I did work on the above goals each and every day of the project. In all candor, however, sometimes it was less than 3 hours and sometimes far more. The total project hours called for 90 and I ended up somewhere around the 120 mark, so I, unquestionably, put the time in.

Since I am always honest and forthright, I will concede that during the 2^nd week, I was laid out and completely incapacitated by listeria poisoning for 5 full days. It was the sickest I have ever been in my life with a 102-degree fever and all the associated unpleasantness to boot. Anyway, I chose to entirely excise those days and, instead, simply extend the project end date to account for this.

My initial goal was to tackle the extremely complex and time consuming record release project since it is both a binding commitment and also has an economic benefit to me and my former band mates. As I shared in the initial post, the sheer amount of audio, video and photographs in the archive were staggering. It became clear, that this was going to consume a disproportionately large amount of the project’s time. And it did.

Overall, it was well over 70 hours to sift, review, cull, get input and finalize everything. While it was arduous, it was also a wonderful trip down memory lane and the label has, as of yesterday, scheduled an official release date for October. I’m hoping the limited release will sell out quickly so we can all have some extra cash before the holidays. However, the best (and most serendipitous) outcome of all of this is that we agreed to record a song together later this year!

WRITING AND LEARNING TO WRITE

To stave off some of the monotonous drudgery of the above project, I did step out of curation mode in those first few weeks by writing some Fates on Fire articles. Overall, I wrote a total of 5 articles during the project which exceeded my initial goal. I don’t generally write beyond whatever is currently next, so it was actually kind of fun.

Another goal was to enroll and start an online creative writing class – which I did. What I did not expect, or particularly think through at all, is how intense and demanding it may be. Which it is. But it is also absolutely amazing. The material is relevant and the assignments are extremely challenging, albeit in a good way.

My chops are certainly benefiting from the work I’ve put in thus far, but it’s also taken a good deal of the project’s allotted hours. It has also made me postpone some of the short fiction I had previously plotted and planned to write as I want to complete the class before doing so as I’d like to be at ‘peak form’ prior to writing any of my original stories. Nevertheless, at the end of the project, I had produced somewhere close to 15 pages of creative writing, by way of class assignments, so a little shy of the overall stated goal.

THE BIRTH OF ‘AKEMI OBJECT’

The days of the project had now flown by like a twisted tsunami and I had been so transfixed by the record endeavor and all my writing, that I hadn’t actually invested much into creating any music. So, in some kind of attempt to get the tunes going, I decided that I was going to lock myself into my studio for a few days with only me, my music & recording equipment to see what emerged from the other side.

The initial act of banality was to ready the studio by busting out all the guitars, basses and drum machines, then sync them all with the computers and in-studio audio. It also included such rock ‘n’ roll highlights as re-stringing guitars, fussing about with vintage electronics gear and wrasslin’ with miles of cables.

I finally settled down, turned it to 11 and tested it. Fortunately, it sounded divine. I’m a bit fired up now and decide to jump right into my 2 working arrangements of Abecedarians’ ‘Dinner‘ and Placebo’s ‘Pure Morning;‘ I had been stuck forever on these, but after many months of not playing, both of these renditions just fell right out. Perfect! I record it. Boom! Maybe waiting for the music last is going to pay off?

Next day, I went in cold and just set my Alesis SR-16 in a few random analog drum patterns and apparating straight from the ether are two wonderful basslines. I could not be happier. I record those and then work up some complimentary guitar parts and, ultimately, end up with the skeletons of a couple of nice songs.

I’d been struggling for nearly a year on the name of my new music project. While I think Fates On Fire is actually a far superior band name than a website name, it’s already spoken for. At one point I just laid back, closed my eyes and the name ‘Akemi Object’ popped into my head. And that, my friends, is the name of my new band. All is well now with a name and some solid music.

WHAT I LEARNED

Overall, I consider ‘The Working Muse Project’ a success. While I may have been off on a few pages of creative writing or a song or 2, I ended up overachieving on other goals and, unquestionably, accomplished a commendable amount of tangible creative results. Certainly the most I’ve ever achieved in a 30-day period in my lifetime.

Aside from the goals themselves, I actually learned quite a bit. First, I proved the age-old adage that if you just put in the work, you will get results. Duh. But having never really structured my time for creating art, I found it to be very effective. Just having the time earmarked for creativity was colossal. Even if I just thought about things or tried to come up with ideas, this ‘structured puttering around’ worked very well for me.

Having the dedicated time also helped to influence my behavior and establish internal and external boundaries. For example, since I regarded my mornings as sacrosanct, it was very easy to say ‘No,’ to desires or requests from either me or others.

While I cultivate and enjoy the temporal distortion of early retirement, the project did help me to understand the value of structured time for other things as well. For instance, Tuesday is now my ‘Domestic Day’ where all the sundry household chores, projects, etc. get done. Knowing I have a dedicated day for that obviates the constant internal ‘When am I going to get that done?’ nagging I seem to be prone to subject myself to.

If I was a true working artist, in that my economic livelihood was entirely derived from my art, I would certainly have this level of structure. However, while I found that a daily regimen was critical to what I accomplished, I had to make certain sacrifices in other areas of my life that I value highly. Since I do nearly all my kayaking, hiking, fishing and other outdoor activities in the mornings, I did virtually none of those during this project. So, going forward, I am dedicating two days per week for creativity to sustain my momentum, but also give me time to engage in all the other wonderful things I enjoy.

What I found most surprising of all was that I cannot write, either fiction or non-fiction, and create music on the same day. I tried a bit at first and then failed majestically. I’m uncertain whether they use different parts of my brain, they come to me from different places, or I just have faulty wiring, but irrespective of the reason, I cannot do both in the same session. And that’s just fine actually, but it was something that I discovered that had never really occurred to me.

Last, I proved to myself, yet again, that one should always set very lofty, slightly unreachable goals. Of course there’s all manner of psychological studies and evidence-based research that this, generally, results in growth, development, and enhanced levels of overall long-term achievement – even if the individual goals themselves are not. The whole ‘reach for the stars’ business. Trite, but true and deadly if the approach is used consistently over time.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Thanks to those who were kind enough to share their creative processes in the comments of the original post. They were extremely insightful. I’d love to hear your follow up comments on the conclusion. Even if you’ve read only this, any feedback or insight is greatly appreciated.