My inspiration for starting my Substack was to try and get notes I'd been taking for several years about songs and objects out into the world and upgraded from my brain dumps to something that would hopefully make sense to other people. Number 1 inspiration was (and remains) a desire to share ideas that have accumulated over a long perio…
My inspiration for starting my Substack was to try and get notes I'd been taking for several years about songs and objects out into the world and upgraded from my brain dumps to something that would hopefully make sense to other people. Number 1 inspiration was (and remains) a desire to share ideas that have accumulated over a long period in a form that connects to others.
When that isn't enough to inspire a particular piece, I often find inspiration in music I've been listening to (I write about music, so that's only natural) or things I've tried to explain to other people previously (I'm a teacher, so I have experience of trying to explain things and/or get people curious about things they might not have considered).
I find it's important to make notes as soon as possible when inspiration hits, especially when there isn't time to follow up on those flashes (Voice Notes is good for this if you're away from pen or keyboard). The challenge then is to make the space and time to follow up on those notes. I use a daily online writing group to help with that discipline and accountability. But I still have countless undeveloped ideas in physical and digital notebooks that may never get further than a few inspiration-boosted bullet points.
My inspiration for starting my Substack was to try and get notes I'd been taking for several years about songs and objects out into the world and upgraded from my brain dumps to something that would hopefully make sense to other people. Number 1 inspiration was (and remains) a desire to share ideas that have accumulated over a long period in a form that connects to others.
When that isn't enough to inspire a particular piece, I often find inspiration in music I've been listening to (I write about music, so that's only natural) or things I've tried to explain to other people previously (I'm a teacher, so I have experience of trying to explain things and/or get people curious about things they might not have considered).
I find it's important to make notes as soon as possible when inspiration hits, especially when there isn't time to follow up on those flashes (Voice Notes is good for this if you're away from pen or keyboard). The challenge then is to make the space and time to follow up on those notes. I use a daily online writing group to help with that discipline and accountability. But I still have countless undeveloped ideas in physical and digital notebooks that may never get further than a few inspiration-boosted bullet points.
Like others here, I often find inspiration when I'm out in nature or semi-nature. Over the past year, that has included running and I wrote a piece about this: https://songstudies.substack.com/p/how-the-landscape-feels-with-music.
I needed this reminder to jot down those ideas as they come, when they are fresh… I’ve had far too many escape into the ether lately. Thanks! 💡 🙏