A sweaty glimpse...

As a writer, and particularly, I think, as a writer of music and lyrics, I am often asked about the Process of Writing. How long does it take you to write a song? Where'd this-or-that idea come from? Do you do the music first, or the lyrics?

I wish I could answer these questions. Like, "Oh, you know, you just take three cups of words, simmer over a melody for twenty minutes, pepper with rhymes, to taste. Want one? I'll cook one up for ya right now."

But the truth is, I have very little idea, really, of what the process is. When I look back at a song I've written, there's not much I can articulate about how I wrote it, other than, now, it exists, and before, it didn't.

A songwriting mentor of mine likened the process of writing a song to using a divining rod on the beach, which for me is the most accurate description I've heard. You're noodling around, and suddenly, you get a strange sensation, and before you know it, you've discovered buried treasure.

That, of course, is when you're in "the zone." What's much more easy to describe is what happens when you're not in the zone. I pretty much sweat profusely, pace back and forth, lie in different awkward positions on my bed, and mumble to myself. Sometimes after hours, sometimes after days, I've figured something out. Sometimes not.

At the end of the day, I guess, each writer has his or her own unique writing process. Which is probably what makes people so curious to learn other peoples' habits.

I read once that Stephen Sondheim involves a lot of napping in his writing process. All I know is I've used that fact to justify a whole lot of midday sleeping.