Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I've been musing over this for about a decade now, and I have finally
> come up with a word which succinctly describes the problem:
>
> Originality.
>
> Apparently I am physiologically incapable of coming up with original
> ideas. Take music, for example. I have almost two decades of recordings
> I've made of myself performing various pieces of music that other people
> have written. But the number of original compositions that I've come up
> with myself can be counted on one hand.
>
> I can take an existing piece of music and make it sound good. I can tell
> you why it sounds good. But sitting looking at a blank piece of score, I
> can only sit there and think "now, what would sound good?"
>
> The same seems to hold for any other field of endeavour you can think
> of. I can look at a piece of work that somebody /else/ has produced and
> tell you why it's good. But I can't think of anything good myself. I
> simply lack any shred of originality. I can only copy other people's
> great works.


This is nothing more that a flying guess, but perhaps you share a problem that



of the word processor has probably prevented a large percentage of a deciduous
forest from going into a landfill by way of my waste basket.)   I owe any small
successes that I may have had to one unusually gifted instructor who beat me
over the head with one particularly useful adage until I had fully internalized


Writing bad stuff turns out to be amazingly useful, especially if one has some
facility for understanding what makes it bad stuff and can go on to fix it.  As
obvious as it sounds, it is absolutely true that writing anything is of

nothing.

So... (he said, pretending to be in a position to give advice) Hop to it! You
know how it begins: ten horizontal lines, two clefs, one key signature and then
you start making the little dots. Do NOT wait until you think you've got the


As for not being capable of creativity... stuff and nonsense.  If that language

Seriously, I know people who are fundamentally incapable of creativity and

disinterest that renders such individuals intellectually inert.

Obligatory Monty Python reference:
http://www.wavsource.com/snds_2011-07-14_1339138915432900/tv/mpfc/pig-ignorance.wav


In comes down to one simple disjunction: Either you will write music or you


Best Regards,
Mike C.

P.S.
Darn you... Darn you to heck!  Now that you gone and gotten me to post this

I?
(Thanks.)

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