The Power of Constraints (and Robot Love)

My husband, Jordan (who will henceforth just be “Jordan” here on T.P.), is a musician, and he just recorded one of his best songs ever; it’s called “How Does It Feel?”, and it features a robot and a healthy amount of autotune – have a listen:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Jordan crafted this ditty as part of “February Album Writing Month,” or FAWM:

“If you want to chase after inspiration, then FAWM is your club. Each February this website forges a collaborative community where thousands of musicians of all walks and skill levels attempt to write an album’s worth of new music during the shortest month of the year. We ‘fawmers’ are a motley mix of music professionals, students, homemakers, and folks who work day jobs but rock nightclubs. Got questions? Check out the FAQ.”

I’m a big believer that constraint breeds creativity. If you’re feeling daunted by a big creative project or goal, how could constraining your resources — time, number of pages, etc – help you get started? After all, as I’ve said before – here, for example, and here – no one can bring your vision to life but you; and you can’t create something until you begin it. The perfect is the enemy of the good. So get started. Here are some resources that might help:

• Script Frenzy (April)
• National Novel Writing Month (November)
• The Observation Deck: A Tool-Kit for Writers

Know of others that I’m missing? (for other art forms, perhaps, or techniques for breaking big projects into smaller pieces?) Share ‘em in the comments…

See also:
Other songs Jordan’s written for FAWM (I’m partial to “My Country Tis of Me,” a collaboration with Das Binky)