Wednesday 27 January 2010

7 Things... Part One: Journalling

KEEP A JOURNAL!

Rule number one of being a Worship Song Writer.

Keeping a journal or diary can have many benefits... if you are that way inclined. Recording your thoughts and prayers (and answers to prayers) is something many people enjoy and some even find it invaluable.

I've never really gotten into it. At my house there are a number of nice books with notebooks which have the first and second pages (perhaps third, if you're lucky) with journal entries but then just blank pages. I guess then I just forgot, or didn't have anything to say or couldn't be bothered.

So I've never done journalling well. What I have done though, is song writing.

Rather than record my ideas in a book I naturally try to write songs out of those experiences and ideas that inspire me - even if the song does not end up being a 'congregational' one... perhaps this is one of the reasons why I apparently write 'a lot' - in a conversation about how frequently I write another writer was astounded to find out I wrote (conservatively) 'a couple of month'... I've never thought that was a lot!

One of the reasons my journals stayed empty is that it all ended up in songs... so if you want to write more songs maybe try journalling less and song writing more... what's the worst that can happen? (cue Dr.Pepper music)

dg

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