Writer's Block. It's a B*tch. Make it YOUR B*tch.

"I'm at a loss for words 'cause y'all already said it all

I think I'm runnin' out of clichesI'm gettin' writer's block" - Eminem, Writer's Block

This is going to be a long and slightly more serious one, not boring though! Would I ever bore you ;) I just hope people can take something away from this.

So I just wrote a blog post for www.GNothingness.com about motivation, as I write for them now, but I don’t get as personal on there as I would on here, so I thought I’d do one on here too. 

Writer’s block, lack of motivation, self esteem is all very familiar for a lot people unfortunately, for a musician/artist, it is one of the most crushing and frustrating things.

So many people have written about this in the past, but I am really hoping that what I write could help at least one person who happens to stumble on my blog instead of the countless others.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about me. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a singer, as far back as I remember, I used to lie in bed dreaming about being on stage, recording in a studio and writing music that people connected to. No matter how you say your ‘dream is to be a singer’, it sounds a bit childish, naive and I feel like people will probably laugh and say ‘and now you’ve grown up, what do you want to do?’ as if singing is just a fantasy and not a real career. Obviously, no one ever has, but I’d understand why if they did. It really is one in a million, and I’m not even talking about selling out stadiums, just making a living off writing and singing!

Technology these days makes it so easy to get your music out there, but at the same time even harder, because that also makes the competition greater with the amount of people who can easily upload music. I am still undecided whether I think the internet has hindered or helped people’s chances.

So I find personally, knowing how hard it all is makes it so much harder to push myself to go for it. I am going to put that down to self belief. For me it’s because of years of bullying, I can never get back. I never knew the extent of how much this effected me until recently (That is a subject for a whole new post) For others it might be different. But whatever it is, you CAN turn it round.

As soon as I say ‘self belief’ I feel like this is going to turn into one of those emotional psychological therapy blog posts, so I won’t say it again haha.. BUT, it is true, if you don’t have high confidence levels, it is SO much harder to push yourself to keep going or even know where to start.

Here’s a few things I have found definitely help:

• Surround yourself with like minded people, people who inspire you, people who will push you and be blunt with you when you’re being a miserable b*tch for no reason. My best friend is my hero for this.

• Don’t stay in and watch Netflix all day on your days off, as tempting as it is. Maybe every now and then, but trust me,  it’s an unhealthy addiction!

• If people are holding you back, cut chords (literally… aren’t I clever). If they're taking too long to send a track back, if they're flaky and seem to disappear every now and then, move on. It’s too easy to blame it on other people, so work with people who push you to keep going.

• Do something different. See something new. Break your routine, it's obviously not inspiring. When has the same thing day in and day out EVER been where incredible things come from?!

• Connect to how you’re feeling, use it to write something that could actually speak to people, a song that has personal meaning is always better written because you care more

• You don’t have to do it on your own. Song writing doesn’t have to be something you stay up all night on your own trying to create a masterpiece. When you write with other people, bring styles and ideas together, THAT is when you create something incredible

• Now, here is the most important one. It’s uncomfortable, it’s not pleasant at first, but I have been told it gets a hell of a lot easier, you have to put yourself out there. Hold your breath and just go, say yes to someone who wants to work with you, sing your idea to someone. There is no easy way around this, you just have to do it. If you do, tell me how it goes and I will tell you also.

• Here is the final one, someone commented this on my GNothingness post and I love it; Remember why you started. That is ALWAYS your strongest reason to carry on, ALWAYS. You wouldn’t throw all your passion, time and heart into something you didn’t truly love, live and breath.

That’s it, possibly my longest post to date. I really hope you get something out of this, and I hope you read it all the way through. Being able to make music is a beautiful thing, a true talent, you ARE special if you can do it. So KEEP GOING!

Much Love,

Chloë XO

Third Year Degree Students: The Fear Settling In...

I can literally smell it. I can definitely feel it. I can't hear it though...The fear and panic. I can't hear it because everyone has locked themselves away or are silently panicking and coping in their own weird little ways.

Welcome to third year of a degree.

Past students will brush it off, "Man up, we had to do it, just don't talk to anyone for a while". Future third years don't get it at all, "Why are you being such a melt for? Just come out, one night isn't going to make a difference". YES IT IS. You will find out when you get here!!

These are a few ways of coping, not dealing, with the panic I have seen and my suggestions to help:

• Denial. Pretending you have enough time? If you don't look at it, it will go away? It won't, this is FINALS of a DEGREE. This is the one time, doing the bare minimum probably won't work for you! And to be honest, if you have scraped it through this far doing that, imagine what you could do if you actually put your mind to it? You'd finish with one hell of a bang.
• Isolation. Shutting yourself off and either manically preparing or telling yourself you are, when really you're watching episode after episode of Supernatural? Firstly, if you are manically preparing, CHILL OUT. You will only burn yourself out, we don't have long but it is long enough to over do it and crash and burn at the end. If you are subconsciously procrastinating, there is only one thing for it. Get off that illegal streaming website, it is just slowly your computer down for when you have to do real work. Go outside, take a walk, work out what you need to do, do it a bit at a time. Treat yourself to a cheeky episode at the end of the day if you have done all your work.
• Defeat. Telling yourself you can't do it, so you don't even try? I'll put my hands up, I'm guilty of this. How do you know you can't do it, if you haven't even tried? My Nanna, and now my boyfriend, always say to me "can't just isn't a thing" you CAN technically do anything you want to do. The only things that are really stopping you are fear, social acceptance and in some cases, the law...(but not for what i'm encouraging you to do, I hope..)
• Busying yourself. Busying may not be a word, I think it is... Anyway, filling your time with other things, distractions, it may even be things that are highly productive, just not for uni. For example, I am working and doing external writing and recording for other people and my own personal demos/portfolio. Yes, this is incredibly important and things I need to be doing. There is just one problem, balance is key. Work out what is actually the priority here, if you have to turn down shifts at work, do it. If you have to put your personal stuff on hold for a day or two, to finish a piece of work, do it. Okay, somethings may have deadlines, but everyone understands University doesn't just 'get put on hold' in your third year. If you have a deadline, speak to the person, they may just give you a bit of a break.

Writing all of those, I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite. My parents will be the first to say, I am notoriously bad for a few of those.

I had a little FaceTime date with my Mum yesterday and I actually got a lot out of it. It is good to sit with someone who knows you and can see what you are doing from the outside for advice.

I personally get quite bad anxieties when I am panicking, which I won't go into now, but it causes me a lot of quite detrimental problems, so I have to be extra careful to stay calm, plan ahead, keep a balance between work and play. Whether you get anxiety or not, these things are all very important for productivity.

I found this on Pinterest, it is pretty bang on! You may have to zoom in a little bit if you're as blind as me..

So here are some of my own few building blocks to help you out for these crazy few months we have voluntarily entered ourselves into:

• Get a calendar, write on it when all your deadlines are.
• Write a list of all the things you need to do for each deadline
• Draw a timeline (or use your calendar) and mark in when each of these things needs to be done by
• Make it reasonable, leave time to have chill out time with friends/family
• Make a to do list every week and tick the items off as you go
• HAVE ONE DAY OFF EVERY WEEK OR TWO WEEKS. I can't stress this one enough
• Stay healthy, go to the gym, eat well, sleep well, drink lots of water. It does effect how you perform.
• Take breaks during the day, read/watch the news, a short episode of something, paint your nails...whatever...
• If you don't get what you needed to do done, don't stress, just do it tomorrow. Give yourself a bit of leeway when writing your to do list (make it reasonable). Not so much that you take advantage and put things off though
• You have 5 months. 5 MONTHS of this. Then you have the whole of summer to chill out. 5 MONTHS. That's nothing, it's not even half a year, you'll smash it, just take it step at a time. Believe in yourself, I sure as hell believe in you.

I will leave you with this to think about,  hopefully inspire you to stay focused through these crazy few months! Powerful words!

Much Love and Good Luck!

Chloë

XO