What is your motivation for finishing a song?

[SomethingSomeone]

I'm writing more but finishing less. I feel a lot of resistance when I go back to a song nearing it's final phase, tweaking it to "finish" and "perfect" it.

I'm trying to understand this energy, the resistance. I'm sure it's partially anxiety about releasing something to the public, ideas that it is better or more sacred if it's left how it is and not made into something more just for another's ears.

I love starting songs and moving with the piece until that flow dries up on it's own, then the song can rest naturally, finished or unfinished. It was alive and real in the creation. Going back to it purposefully feels unnatural, feelings of effort and "I should-ness", but not because I really want to. Really I just want to start something new again and move with that creative fire.

If I was alone, the only person on earth, I ask myself would I finish anything? What would be my motivation for finishing anything? Do I actually want to have something finished to listen to for my own gratification and enjoyment, or am I putting in time and creative energy to finish something just so I have something to show to others so they can hear and enjoy what I've made and feel the energy that was moving through me throughout it's creation.

To create art is for the creator? To polish it is for presenting to others? It's important to share, but maybe I'm not fully feeling that. Maybe I feel like I'm sharing, in an unseen, energetic/interdimensional way while I'm in that heavy creative focus, very aware and highly vibrating in it.

Ideally everything I start would reach a resolution and be polished enough to share. Anything can be shared and appreciated, but there is something considerably more when the art is tweaked, played with, invested in enough so all the details are filled in, perfect, and will fully speak to who hears it.

So the question is, is it worth the time and energy to get to that point? I'm struggling to find that motivation. I like to think I have no interest in what others feel about what I create, but of course that isn't true. We are social, spiritually integrated souls that need to share. We want validation and to be heard, received, considered and through art that is how we can touch and be touched the deepest.

So it seems like it should be a very valuable endeavor to spend creative time investing in a piece to see it truly till it's end. But why do I struggle with it then? What is this resistance in finishing? I definitely enjoy hearing my songs finished, it has value, but truly the gold to me is in the process of starting and creating, not in fleshing out the final details.

I want to find a balance. It does feels right to value the process more than the results, yet the results do matter and sharing is important. I want to share all these songs, but right now finishing/tweaking/polishing/mixing/mastering feels like more work than play. Is the work worth it? In the end, what has more value...creating or sharing?

[vurt]

someone wise once said "there are no finished artworks, only deadlines"

[foosnark]

If you're happy starting and not finishing, then there's nothing wrong with that.

If you want to finish stuff, for me what helped was switching to a faster and looser approach where I'd finish a track in a single session and not give myself the opportunity to second-guess my decisions and get caught up in endless finnicky tweaking. If you finish something in one session and then call it done, then finish something else in the next session, and a third thing in the third session... you're getting a lot more practice in every step of the way, and you get better at it and it gets easier.

In the book "Art and Fear" there's a chapter that talks about this with a ceramics professor who splits his class into two groups. To the first group he says: your final grade will be based on your final project -- I want one perfect pot that demonstrates your skill and creativity. To the second group he says: your final grade will be based on the quantity of finished pots you turn it at the end of the semester.

At the end of the course, the pots in the second group (who had more practice) were much better than the first group, and some of the first group didn't have anything to turn in at all because they were too worried about "perfection."

[Jafo]

Finish? What is this word you use?

[PatchAdamz]

"What is your motivation for finishing a song?"

Not to have an unfinished song.

[pinkcrown123]

I feel similarly and also struggle to finish or even start stuff sometimes. I think what foosnark said makes sense as well as your own reflection into the problem. It seems really counterintuitive that in order to make a good, finished song, you have to start by just finishing some "bad" ones or ones you think are imperfect. Personally, even if I were the only person on Earth, I think my own high expectations would still hold me back regardless so I guess I have to work on balancing that. You could start by sharing some unfinished songs, maybe?

[SomethingSomeone]

If you're happy starting and not finishing, then there's nothing wrong with that.

If you want to finish stuff, for me what helped was switching to a faster and looser approach where I'd finish a track in a single session and not give myself the opportunity to second-guess my decisions and get caught up in endless finnicky tweaking. If you finish something in one session and then call it done, then finish something else in the next session, and a third thing in the third session... you're getting a lot more practice in every step of the way, and you get better at it and it gets easier.

In the book "Art and Fear" there's a chapter that talks about this with a ceramics professor who splits his class into two groups. To the first group he says: your final grade will be based on your final project -- I want one perfect pot that demonstrates your skill and creativity. To the second group he says: your final grade will be based on the quantity of finished pots you turn it at the end of the semester.

At the end of the course, the pots in the second group (who had more practice) were much better than the first group, and some of the first group didn't have anything to turn in at all because they were too worried about "perfection."

Thank you, I really resonated with this and found it helpful. Also, I'm listening to and enjoying your moody Skulk album

[SomethingSomeone]

I feel similarly and also struggle to finish or even start stuff sometimes. I think what foosnark said makes sense as well as your own reflection into the problem. It seems really counterintuitive that in order to make a good, finished song, you have to start by just finishing some "bad" ones or ones you think are imperfect. Personally, even if I were the only person on Earth, I think my own high expectations would still hold me back regardless so I guess I have to work on balancing that. You could start by sharing some unfinished songs, maybe?

I do share songs I'm currently doing with my partner and sometimes others. I guess maybe I feel, at times, like that is enough for me, like once someone hears a piece I did, finished or not, then that's it, there is nothing else to do with it...unless of course I naturally, without any force or strained commitment, want to finish it myself.

There are just so many ideas and free flowing sounds moving. I love melody and rhythm and I all happens so spontaneously. The struggle is in going back to something, mixing, panning, getting volume levels right, rewriting sections that could be better (after listening to it over and over and over) lol it just feels unnatural honestly, the "finalizing" process.

I love the rawness of being in the original moment and movement, doing the song and getting what's inside out. But then it's like you need to frame the painting, take measurements, find the right nails to hang it, make sure the lighting is just right so there are no glares or shadows, etc etc etc