A Million Products A Day

Lovelies,

When I was a kid I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Odd choice. Odd circumstances. Odd test. The whole thing was odd.

The results made some sense to me. Introvert. I mean, sure. I hung out with trees a lot. Intuitive. Indeed. I could tell you how you're feeling but not your eye color. Thinking. Duh, what else am I going to do? 

But process? PROCESS? That felt like bad news. An insult. A jail sentence.

A lifetime of WORKING TOWARD things??

Despite my distaste, my life unfolded like following the assignment. I fell in love with every step. I made choices based on quality of experience over projected outcomes. I scoffed at arrivals.

Even really cool ones!

This changed 3 years ago. Well to be fair, everything changed 3 years ago. I started producing other artists. I started writing songs for other artists, sometimes on a deadline of a few hours. I stopped helping people learn piano and started helping them write songs. I launched Songwriting Salon. I developed a young adult songwriters program. I wrote an ebook about songwriting. (Hey! See how I just slipped that one in there?! But yes, I wrote an ebook about songwriting! Due out in the next couple months! I can't wait to share it with you!)

The common factor, the common THRILL of all these enterprises is PRODUCT. I stopped swimming the endless seas of creative process and started MAKING STUFF! It felt like an elicit romance... Courted by PRODUCT, I kissed process one last time and fled into the night.

I'm sure all I've revealed here is a misunderstanding of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. And yet my misunderstanding has led me to a fun realization. Despite my utter and obvious fascination with CREATIVE PROCESS (see: this and every Newsletter I've ever sent you), I don't totally believe it exists. Or rather, it exists, but retrospectively. Ah yes, THAT'S how I made this widget!

But what is creative process if not a million products a day. The falling leaf is a lyric. The conversation is a character arc. The sunbeam is a metaphor.

We swim the seas of creative process not for the love of the sea but for the artifacts of meaning we leave in our wake. 

If anyone wants to join the Lovers Of / Warriors Against Creative Process movement, drop me a line, we're in prelim stages and have big dreams. 

All my love,

Rachel