The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook: A Radical Guide to Cutting Loose, Overcoming Blocks, & Writing the Best Songs of Your Life [Paperback]

People never have TALKING BLOCKS...so why should they have writing blocks?! This book is a radical blast through stuckness, perfectionism, laziness, creative slumps and it is ALSO a cure for the thought that songs only happen when we're fondled by the Muse.

Sure, it takes a long time to learn the craft of writing, to do brilliant REwriting, and some songs take a long gestation period.
But sometimes you have to GO FOR IT. Going for speed and quantity, in the ways this book suggests, can be liberating. And there are fine points here that can be adapted to support your creativity even when you're not doing an all-out 24hr thing.

I'm a pro writer, with major label, TV credits, singer-songwriter credits, I teach writing. (My CD's available on Amazon.) But THIS book made me want to jump up and down because IT'S SO DIFFERENT THAN ALL THE OTHER SONGWRITING BOOKS! Whatever's on your shelf...you don't have what's here...

The only thing that puzzles me is why there are no lodges yet in Nashville...or on the East Coast. Are only West Coasters unafraid and radical and willing to go on a 24-hour writing marathon?

I may have to start my own lodge.

Working on the secret handshake. Buy the book. Have FUN!

Ruth Greenwood, Ruthenium Music

These guys have cracked the code. They have solved the mystery. They have found a way for all of us tortured genius songwriters, squashed by overactive, hypercritical superegos (often the result of a dicey childhood), to re-enter, at will, that magical state called "flow", that divine order of play, that childlike state, where time stands still, creative juices threaten the levees, the muses descend from Olympus to sing nine-part harmony in your ear, the background fades into soft focus and you write a whole bunch of songs. If you have ever felt stuck as a songwriter, you have to read this book. You will feel the cameraderie, support, encouragement, empathy and acceptance of the authors and the brother and sisterhood of the songwriting groups that have adopted the methods set forth in the book. I have been writing songs for more than 35 years. I have taken many songwriting and creative writing classes and seminars, but the authors of this book are "Hobgoblin running off with the garland of Apollo". I mean they have performed a miracle here and really want you to join in.

This book would benefit if the subtitle was changed to "A Radical *Method* to Cutting Loose, Overcoming Blocks, and Writing the Best Songs of Your Life." As a frustrated songwriter, I purchased this hoping it provide various insights and multiple approaches to overcoming writer's block. As it turns out, it just gives one: set aside 12 hours (12 straight hours, not broken up) and try to write 20 songs, and do this on a twice-a-month basis or so. The rest of the book gives tips on how to do this productively, including starting a lodge as a kind of mutual support group.

I will say I did find most of the tips interesting, and will try them, but they seem aimed more for someone trying to write at a furious pace. That is, someone who is generating so many half-formed songs that they can toss out most of them. I'm deterred less by the idea trying to pound out 20 songs at a sitting than trying to free up 12 solid hours. I'm thinking it's not a coincidence that Dungeons and Dragons was mentioned at least twice in the book- a game with similar time demands and intensity and generally most popular with folks with tremendous amounts of free time.

The lodge idea is interesting. The book spends a lot of time on how to build and maintain one. They sound almost like psychotherapy support groups, requiring members to be supportive and emotionally open. I like the idea of it, but, given my personal experience with musicians and songwriters, I can't imagine how a lodge would last for more than a few sessions. After I read the book, I googled ICS, thinking perhaps there might be a few in Atlanta. It turns out that there are very few in the world, most of them clustered on the west coast. On top of that, of the lodges that have webpages, many seem defunct, or petered out years ago. Not a terrible surprise to me, given what I say above.

I don't mean to sound negative; this is a good book with a lot of great ideas. If you've ever thought "I'm gonna set aside the entire weekend to do nothing but write songs" (I know I have) in an attempt to break out of a block, this book is perfect and a must-buy. But if you do songwriting for fun, and find time is tight and inspiration low these days, this book is not that useful.