How to Beat Writer’s Block (For Songwriters)

Mostly, I can’t make good music. That smarts a little.

But sometimes I struggle to even make bad music. And that really stings.

I do have one thing, though, which I try to keep in mind, and which serves as an eternal mental reminder to remain optimistic in the face of that dreaded affliction, “writer’s block.”

The box.

There is always something in the box.

WHAT BOX?

I first heard about the box in Turning Pro by Steve Pressfield, which if you haven’t read… yada yada yada…

There was an improv teacher called Patricia Ryan Madson. She taught at Stanford. Her exercise was called “WHAT’S IN THE BOX?”

She got you to imagine a small white box, with a lid on it. Then she got you to imagine taking the lid off the box.

“What do you find inside?”

Do it. Do it now. What was in your box?

1) THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING IN THE BOX

What Patricia knew, and what she was trying to teach her students, was that there is always something in the box.

They were improv students — they were trying to learn how to get up on a stage in front of people with no idea…