Yesterday my wife asked Why I was easily able to put up a wall in our home but was unable to fix a hole in the floor. Of course I was stumped by that one. In meditation this morning I realized It was a problem I had encountered in creative endeavors as well.

--- It's easier to put something where there is nothing
Than to put something where there is already something

In the case of the home handyman work, I had complete* freedom building the wall. I could make it any color of any material any thickness. I could put it on wheels, attach it with velcro or build a flat screen video monitor into it. Patching a hole in the floor contains the kinds of restrictions that dictate how the job must be done. First I have to analyze all the materials ( rug, whatever's under rug, whatever's under that ), Then I have to decide what holds them all together and how I can defeat that bond without ruining said materials. I have to decide what can stay and what has to go and how to accomplish all that. All that has to happen before any actual "work" on fixing the hole. Not nearly as much fun as "creating" the wall.

In analyzing my own creative process I found I use two basic methods for approaching a new creation. Yup you guessed it:

--- It's easier to put something where there is nothing
Than to put something where there is already something

It's easy to start the drum machine, play with the buttons until the back beat is just right, and then finger the MIDI keyboard. until something intelligible comes out. Sometimes the result is magical, sometimes its just a mess ( like the wall I built ) but there are no restrictions except the ones I place upon myself. The more difficult path to creation is taking elements of something familiar and fitting your muse within. Composers have all ways created this way, calling it putting "new wine in old bottles" . Starting with a particular group of instruments, dance rhythm or song form, they wove melodies to fit the given restrictions. Of course, pop music is the ultimate in "formula" music.

Very few songs don't follow the standard form:

intro
verse
chorus
verse
chorus
bridge
chorus
chorus

A plan with pre determined restrictions makes the creative process "harder" but can also serve as a guide to finishing something like a song or a floor, by someone who would rather put on the drum machine and finger the keyboard.

Answer to my wife:

--- It's easier to put a wall where there is nothing
Than to put a floor where there is already a floor

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