Moving from Consumer to Producer

I've been contemplating a lot lately how much of a consumer I am, especially a consumer of books, TV and movie media.  In truth, some of this introspection renders me a happy, happy mama as I dread what my state of mind would be without my books!  However, I am also concerned and disappointed at times in my own “need to be entertained.”   

I don’t just want to talk a good game about what good writing looks like; I desperately want to be a producer, not just a consumer, a desire that has become more pressing over roughly the last five years.  But, I want what I produce to be “quality,” something worth the time others will spend consuming and perhaps something that will inspire the next consumer-turned-producer. 

With this in mind, I am thrilled that my best friend and I are finally embarking on a project we have talked about doing for some years now. We have finally scheduled—in pen—time once a week to get together to write.  We will be focusing on writing songs for the time being, but I imagine this will branch out—as creative projects often do—into other genres.  Our first meeting was a wonderfully messy attempt to focus our creative energies and come up with a plan.  This all strikes me as laughably ironic:  planning a creative endeavor seems akin to choreographing a tornado. 

In any event, we not only planned some, we created some, too, and it is through the simple result—that we penned at least ¾ of a halfway promising song—that I find contentment.  As we find our rhythm, as we find and blend our voices and visions, beautiful and messy things will happen.