Turn up and Write

Lewis Capaldi live in Glasgow. | Heute.at

Are you someone who writes at a set time, whatever your mood? Or do you have to be in the right frame of mind to write? Do you need to feel inspired?

The singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi gained rapid success after the release of his first album. He’d found writing those songs relatively easy, he could take his time, he was writing for himself. But the second album was very different. He felt under pressure to produce songs of a similar quality to the earlier ones, songs that would appeal to his vast numbers of fans. Songs that wouldn’t disappoint.

He suffered from second book syndrome.

He feared he could never replicate the success of his first album. He couldn’t remember how he’d written before and he felt like an imposter. His mental health deteriorated and he developed Tourette’s that stopped him from performing live.

So he took time out, worked on his mental health and eventually he was able to write and perform again. *

Some people will read this and feel sympathy. The pressure was huge and it shouldn’t have been. No one can succeed with such expectations on them. Capaldi did the right thing to take the time to heal.

But other people may say, he’s a songwriter, of course he’s expected to write. The same way that journalists are expected to produce a news-piece every week or every day. Teachers have to teach, preachers must preach, actors in long-running shows have to get on stage and perform. It doesn’t matter whether these people are in the mood or not, they have to turn up and do their job.

We can discuss the differences caused by fame. How much greater the pressure is when the world is watching and waiting. Very few of us can truly understand that.

But to me it all raises a question of attitude. Do I write every day, because that is what I think I should be doing? God has called me to write and I need to put the time in. Or do I write only when I feel inspired? And the sun is shining and I’ve cleared my desk and diary of all other responsibilities?

Please don’t think for a minute that I believe Capaldi should have sucked up the pressure and knuckled down. I think he did the right thing, and his second album shows that. But I know that I can put off writing because I don’t feel inspired or I’ve allowed other pressures to squeeze my time. And perhaps I should treat it more like a regular job. A job I have to turn up and do, whether I feel like it or not.

Believing that God will inspire me and will honour the hours I put in.

* for more details, see Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now, on Netflix