The Final Review

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This is the last of four posts for those who were disappointed in their creative output last year. While “failure is always an option” in Lichtenbergianism, you want it to be part of an ongoing process that loops you back into getting work down, not a dead end.

To recap:

  • For each Precept, I’ll link to that Precept’s explanatory page for anyone who hasn’t read the book or been around here for very long. (Each page is only a couple of paragraphs; you’re not getting into Being and Nothingness here.)

  • I’ll give you some journal prompts to consider and then answer in your WASTE BOOK. Propose a solution if one occurs to you. Yes, this is an assignment.

  • Finally, I’ll give my own assessment of my work habits for this past year.

AUDIENCE

Read about AUDIENCE.

  • Did you have a specific AUDIENCE in mind? Why not? Remember, your AUDIENCE is not “everybody.”

  • Is it the right AUDIENCE?

  • Did you create this first and foremost for yourself?

Me: The loss of the music program Finale in 2024 threw me for a loop; I still haven’t upgraded my Mac laptop to OS 26 because that would kill Finale off for good, even though it’s not even a reliable piece of software any longer. That self-pity extended to the fact that even I became proficient enough on Dorico to complete Seven Dreams and other projects, it was a virtual certainty that I would never seem them performed.

And then, while moping about Alchemy last fall, I had a serious revelation: I write this music for me, and that is actually enough. If it’s never performed, I won’t be the first composer to which that is happened. (See: Charles Ives.)

As I was finishing Ten Little Waltzes and Paulo Manso de Sousa of Southern Arc Dance agreed to stage it, that actually shifted what I had in mind for “10. Finale.” Knowing that the performance would need a big finish for the whole company completely changed how I structured the waltz. It became much more Straussian/episodic, much more tilted to that grand finale. AUDIENCE is critical.

ABANDONMENT

Read about ABANDONMENT.

  • Of the projects you ABANDONED this past year, which ones were 1) tossed into the trash; 2) set aside until later; or 3) released to an AUDIENCE?

  • Failure is always an option — were your “failures” a waste of time/resources, or did they move you along your creative path?

  • If they were a waste of time/resources, how could you re-evaluate that process to make that kind of event into a learning tool?

  • If you were ABANDONING a project to an AUDIENCE, where was that audience: online, sitting in their den, in a performance, or some place else?

Me: Other than this blog, the only project that I ABANDONED was Ten Little Waltzes, published here and surrendered to the tender mercies of Paulo/Southern Arc. I hereby swear that I will do better (worse?) this year.