“Pat Metheny, Stories beyond Words” – Reflection 15 – creative work, patience and endurance
The cycles of writing books and making musical recordings, working towards their publishing, their release, and life in the world… involve series of waiting games. I’ve now published four books, with a second soon to be released in another language edition, and thirteen recordings (another is already recorded and mastered). Each follows a similar pattern from initiation to completion.
Each of these projects begin with an idea, followed by the excitement of discovery and creation. Coming next are long periods of organizing, researching, notating, learning parts and teaching them to others, writing and rewriting drafts, crafting descriptions of what I’m working on, waiting as others listen to or read and critique drafts, submittions or invitations by publishers or record companies, rewriting and rewriting. Or there are rehearsals, recording and post-production, writing or commissioning liner notes, advance promotion… you get the idea. Each cycle includes bursts of creativity, labors of refinement and reworking, expansion and contraction of material, anticipating reactions and then being thrilled, disappointed, annoyed, and/or inspired by them, followed by further rounds of work in response. And then there is editing or reviewing edits, mixes, masters, layouts, crafting an index and bibliography, outlining or developing promotional materials and revising them.
The writing and composing of books or recordings is largely a waiting game. Deadlines approach and then arrive, followed by new deadlines; work is delegated and fulfilled or not, reminders and nudges sent, planning meetings held.
The release date of the book or recording is finalized, publicity work begins, promotion and events contacts solicited or invited, books or recordings sent to prospective reviewers, interviewers, and venues. Social media begins to be generated and published – some of it is broadly noticed and others are not.
All of the sudden, the release date arrives. Another round of waiting immediately follows as it is often unclear where or when the first reviews will appear, release events scheduled, and then comes the anticipation and excitement of preparing for talks and rehearing for concerts.
The new work begins its life in the world, on book shelves or digital devices, electronic downloads, streams, or physical playback media, radio, public readings, concerts, and interviews. Notifications arrive that a review, or two or three has been published, a feature article has appeared. I’ve generally been really lucky in receiving positive responses, something one cannot take for granted.
The real challenge for me then is how to allocate time and energy to the afterlife of this culmination of one to three years of work while also looking ahead to new projects. Sometimes this is easy – my book events can also represent the first of future concerts that have some relationship to a book. My book about Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band was preceded and followed by concerts of its repertoire, and then, three years following the release came an album recording session that included two original members of the band. My new book about Pat Metheny arose out of performances of his music and the release of the book marks the resumption of these concerts.
Writing books and composing for recordings requires patience and an ability to ride the spurts and lulls of activity. At the end of the day, these efforts net concrete representations of creative work that readers and listeners may return to for years to come. One never knows the trajectory of a publication because there is so much competition for people’s attention, and our attention spans are brief. There is no predicting what will catch or remain in the public eye.
I’ve been fortunate to have multiple opportunities over many years to release creative work, talk about and perform it. I look forward to this continuing well into the future. It all requires enormous patience and endurance. My wish for you is that you can also find the inner reserve to fulfill your own creative projects, each of which entail extended periods of sustained effort.
Bob Gluck's Blog 
Long gone are the days when I was your student, but you will never stop being my teacher and mentor.
So nice to hear from you, Tim!