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“If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no-one around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Dr. George Berkley

Creativity is an essential part of the human experience, and it is something that is often deeply personal and meaningful to the creator. However, I believe that creativity is not just a private experience – it is something that can be shared and enjoyed by others. 

This is why I feel that creativity is an experience that needs to be shared. It’s because for creations to become truly real, they need to be experienced by an audience. 

I mean…

  • What is a painting without eyes to see it? 
  • What is a song without ears to hear it? 
  • What is a book without eyes to read it? 
  • What is a meal without a mouth to taste it?

The creator is compelled internally to create from nothing but it’s only until the creation is experienced by somebody that the creation really turns into something.

As a songwriter, I am compelled to write songs and those songs are of no use to me if there is no audience to hear them. There needs to be an audience for my songs to truly have a life of their own

This is also where I get the most joy from being a songwriter, having an audience to listen to them whether they be in a live situation or online through streaming or downloading.

This is why I do what I do. Sharing my songs, my creations with a wider audience allows me to do the following…

  • Connect with others on a more deeper level
  • Contribute to the world in a positive way
  • Grow as a human being
  • Touch, move and inspire others
  • Build a community around me and my music
  • Make a better life for myself
  • Leave my mark on the world

Anything that is created has its own intrinsic purpose for its existence so in my case, I’ll be honouring my creations by sharing them with an audience. No matter where they are in the world.

Peace,

Corey 🙂

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As you may know, besides this blog, Corey Stewart Online, I have a number of other blogs that I try to manage.

These blogs deal with topics such as songwriting, the music business, home recording and spirituality but with everything that has been going on in my life over the past six months or so, these blogs have not been getting the attention that they should.

I have been really wanting to start writing again but it has been a real struggle to do so of late because every time I come up with an idea for one of my blog posts whether it be of a personal nature or about songwriting, the music business, home recording or even spiritual topics such as meditation or buddhism itself, I immediately get stuck.

I get stuck because as soon as I start to write questions start flowing through my head such as…

  • “Is what I’m writing about going to be on-topic for the blog I’m writing for?”
  • “Is what I’m writing about relating to the last thing I wrote about?”
  • “Am I jumping around topics too much?”
  • “Am I relevant or important enough to share this information with the world?”
  • “Is this idea going to be good enough to share?”

These questions, assumptions and statements that my inner voice shouts at me before putting pen to paper simply paralyses me and I get so exhausted from all of the overthinking.

Initially, I would let it go and think to myself that everything will be alright. I was confident that this was a temporary thing and that my writing flow would come back.

Except that it hasn’t.

Over and over again I would just keep talking myself out of starting but I think I may have come up with a solution to my problem.

It seems that in my attempt to separate all of the different facets of my life into different niche blogs, I have instead created the perfect environment to not write by paralysing my writing process through having too many blogs to write for.

Phew… So how do I remedy this?

Well, I think the answer is to distil all of my content into one blog (this one) and get rid of everything else.

I know this sounds drastic and it smacks of me doing my “wiping the slate clean and starting again” routine again but I don’t really know what else I can do.

Of course I’ll be saving all the content that I’ve already created/curated on my other blogs and will be drip feeding them into Corey Stewart Online. My hope is that by doing this will free myself to refocus on my writing.

The challenge now becomes finding a way to make all of the condensed content make sense within the Corey Stewart Online framework and I think the answer to the challenge lies with redefining what this site is.

I tried to do this very thing a few years ago but I got scared and separated everything again based on the assumption that not doing so would confuse the reader by having too many topics to read about on one blog.

This time, it will be different because I no longer care about Google algorithms and online marketing theories about niche blogs and monetising content. I just want to write again, get a flow happening and deal with all of the other stuff later.

I’m much more interested in reconnecting with people online, building a community, a tribe of people who “get me, my music and everything else in between” and I want to start re-examining my life again through documenting it online, Socrates style.

So, what happens next?

I will back up all of my content on my other blogs and then delete the sites and the social media attached to them.

After that I’ll transfer/repurpose the content onto Corey Stewart Online while at the same time, start writing new content with the knowledge that the only choice for publishing my thoughts, feelings, theories, rants and music is right here, right now.

I’m feeling excited and daunted all at the same time but at the end of the day my sanity, my sense of purpose and my creative flow will be the winners out of all this but that means that you dear reader will have a lot more things to consume.

Peace,

Corey 🙂

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The concept of podcasting has been something I’ve had an interest in for a long time, even before it became one of the trendy modes of delivering content that it is today.

It all started back in 2008 when I discovered Leo Leporte and his TWiT (This Week In Tech) podcast network through a friend and after the first listen, I was hooked. 

Soon after that I discovered other podcasts such as the CD Baby DIY Podcast and my life changed completely.

Now, when I’m in the car on a long trip, instead of listening to the radio, I could listen to a podcast instead which for me is a better use of my time, so thanks to iTunes I subscribed to as many podcasts as I could and started to incorporate them into my day to day life.

Also at that time, I started to wonder if I should create my own podcast but I didn’t have the necessary tools (such as a home recording setup) at my disposal but fast forward to today and with my desire to create (or be involved with) a podcast rekindled, I’m now able to satisfy that desire thanks to my dear friend Simon James Betts aka Soul Trader.

So now I introduce to you (drum roll please)…The Soul Trader Podcast.

Simon and I host this podcast which has the tagline Music, Creativity and Other Plans meaning that we’ll be waxing lyrical about music, the creative process and other things. 

Of course the “other plans” part of the tagline is a nod to John Lennon’s often quoted line in his song Beautiful Boy “… life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

We’ve created three episodes already with the latest episode featuring a special guest.

You can find them below…

It’s our intention in future episodes to have creatives from other disciplines besides music on the podcast talking about their art, their creative processes and what creativity means to them in general.

This is a subject which really fascinates both Simon and I.

I’m really enjoying the process of creating, producing and releasing the podcast and I consider this a great way to build up my skills to launch my own series of audio blogs plus getting into the world of video in the future.

So, have a listen to the podcast, let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions about future episodes I’ll see if I can find a way to use it in a future episode somewhere.

In the meantime, I have some baby steps and a steep learning curve to contend with which I will happily tackle head on.

Peace,

Corey 🙂