make something small everyday.
i do it without thinking. get home, turn on computer, dont turn on wi-fi. make a cup of tea, have a small joint, and i make something. anything. work on an old song ive had new inspiration for. make just a weird loop. but i do this everyday for atleast an hour. then i waste my life on the internet and tv shows like everyone else. if i make something cool that swallows me in - then i work on it for a few hours. spend the next day listening back. decide with a fresh head if its shit or if i should continue.
but none of this is a CHORE. if you dont naturally want to do it then maybe you dont have a real passion for it. no one will nag you to make music because you are not richard d james or robert smith and dont have a following.
first and foremost you should make music because you enjoy it, - me i make music because i need to. if i have a weekend with no time to sit down and make something, or i make nothing decent - then i deem it a shit weekend. you cant force that shit.,
nothing wrong with having a goal... check out CLIPSTREAM and make it your goal to play that someday. just because your local community doesn't support what you do doesn't mean you can't be famous on the INTERNET
listen to good music, maybe that will motiv8 u
Hey so my mom is about to kick me out of the house because I totally trashed the carpet and I don't have a job, and I was wondering if possibly you guys could e-mail me multiple times a day to remind me to get a job because its really fucking taking a toll on my well-being. I also don't really know how to cook for myself, so if you could also just take the time out of your day to give me a good ribbing once or twice a day (you can be harsh! I can take the abuse! I smell like shit!) I would really appreciate it, and once I'm back on my feet I will be sure to pay you handsomely (in smiles!).
Thanks y'all!
Don't forget that answer is 42. The point is that when you're looking for answers, sometimes you may not understand the meaning of the question, or are asking the wrong question in the first place.
try seeing a doctor for your ADHD, you'll probably score some adderall or ritalin. Although amphetamine's, these should probably help fight that lack of motivation you keep talking about. On the plus side, you will be a champion at work, homework, and whatever else your new found motivation wants.
replies so far have been a fucking joke, great job cm.o on the encouragement for this guy friends. anyway, i'll try and give some positive advice. perhaps try writing on some other medium for a few songs. im not saying pull out some midi shit and fuck around with a piano roll, but maybe try some kind of tracker, or even get into reason or heaven forbid, download rebirth, its free now, and hella fun. just play with a bunch of different mediums.
the chiptune stuff is/can be hella tough if you set your standard for what you're doing high and miss the mark, and it sounds like you have a lotta regret about what you lost. so just pull out some random program. im gonna suggest rebirth, or for fucking around with samples, schism tracker. just experiment. dont even give a crap about making 'songs' at first. play with experimenting with sound, pass the songs off to a few friends, see what they say. you coming here and asking for a real type of advice is like kicking yourself in the ass over a fence into a junkyard with tons of rabid rottweilers. last of all, dont even give a fuck about advice. my email is [email protected]. write me in two months and let me know what happens.
You said yourself, you want to do it for fun. So let that be your motivation. Nobody does chipmusic where I live either, but that's what we have this online community for. Your last sentence summed up pretty much what I just said, so I think you have your motivation already. 
I've got a similar problem: I've stopped writing on LSDJ for some months, and now I'm writing again.
Only that what I write tend to sound like crap, to me at least 
But I think that in the end what you should do is write just for yourself, when you feel like it, and you probably will find more enjoyment in it. This works for me, at least
Last edited by Adhrast (Feb 18, 2013 12:08 pm)
Sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something
Sucking at something is the first step to being sort of good at something
Hah, and why is that? 
Maybe cause it gives you more motivation to improve?
also id like to add - its normal to have downtime and times of un-creativity.
I have this too pretty often. I have so much on my mind, get busy in 'real-life' and i desperately want to make stuff, and i try and i cant make anything worth continuing. At times like that i just take a step back, do something else. Build some electronics, watch movies, and most important i listen to alot of music. Often my own stuff, and then one day boom. I make a song i really like and i churn out many songs in the coming weeks/months.
I think its pretty normal as a musician to have times of frustration and failure.
Also i notice in your post you said you were preparing covers etc. i know many people like doing this, but for me personally, and my advice is that its not particularly helpful. Much better as Temp said to just experiment and not worry about shit. Once you find your angle of where you want to approach music from and the vibe you want, you'll find your own 'sound'. And its then much easier to keep focused on that and think of ways to improve and expand on what you're doing.
Because no one's good at something from the beginning. Every time you hear a song that makes you go "HOLY SHIT" be it chipmusic or otherwise, or a painting that totally amazes you or whatever, the person who made that didn't wake up and just do it. It's not their first painting. It's not their tenth song. They've done it hundreds and hundreds of times and they spent most of that time sucking.
That's why "My first LSDJ" posts are always so ignored. If it's your first time doing anything, it's probably going to suck. That's not a criticism of the person who's first time it is, it's just a fact of nature. You can't get good without being bad first. It's causality.