likeluke
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brooklyn!

don't know how i missed this.

"the zone" that you are describing is in no way exclusive to video games. i'm sure you're seeing it in that context if only because you're using a game boy, but it is just a very focused mental state. it has nothing to do with not making mistakes, it has to do with inspiration and more or less being in the right place at the right time. same thing happens with music and any other instrument or program; i've definitely sat down on a laptop and had a song finished in a few hours because i was in "the zone". i know what you mean in describing the similarity to playing certain video games, but it's a feeling/place/THING that came long before the game boy even existed.

herr_prof
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I think the key for real artists is the ability to produce a finish a song without being in that zone. Just facing up to the fact you suck and to KEEP WORKING. If the best artists waited for inspiration to strike theyd never get half as much of what they do done.

likeluke
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brooklyn!
herr_prof wrote:

I think the key for real artists is the ability to produce a finish a song without being in that zone. Just facing up to the fact you suck and to KEEP WORKING. If the best artists waited for inspiration to strike theyd never get half as much of what they do done.

you're absolutely right, and of course the feeling of "being in the zone" isn't exclusive to people at a certain level either. all it means is that you are, at the moment, very inspired and can crank out a lot in a relatively short amount of time; generally, most people will have the same output but spanning much longer periods. case in point, i (as well as most people on here, i'm sure) have had songs sitting on laptops for almost a year, coming back to it every now and then until i could call it "done", as well as stuff that i just kind of tossed down to have the idea and never touched again. gotta try and stay prolific, yall.

herr_prof
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I was listening to an interview with the author who wrote that terrible eat drink man woman book and had an itnersting point. The anceint greeks actually saw inspiration as a physical force, where inspiration was gifted upon you by the gods. Her joke was that if you work really hard, inspiration will take pity on you and grant you a drop of inspiration just when you need it to the most.

AND NOW SHES A MILLIONAIRE