what to do when inspiration dwindles?

[rounser]

Frank Herberts books got progressively worse, and the fact he forced himself is exceedingly obvious.

Well, his point was that the "being inspired or not inspired" bit didn't change the quality of the resultant material; he couldn't tell the difference. Perhaps he was always destined to be a Pearl Jam and get progressively worse with each release. There's a lot of artists like that, but I think they're more respected than those who don't release anything, which walking away might cause. If he walked away, would we ever have even seen Dune? Even one novel is quite a feat of application.

You see if you invest time in shit, you lose objectivity, and give value to shit, purely down to the effort you invest. In shit.

That's true to an extent...although you could argue that it's just as easy to discard something worthwhile as it is to push something not worthwhile. You lose objectivity about your work in the positive as well as in the negative.

I think it`s terrible to look at every piece of music you make as a release. Experimentation can sometimes be just that.

Sometimes, not all the time, sometimes it is better, to walk away.

But if you walk away, you won't be experimenting.

Anyway, swings and roundabouts...there's two competing underlying principles we're discussing here, both to do with the subconcious mind, and both of us are correct IMO:

1) The subconcious can create a game plan better than that of the concious mind, and needs time out to do it.

2) The subconcious only begins to work once you've begun to act, because by acting you get it focused on the problem.

Depending on who you are, both of these might apply to a varying degree. I tend towards (2) because it doesn't risk procrastination and the forming of bad habits such as not ever finishing things (which walking away encourages so far as I can see), which is much worse than finishing many crap things and the odd good thing.