In the 2006 Oscar-winning film Little Miss Sunshine, Greg Kinnear plays Richard, a washed up life coach of some kind. Richard teaches a framework called the “9 Steps” that he clings to, believing in its potential for transformation despite the fact that his own results are mediocre. Kinnear strikes just the right balance of pathos and comedy in his portrayal of a man who can’t even get himself to buy his own BS.

I really don’t want to be a Richard. I think a lot of us are afraid of being a Richard. And yet, we want to make a contribution to the world or at least share our ideas and creative work. How do we reconcile this desire with the fear that perhaps we’ve only deluded ourselves into thinking that we have something to offer?

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When writing songs took up a huge chunk of my brain, I had a constant flow of new musical and lyrical snippets arising in my consciousness.

In college, I got a microcassette recorder that I would use to record these ideas, which cropped up any time I allowed my brain to have room for them: walking across the quad, in the shower, right before bed, or whenever I picked up an instrument. Then I got a minidisc recorder, and then an iPhone...these days, there is no shortage of methods for recording ideas.

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When I was a kid first setting out to write songs, I was terrified of copying someone else. I wanted my stuff to be totally original.

I eventually realized that no one would ever care if a teenage girl in Maine happened to steal a chord progression or a bit of melody from an established artist. Everything was fair game.

This playful attitude freed me up to create without worry. I was able to forge my own path without thinking at all about what other artists were doing.

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As a young, aspiring singer/songwriter, I dreamed of creating something incredible.

Inspired by The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, and Bob Dylan — in other words, world-class, genre-defining, generational talents — I thought about where my music would fit in the pantheon of the greats.

In my “planning,” I completely skipped over the part where I would write, perform, and promote my music, connecting with potential partners and fans one by one, building a career the way everyone has to build a career: day by day.

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When I first tried to write songs as a teen, I was stuck. I had a few ideas, but nothing seemed complex or interesting enough.

As I built my repertoire of other people’s songs, I had a breakthrough. I realized that most of the songs were built out of simple and familiar patterns. I decided to try writing a song that consisted of only four chords, with two of them repeated extensively to comprise the verses. I finished my first song and was on my way to writing several others.

Was my work notable or groundbreaking? No way! They are cute songs, but they will never make me famous. That’s fine. They showed promise, but they were just like any songs you might expect from a teenage beginner.

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