There is a moment in the creating time of a piece – song or novel or painting or poem or whatever, when you decide that this is done, or maybe this is it or this is perfect or this can’t be better (pretty much of a fiction), or most often this can’t go further without questioning the whole thing or simply I like it that way knowing there are dozens of other ways to walk.
This decision can arise very suddenly, after a last adjustment, or when you realize that any supplementary work brings nothing more or even degrades the whole consistency of the piece.
Much more obvious are the moments in the creative timeline when you are certain that this is not done. Actually, there are some steps to climb before the question of completion even makes sense.
In songwriting, these are lyrics – what is told, how well it conforms to what you want to express, structure – how the songs harmonically evolves, how pertinent the different passages melt , voicing – how accurate the voices sit in this structure…
At some moment, all these steps have been passed through. In a way, the pure songwriting stuff is over. Sometimes, it takes a couple of hours to achieve, sometimes a week.
However, in music production, the most time consuming period now begins. It concerns instrumentation, orchestration, sound shaping, mixing, …
These steps can take a considerable time if you’re not stuck to instruments, sound or style contraints..
Sometimes even years, because, unsatisfied, you gave up then started later again, definitely thinking it was worth it …
And in the end, maybe, you decide the song is finally done.
