Yes, it is a pretty good book on electronic songwriting and a bargain for the price. The predecessor book (Music Habits) is also worth it, even if it focuses on habit building and getting things done. Compared to “Making Music 74 strategies for electronic music producers”, Jason’s book delivers on a unique and well-structured workflow instead of providing a bag full of tricks.
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Irony: I’m finding it difficult to choose one book over the other 
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I don’t think there’s a problem at all!
If you transpose your behaviour to a guitar player let’s say, you would see these loops and jams as practice, not as wasted time or commitment issues. I think that in the electronic music side, we believe we have to produce, record and release everything, that it is all part of the hobby, but I disagree, if the only place that feels nice and relaxing to you is when you jam, then jam all day and don’t worry about the rest. Maybe these loops are your R&D phase and once you find a groove, recording will come naturally as an urge, not a requirement?
This is a hobby which is supposed to be a relaxing outlet, not a second job, unless you have higher ambitions and you want it to of course! But you should not feel like you HAVE to do anything 
There are (many) photographers who’s only joy comes from taking the pictures, they like framing, tweaking the settings, the satisfying feeling of the shutter closing, maybe checking the pictures on the camera once they’re taken. But once it’s done, they forget about them and let them sit on a hard drive somewhere, never checking them out again. And that’s okay!
And I’m not saying you should not strive for improvment, only that you shouldn’t feel bad for just having fun.
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Here below a suggestion based on how I use them for myself
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if you already follow a more or less consistent workflow but feel uninspired or stuck during the songwriting process, refer to the 74 strategies book;
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if your workflow is fuzzy or partly forgotten and you find yourself writing too many unrelated 8 bar loops, refer to the process book;
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if you think that the reason for you not finishing any ideas is because you’re missing a piece of gear, a tool or some knowledge, refer to the music habit book (the audio version is great btw).
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As someone who played/plays guitar, 1000x this. This also somewhat aligns with my earlier comment too. As I’ve mentioned in other threads here; the curiosity about electronic music coming from a band setup is that he space you use to produce is also the place that you noodle, jam and also write. In my head that’s something that is taking a bit of getting used to. (as does the fact that electronic music folks write not only “their” bit but also all the other surrounding parts.
An acoustic guitar is a great way to think of it. In my guitar days I had (and still have) my runaround guitar for “pick up n play” stuff. And then you have your full rig for shows & recording. This makes it easier to be in one mode or the other. When you pick up the runaround, you don’t really think you have to “do” anything. If it happens - cool. But if not, you had a bit of fun and that’s what matters.
To keep that basic feel of songwriting, I’ve taken to loading up Ableton with nothing but a piano sound and finding a progression. Then I build a song around it. This might be a bit odd, but it somewhat resembles the split between runaround and recording gear from my band days. And I have the Circuits as well. Initially I thought I’d end up recording the output of these boxes, but actually I quite like not bothering 
I think working out what your noodling instrument is (ideally a pick up and play one) is a great way to start. That instrument should be there for play and recording as a bonus. Then, once you’ve got that, in effect you’ve done all you “need” to. Then it becomes about what you want to do with it. But as @Martebar says - sometimes the first bit is enough.
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It took me a few years to get the DAW sorted out but I started out with Ableton Live and a Push controller with a laptop before I even bought a synth. Helped me later when I bought my first synth.
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So, have you recorded a song yet? It’s been two weeks…
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Hehee. It’s also christmas season AKA the busiest time of the year and I have a book/record/comic book shop. I haven’t had one single free day since I made the post. I hardly have time to come here every night to read the comments.
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What’s your favorite comic?
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Check the thread!
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Loving all the responses here!
Always take the work when it’s present. I’ve found my slow and busy periods are mostly consistent every year and plan my to-do’s and music stuff accordingly.
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Hard to pick just one. I love mid-european quality comics of my youth (Tintin, Bruno Brazil, Bob Morane, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Blake & Mortimer and such) but that’s mostly nostalgia speaking.
There’s a really lively comic scene in Finland and I love many of them. Very anarchistic, dark stuff.
When it comes to traditional super hero comics its really hard to beat the classic storylines of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and such, I could read those all night long and most nights I also do so.
But if push came to shove I’d probably pick something with a little bit more ”edge” like maybe Hellboy, Sandman, Preacher, the Invisibles etc.
But the all time best comic book artist without a doubt is Charles Burns. Love his lines, love his shading, love his characters, love his stories. His comics are 100% perfection.
Edit: an honorable mention goes to the Hernandez Brothers. Love and Rockets is comic book heaven.
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I bookmarked your very thoughtful reply. I only asked since you own a shop.
In America, we have a saying when talking about a dealer.
“Going straight to the Plug.”
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was a big comic book fan back in the day. loved the sandman gaiman stuff, alan moore etc. But the pinnacle for me was probs when grant morrison got his hands on the Doom Patrol. insane levels of story telling and imagination in that run.
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FWIW, ableton make a lot of the content of this book available for free, starting here
EDIT: About one third of the whole book.
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I think if you are committed to releasing an EP, then thinking of a framework for it and then filling in those gaps can be an easier way to complete it.
For example, the EP will have four tracks, I have two ideas I want to finish so far, I have two song titles for those two tracks. Now you already have a framework for a four song ep - two are on the way, two have titles. Make a playlist on your phone, put the ideas in there in order with the names, work on those first, or if it’s not flowing, move onto something else, maybe soon you have a third idea, got a name for it? not yet, maybe two days later a name comes to you, fill it in the framework, in your playlist, now you have three song titles, three songs WIP!
Got some artwork? you can use Instagram or Artgrab or similar to get some ideas. got a budget? Commission someone to create something for you, now you got art! it’s getting real! How about getting some help with the mixing and mastering? you can use soundbetter or enginears or insta etc to find someone for your budget. Book them in, now you got a deadline! gotta finish those tracks in time! don’t worry about mixing, be in the creative flow! less time clicky clicky in DAW going in circles, messing about with plugins, and wishing you were just jamming on your hw. Get the tracks back, get revisions if needed, get the mastering done, while that’s happening, time for Distrokid etc!
Get the Bandcamp ready…maybe some promo? Got a photo or art concept? Ok release day! done!
Well it’s a stream of consciousness, but I think just trying to move forward a little everyday or whenever you have time and feel like it, with the mindset of completing an ep, and also enlisting help from other people to help where needed (if budget allows, or phone a friend) can help to keep things on track.
Well I hope it works for me anyway 
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This topic motivated me to work on my first EP that I initially set out to finish at the beginning of this year. I have since learned a lot more, cycled through some gear and different approaches of coming up with tracks.
This made me feel like the tracks I came up with shortly after starting with making my own music with Elektron boxes are boring and amateurish. While I think this is kinda true, I’ve started to re-appreciate them nonetheless. I was a lot more focused on coming up with new parts or transitions when I started and there are a lot of nice ideas born out of this naive approach when I was fascinated by getting anything done at all.
This topic made me realize that I have to record these five tracks and upload them to my Soundcloud. I feel like I have to do this to come up with new ideas. The experience of finishing something will hopefully motivate me. I will then always have this document of me in this time right now. I just have to step back and acceppt that it will be amateurish, but still something that I can be proud of.
Having this in mind, I will force myself to sit down, polish some sounds, fix arrangements with song mode and then record them. It’s the part that feels more like work, so I tended to skip it and jam out instead. But I feel it’s worth it to be able to jam with a more free mind again. I have started with the easiest track yesterday and it feels really good to now have a better version of DN parts of a track that are locked in with song mode. I will hopefully keep this up when it comes to the more complicated tracks.
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Had one free day last week too and explored the possibility of a DAW. There were the obvious plusses of being able to easily select and move midinotes or groups of them on the piano roll with the mouse. Being able to lenghten them or shorten them at will etc. That ease of use will never be achievable on any hardware.
I love my MPC Live but using it is a bit like playing a point and click adventure with a Nintendo joypad, unnecessarily complicated. For some jobs nothing can really beat a mouse.
So I enjoyed my DAW experience quite a lot. Wrote a bassline and recorded it, came up with a melody that went with it, but realized that I had nicked it off one of our own songs, so I decided to make it a percussion track instead and so on. There are a lot of things easily achievable ITB that would be hard or almost impossible to do on almost any groovebox. I have a few free days after christmas, I’ll continue my exploration. Really glad hearing that this thread has had some positive effects on other people too.
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I’m able to commit to other art and performance (theater design and fabrication, choreography) projects, but it’s hard to engage with locals in physical space and get something going with music. My friends who like techno are uninterested in making it, my composer friends are busy doing scores and while I help them with their projects it’s harder to engage them in my own without more legwork.
Composer “lodges” were a thing in the pre-pandemic times I’d like to get back to, but it’s hard to have virtual accountability otherwise, especially when so much time is spent at home 
I’ve tried tutoring and theory lessons, but I suppose that’s not exactly the same as “coaching”.
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It is about 10 bucks in digital format, really worth the price. Plenty of ideas for when you’re feeling stuck.
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