Stop starting from scratch when you write
I am a professional musician and composer and I never, ever, start from prepackaged drum loops or anything of the sort.One of the super fun and satisfying things of being a competent musician is how quickly I can create basic components for my compositions.That said, musicians tend to have a mental library of ideas and techniques they can employ to flesh out an inspired idea.I also have a library of partially finished unused themes and ideas that I wrote, which I can bring in to start or expand a piece I'm working on.So a library of my own partially finished writings would be far more analogous to how I work than a bunch of anecdotes and quotes from other people.The anecdotes and quotes would be more analogous to other people's music which I've heard and internalized, but would never literally reference while I am composing. The last thing I want is those sorts of cut and paste elements to come anywhere near my work.