A Songwriting Day...

Today was all about the writing. One of the things I've decided to improve is my commitment to finding solid, preplanned stretches of writing time. I found out Gerald would be out tonight, so I marked a few hours into my datebook. It's been a while since I've had this kind of time, so I decided to do some prep work throughout the day:

I've been continuing my Bible-in-a-year readings, so I read a little this afternoon to fill the well of my imagination. (I'm really enjoying this project, by the way. I'm a little behind in the Old Testament, but I digress...)

I picked out a new, sparkly pink journal to use for lyric writing, and found an awesome pen I picked up at GMA Week.

I recently won a 3 month tuition for an on-line songwriting school called SongU.com. I decided to spend a little time on that to remind myself of the discipline to the craft.

And, finally, I decided to blog tonight, as that gave me a bit of pressure to actually write something and not get distracted by laundry. It's amazing how important the laundry can become when it's writing time.

After Gerald left, I grabbed my little pink book and planted myself in my beautiful writing room. I poured myself a glass of iced tea, opened all the windows, and said a little prayer.

I'd written a chorus a few months ago, but I'd never gotten around to writing verses. I've realized lately that I'm very good at starting songs, but not so good at finishing them. I wrote out the chorus in my book, and began to work on the verses. I had an idea for a verse melody (the melody for the chorus was already complete), so I tapped it out to figure out approximately how many syllables I'd need for each line. I knew I wanted to start with the chorus, which would give me space for 2 verses. So, with that info in place - theme, melody, rhythm, and structure - I dipped into the well and started to write out some verses. Several hours later, I had 2 fairly complete verses. I think they're probably pretty good, but I decided to close the book on them for tonight. I'll go back to them tomorrow to see if they're really okay, or if I need to start all over again.

I felt drained but empowered after my writing session, so I jumped back on the computer and headed over to Song U. They offer a range of self-paced and instructor lead courses on everything from lyrics and melodies to business and recording. There's even a group there that does the Artist's Way. I finished the Orientation class, and chose my class list. I'm starting with a few lyric courses, a class on commercial song structures, another on the Christian market, and finally, a 3 course series on recording an indie CD. I started a course on rhyming tonight, which is another reason why I want to check the lyric again tomorrow. Maybe I'll find a newer, more exciting rhyme for one of my lines.

Oh, and the song is called "Do You Want to be my Neighbour in Gloryland?", complete with Canadian spelling!