It’s about to be February. Last year I participated in February Album-Writing Month, in which songwriters attempt to each write 14 songs during the shortest month of the year. I was terrified; I’d never written so much, so quickly. I did indeed write 14 songs, several of which (Pan-Religious Bluegrass Band and Susanna’s Song) are among the core songs in any show these days. It was an amazing experience, and showed me that I had the ability to just buckle down and write. I’ve been deciding whether to participate this year. Doing it once, to see that I could do it, was really the primary point. And since then I’ve done two Fearless Songwriter Challenges (seven songs in seven days, which was harder, in a way, than FAWM). So I’ve learned and shown that I can do it. But I also love songwriting, and the only way to write songs is to write songs. The FAWM community last year was great and I met a few folks through the process who are a regular part of my music life now. So I almost can’t imagine not doing it this year (how’s that for multiple negatives in a sentence?!). Still, this year will be logistically harder. I was teaching one course last year (once a week), and this year I’m teaching two. My administrative burdens are higher. And I’m seeing or playing an absurd number of concerts this month, so my evenings aren’t even free. Plus I have more than an album’s worth of good new songs. I don’t have an urgent need for more. Still, I think I’m going to jump in and do it. And for me that means actually doing it (I hope; if not I’ll bail quickly) – if I commit to something I’ll make it happen; that’s just who I am. Still, I’ve been thinking about how to do it in a way that will be most useful for me. And in part I think that means creating my own definition of what counts as writing a song. (The site is actually quite flexible on the subject – if you just write a set of lyrics, or just write a melody, that can count as a song if you want it to.). And part of what I want to do with writing is revising. With all of the “write lots of songs in a short period of time” exercises I’ve done in the last year, I have a set of songs that could be good but aren’t yet. And I’d like to get a few of them in order before I go creating another set of completely new but still very rough songs. For me, for a song to count as a “song” for FAWM, though, it has to be a substantial re-write. An obvious example would be the song (I don’t even remember what it’s called) that I wrote for this last Fearless Songwriter Week that has a repeating line of “Black Crow in the Hay.” I love the melody of that song, and the structure (two refrain lines that repeat each verse, and a chorus that is currently – by may or may not remain – a yodel). But the plot, the words, etc. (everything about the song, in other words) needs to be changed. Doing that, in my mind, would count as writing a song for FAWM. I can see counting song re-writing that is short of that level as well, as long as it involves significant changes – a completely new first verse and a changed chorus. Or a new melody and serious lyric edits. I’m pretty good at keeping myself honest with these kinds of things – I’m up for a challenge, and I’ll know whether something is a significant enough rewrite to have it count as writing a song. (I’ve made a list of candidate songs that would require that level of editing.) And wouldn’t want song re-writes to be more than a third of the songs I write during the month. But I think – or at least hope – that defining for myself what counts as songwriting for this month will allow me to both challenge myself and accomplish what I should most be focusing on in my songwriting right now. Wish me luck!