If you’ve read my last couple blog post, you know that I, somewhat to my surprise, signed on for this week’s Fearless Songwriter challenge. The idea is to write a song a day for seven days. The whole thing is shepherded by Timmy Riodan, and the concept is that the best way to get better at songwriting is just to write more songs. They don’t have to be good songs, but you have to finish a draft. Each day there’s a prompt (and this week they’re all done by guest-prompters). Let me tell you the ways this should be hard for me. Although I like assignments, I’m often (oddly) not fond of prompts, which are not specific enough to be assignments. And writing a song every day? Even though school hasn’t started yet, I’ve had things like four-hour meetings and huge tasks in each of my days. I’ve never done that, even in my February marathon. But so far it’s going unbelievably well. We’ve had four days, I’ve written four songs, and they might all be keepers. The Day 1 prompt was “way up north, “ Day 2 was “by the book,” Day 3 was “you can’t take it with you” and Day 4 was “conversation” (and that one came with further instructions to have a conversation with or write a letter to someone we hadn’t communicated with in a long time). The one I wrote on Day 3 is my favorite, although others seem to particularly like the Day 2 one. Each is different – both the others from the week and in some ways from my standard songwriting. And I’m especially found of the melodies, although I’m also pretty happy with the lyrics. What I’ve especially loved with all of them is the process. The trick, I think, is not to panic. For each song I’ve allowed things to wander around in my subconscious for a little while before I start, so I have an idea of a direction (like today I picked the person to whom I wanted to write the letter, but I didn’t settle on that person immediately, just did a some musing until I decided I might want to try him). I’ve then followed my usual pattern of writing a piece of lyric and than matching it to some words. And then I’ve followed where it’s gone. None of these songs has quite gone where I intended (except, to some extent, yesterday’s – I’d had in the back of my mind for awhile the idea to write a song about all the types of weird accumulated stuff of life you’ll leave behind). Even that one, though, the chorus just came out, and a bit differently than I would have expected, and that helped direct the song. Today I sat down in a park bench in a parking lot in the sun between appointments and just started playing around with melodies on the guitar (once I’d written “I guess it’s been awhile,” the first line). All that being said, I have no idea why it’s working so well. Or is so enjoyable. I’m sure the two are intertwined and I’m not even sure which way the causal arrow goes. Perhaps I really am becoming a better songwriter. Or at least a more fearless one!