Writer's Group

Since I began participating in a few challenges that require lots of songwriting in short bursts of time, I've accumulated lots of songs over the last few years.  I'm talking hundreds. But I haven't had much time to go back and edit barely any of them.  Many of them probably aren't even worth a second look, but I know some of them are.

But with that many songs to weed through, it's been a little hard to get motivated.  I don't even know where to start.  And so, I don't.

I know that as much as I hate deadlines, sometimes, I need them. 

So just the other day, a fellow songwriting friend and I decided to start a writing group.  Just a group of other songwriters to meet with to share songs we're currently working on, to get a little feedback, to give a little feedback and to get inspired. And of course, to give ourselves that much needed deadline. 

We were going to meet up one weeknight a couple times a month.  As it turns out, the night that we selected didn't work scheduling wise for anyone we invited.  Not even the two of us who came up with this grand idea. 

Once we found out no one could make it to our first meeting, she called me that morning and said, "Hey, since it's just us, and we don't have day jobs, you wanna just meet this afternoon?"  Hells yeah, I'd rather meet in the afternoon when my husband isn't home, when I'm not having to cook a quick dinner first, and when I tend to be in a more creative mode!

So she came over, we played our songs for each other, offered and received a little feedback, and got inspired!  We also decided our next meeting would be during the day again.  We figure, if we build it how we intend it, "they" will come!

Our songwriting group, as small as it was that day, served it's purpose for me.  I picked out a song from that big ol' pile and worked on it enough beforehand so that it wasn't too embarrassing to share. After playing it, and talking about it, I had some direction on what I needed to work on.  That night and the next morning, I spent more time with my song, trying out all sorts of different ideas I came up with, spurred by our discussion during our songwriting group.

We meet up again in a few weeks, so thankfully, I've got another deadline.