Each January, about 40 friends rent Wildfire Outdoor Education Centre in Wyevale Ontario for a DIY musicians getaway weekend of great food, music, and workshops presented by the participants.  Here is my DIY workshop on how February Album Writing Month and Nanowrimo changed my creative process.

Outline and links.

How to Lose Your Mind in Thirty Days

Creativity and impossible online challenges.

Sean McGaughey: https://ductapeguy.net , http://nano.mcgaughey.ca

In 2013, I accidentally fell into a creative whirlwind. From February 1 to December 23, I wrote 49 songs and 1 novel.

Read Forevuary prologue.

February Album Writing Month

• Http://fawm.org (stay very away from .com)
• Write 14 Songs in 28 days.
• Online forums, personalized page. Supportive community.
• Song skirmish– someone suggests a skirmish at a certain time. At the given time, they post a title. Then you have one hour to write, record and post a song
• Feedback on the site is invaluable. Usually within an hour of posting you will get a couple or more comments from other writers.
• Collaboration: some writers are pure lyricists and will post –‘ needs music’ to invite people to set their song to music.
• Strong culture of sharing your music and providing constructive feedback to others.

Fifty-Ninety: 50 songs in 90 days

• — an offshoot of fawm. fiftyninety.fawmers.org Same premise– smaller community.

Nanowrimo

• Nanowrimo.org
• Young Writers project: ywp.nanowrimo.org

• Premise: Write a novel in 30 days from Nov 1 to Nov 30.

• Supposed to be a new novel project– not one in progress 1667 words a day– 50000 words minimum. You will not write a novel in 30 days, but if you succeed you will have a very good start on a first draft.

• I finished nanowrimo as did my daughter and niece.

• Culture of Nanowrimo: Local events and write-ins, online chatrooms and forums,

• Word wars– timed writing against others.

• Culture of not sharing writing in progress. Would be too time consuming– interfere with people’s ability to write 1667 words daily.

Midland Penetanguishene Songwriters on Facebook.

• Saturday Songwriters at the MCC. Third Saturday morning of the month at 11am in the Roxy Cafe at the Midland Cultural Centre. For FAWM we will meet Jan 18 then every Saturday in February 1,8,15,22 and March 1.

Time to Write: Song Skirmish Title: Polar Vortex, Snow Day, Do It Yourself

We had 4 writers in the group and here is our finished song.

Do It Yourself

(DIY 2014  Jan 11, 2014)  (c) Mary  Marcolin, Ed Winacott, Sean McGaughey,  Chris Johnston

Remember the story of the Little Red Hen

She didn’t get help again and again

No one stepped up to hoe, or reap

But they all lined in time to eat.. the bread

Don’t you know you can do it yourself

Best not to count on anyone else

Take a deep breath and give it a shot

All you need, you’ve already got.

The Little Red Hen told her chicks

Together, there’s no problem we can’t fix

By the end of the day we’ll all get fed

When we work together for our daily bread.

Don’t you know we can do it ourselves

Best not to count on anyone else

Take a deep and give it a shot

All we need, we’ve already got.

Sometimes life gets a little perverse

When you least expect, a turn for the worst

For a home cooked meal with all the fixin’s

Free Range, Grain Fed, is Finger lickin’

For several years I have discussed and procrastinated the idea of forming a songwriter’s group in the Midland-Penetanguishene area. I have never felt an urgency to do so because my needs to belong to a community of fellow songwriters are well met through my membership the Barrie and District Association for Singer Songwriters (BADASS) and online through February Album Writing Month and the Fifty-Ninety Songwriting challenge.  But the idea of having a collective of writers supporting each other and building opportunities within our communities of Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny, and Tay remains.

What?

I would like to gather with like minded songwriters to form GrUMPS  or GUMPS  (or another less cutesy acronym)  GRownUp Midland Penetang Songwriters

GrU=  Grownup =  This would be a group for adult writers to get together and share and hone their craft.  We would not turn away talented exceptional young adults (in fact welcome them), but young musicians are already being served in our area by several groups notably Stellula.

MP–  Midland-Penetanguisene  (and Tiny and Tay)  The four townships define the general boundaries of our community.  We would not turn away songwriters from Coldwater, Barrie, or even Saskatoon, but we want to keep the focus on our community.

S–  Songwriters.  The GBMA and HFA serve the needs of many musicians and artists.  Songwriters have a need to gather as peers, share our songs, hone our craft, collaborate, create opportunities for songwriters to showcase their music.

Who?  I personally know a bunch of area songwriters who may be interested in such a group.  If you are reading this, I likely sent it your way via facebook or email.  Please share this idea with your musician-songwriter friends.

When? Where?  The songwriting group I currently belong to meets once a month at one of the members homes.  We have a core group of about 25 members scattered over the North of GTA area from Newmarket and Tottenham, to Barrie, Orillia and Midland.

We could use this model of meeting in member homes or perhaps use a public use room at

one of the libraries.   (I’m looking at you Scott).

Why:  To promote collaboration and community among the songwriters in our community, to hone our craft, …

How? Good Question.  Let’s dive in and figure out what kind of a group we want.  We could have meetings to co-write, share songwriting tips, we could organize showcases, we could use social media and websites to promote local songwriters…

 I have set up a Facebook group called Midland Penetanguishene Songwriters.  Let your songwriting friends know and let’s see what we can build together.