by : T. Fennel Crenshaw

At the conclusion of my last article, I issued a challenge for you to find a coffee house or open mic night and give a performance or poetry reading for creativity's sake. I wonder how many of you took up this challenge. From beginner novice to seasoned professional, we all need to explore the rush of spontaneous creativity and learn from its many gifts. Actors and Jazz artists call it "Improvisation." I call it "keeping your chops warm."

Next! or Just Dreaming?

You say the dream is alive. Inside, you know destiny has a point in time where everything will come together and the time for dreaming will be over, the point of realization will begin. What if destiny deals you the point of realization, say… tomorrow! Are you ready?

It is, after all, what we strive for as writers… a chance to be heard, and by the right people, in the right places.

If you are serious about your art and care enough about the day when you will get your chance (you never know who may be in the audience one night, who may pick up one of your tapes and decide to give you a chance) then it is worth preparing for.

Here are a few suggestions that will help you in preparing for that day.

Know what you can and cannot do, do what you do, and don't do what you can't.
In other words, Be Yourself. Write in a style that is yours. If a song or lyric feels uncomfortable or unnatural to you-it is, and will show.

Have your best songs ready.
A good songwriter is a magician of thoughts and words with melody. Does your best material (those handful of songs that you would feel most comfortable showing off) have a compelling presence to them? The "chill bump" factor comes into play here. I know I've written or heard a good song when I get chill bumps. Do your "audition" songs have that kind of quality?

You may have only written 2 songs in your entire life, but if one of them catches the ears of the right person (or enough people) in the right way, it doesn't matter about the other. Creativity drawn from the soul, like water drawn from a well, will always have the same essence, or freshness.

Keep a demo tape or lyric book with you at all times.
You don't have to be a great singer- or a singer at all for that matter to be a successful song and lyric writer. But you must have captured ideas ready to show those who may want to hear or see them. This moment can happen on any day, anywhere, at any time. Be prepared to say, "Listen to this!" or "Here, read these!"

Get in front of as many people as you can.
You can never fully get over stage fright, but you can use it to your advantage by experiencing enough of it that it doesn't bring you to your knees. Make yourself get out and perform or read in public as much as you can.

I hope these suggestions and ideas will cause you to think about what it is you want out of your art. If you want success, you can make it happen-through persistence, practice, and patience. But most of all, you have to be prepared for when it does happen.

Recipe For A Song

Here's an exercise to expand your lyric writing skills over the course of the next 30 days. This technique will help you keep your writing focused and clear, while at the same time resulting in endless possibilities for lines of lyrics, or subject matter.

To begin with, at some point in your day to day activities, you are going to read, see, or hear someone say something that will strike you as being lyrical. It may be something said directly to you in conversation-or something you over-hear. It could be a signpost or an advertisement. Write down this interest just as you saw or heard. For the next 29 days, stay focused while you go about your business for anything that relates to what the original line of interest was. Each day, write down every thing you can that relates back. What you will discover is that as each day progresses, you will become more and more attune to the subject matter at hand.

By the time the 30th day rolls around, ideas and coincidences will be jumping out at you from every where (remember when you bought your first new car, and suddenly, it seemed every corner you turned, there was a car just like yours?) By the end of this exercise you will hopefully have a few pages of ideas and subject matter to take off on.

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