"Song-writing without Boundaries"

Song-writing Without Boundaries

This book contains a series of challenges developed by the author and university professor of lyrics and poetry, Pat Patterson.

Here is the link to buy the book (I have no affiliation):

I would recommend reading the book itself for a more in-depth explanation of his purpose and for the examples he includes from previous participants, but I will do my best to relate the challenges and purpose of this book the best I can, and why I’m excited, to take part in the challenges set forth. I will include a deeper explanation of the first challenge in this article, with more thorough explanations of the remaining three challenges to follow.

The forward was written by Mike Reid and includes this quote:

... [This book] won’t tell you what to write about. Getting off the couch and out into your own life will do that. What it will do is teach you how to write...

A big, but exciting, promise that makes me hopeful.

There are four parts to the eight-week challenge, each part categorized into fourteen days each. They are “Object Writing,” “Metaphor,” “Object Writing with metaphor,” and “Rhythm and Rhyme.” This particular set of challenges is geared toward songwriting, but is beneficial for improving in any creative writing endeavor from fiction to poetry. I am not specifically a writer of lyrics, but am very interested in developing my skill as a creative writer.

The emphasis is on incorporating the senses into your writing in a way to connect with your reader. Patterson also refers to it as “sense-bound free association,” which basically means you are not required to follow through so much on a storyline, as much as you are encouraged to write whatever comes to mind in relation to the theme.

The senses to keep in mind:

Sight

Sound

Taste

Touch

Smell

Body (defined by Patterson as Organic Sense or awareness of inner bodily functions)

Motion (defined by Patterson as Kinesthetic Sense or, roughly, your sense of relation to the world around you)

This is a timed writing challenge – especially for object writing. You are given three words to write from as prompts or each exercise, and they are to be written in timed periods in order: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 90 seconds – set a timer for each, then STOP no matter if you are in the middle of a sentence, a word or a thought. Stop writing! Each complete exercise of the three words should take only 16 and ½ minutes total.

Challenge #1

“Object Writing”

Days 1 – 5 involves the senses in writing about “What”

sky, crash, lily pad

bathroom mirror, dentist, screwdriver

umbrella, hair, feather

curb, bouquet, rain cloud

movie theater, cigar, arrow

Days 6 – 8 involves the senses in writing about “Who”

sailor, waitress clearing a table, priest

balloon man, homeless child, trucker

cyclist, ballerina, puppy

Days 9 – 11 involves the senses in writing about “When”

summer rainstorm, graduation, wedding rehearsal dinner

six in the morning, first snowfall, Easter Sunday

late evening, loved one’s funeral, crossing the finish line

Days 12 – 14 involves the senses in writing about “Where”

a cliff by the ocean, park bench in the city, hotel bar

suburban swimming pool, the old fishing hole, under an umbrella

on the city bus, wedding in an old church, canoe on the river

This ends Challenge #1! Now take a couple of days off before moving on to challenge #2.

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Thank you! Please feel free to DM me HERE if you would like more detail.

This is where I first talked about it: