30s30d: D4

Sep 4

Written By Love Letter

“Too Many to Count”

Prompt: what I’m thankful for
Submission of Member: Scott K

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Today was a looooong brutal day, and I really felt it when I finally got a chance to sit down and write after my other more time-sensitive work was done.

After writing and posting last night, I had a hard time winding down (like usual), so I didn't get to sleep until later than I really wanted. I felt like crap when I woke up this morning, but knew I had A LOT to get done today and I wanted to be efficient, so I decided to sleep a little longer.

As soon as I woke up I started powering through packing up the last of the free CDs from the Sweetheart anniversary - it's the Saturday before Labor Day weekend, so it was really important that I get them done and dropped over at the Post Office before the last pickup at 3:30pm.

So from 11-2 or so that's all I did... I kept setting timers for myself to help keep me focused because it was a gargantuan task to do completely alone (Ed's out of town).

I managed to get them in the dropbox about 3pm, and ran another errand on my way home. I hadn't taken time to eat at all so when I got back at 4 I quickly made something and gave the dogs some attention before starting some administrative work that was also due tonight for my church gig. That took about 5 hours, so only at that point could I actually start working on music.

Because Ed's been out of town and because I've been working nonstop-12-hour-days pretty much all week, the dogs are particularly needy and they kept interrupting me while I was trying to write!

I didn't exactly stick to Scott's prompt of "what I'm thankful for" - though that was the plan. During this month I really want to get some fall/halloween/holiday/christmas songs in the catalogue, and I thought Scott's prompt would work really well as an end to a refrain about the Fall and having a good time during the Thanksgiving season. Kinda like Irving Berlin's "Plenty to Be Thankful For!"

But a little while into working on it, I realized that tagline is PRACTICALLY THE SAME as "Plenty to Be Thankful For" 🙄 so I had to scrap that idea and come up with another way to fit it in.

I really REALLY like the first two sections (A1 and A2). I don't love the rest of it right now, and probably would have worked on it more if I had more time. As it tends to go this way, perhaps after I've slept and listen to it again later, I will end up liking it more than I do right now.

I was also worried that it sounded a little too much like my song "All Your Lonely Holidays" - but I remembered that the point is just to write something, and that the songs don't all have to be masterpieces. Also, I've written hundreds of songs at this point in my life, and I'm not always going to have these completely original and innovative ideas. It's just not humanly possible, but that's okay, too.

So much of this challenge is about just getting out of one's own way and seeing what happens when you allow yourself to be vulnerable, so in that regard, even if a few of the songs are "bad" or sound a little like another song, as long as I write all 30 songs before the end of September, I'll have succeeded.

Hope you allow yourself a little extra room for discomfort, change, and showing yourself some grace. ❤️

Tomorrow's gonna be another tough one for me since I have a church gig in the morning (that will take up half the day) and then an out of town commitment (that's going to take up the rest of the day). I anticipate it will start to get a little easier after that. Wish me luck.