I got home about 4:30 this afternoon and can’t even say how glad I was to get here. I have been gone since October 23rd... the Wednesday after Write About Jesus.

I’m going to do my best to write coherently, but I’ll have to confess that I’m being spoiled by Facebook. It’s so random and so simple. One sentence beginning with “Sue is...” can suffice as a sort of blog for the day. I’m going to continue to blog, but I’m beginning to wonder if we’re entering a “post-blog” world. It kind of feels like not as many people are reading. And I’m certain that most of my friends who used to blog regularly and blogging less often. It strikes me that this is how quickly things change these days. Even myspace seems a little dated to me at this point. But I love looking down the list on Facebook to see what everyone is doing, even if it just says, “Craig is going to bed” or “Jim is watching football.” I’m not sure why I care about reading these little snippets, but I do.

This was a rewarding writing week. I don’t need to list co-writers and titles and how many songs got written or for whom. That doesn’t matter as much as the fact that I really loved writing this week. It proves again my credo: You’ll never have more fun with a song than you do while you are writing it.

Here are some things I learned this week:

Sometimes when a co-writer has tried to cancel but you show up at their house anyway because you never got the message... well that can turn out to be a really great way to get to know a person. Still, I will double check next time and err on the side of not showing up rather than surprising someone who is still in their pj’s.

When you are getting stuck on a song... getting blocked with something that just seems to be going nowhere... it is probably because it isn’t resonating with you emotionally on a personal level. Take a break and do some thinking about that. What does it mean to you? You’ve got to care about it to write about it. If you can’t really care... write something else.

There’s no right or wrong way to write a song. Start with the chorus. Start with a verse. Start in the middle and write your way out. Start with a clear vision of where it’s all going and a map in your head. Start without a clue. The right way to do it is to do it in a way that other people are moved by and want to hear. However you get there... that’s the right way. I know this totally goes against what I usually teach in classes, but the truth is that all my teaching is just how things work ideally... not always in the real world.

Writing will make you tired. I was completely exhausted Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, and I really think it’s because I wrote hard all three days. Anybody that thinks it’s just sitting in a little room and chatting until you come up with something,... ha. They are so wrong.

It isn’t enough to just write. It isn’t enough to be able to write a great song. You really do have to have a certain toughness and persistence. And you have to sit down and do your paperwork... cause otherwise, you won’t get paid.

Get over the notion that you will ever get the credit you are due if you are not an artist. I could go into great detail here about reviews that automatically assume all the songs on a cd have been written by the artist. As a writer who has experienced this on more than one occasion, I have debated with myself whether to write a polite note pointing out to the reviewer that they really should be accurate in their reportage. I have considered writing a sarcastic note. I have even thought about writing a nasty note. But in the end, I do none of the above because it won’t change anything or help anything. In the end, I realize that reviewers care about artists. Only writers care about writers.

But hey... that’s a good thing, right? Cause so many of the people I care about are also writers.