Over at FAWM.org, hundreds of songwriters have taken up the challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days — that’s a song every other day! Similar to the novelists who take part in NaNoWriMo, the object of FAWM is to take action instead of waiting for inspiration to strike. You can’t be a perfectionist and write an entire album in the shortest month of the year!
The FAWM site is set up as a community for the participating songwriters to comment on each other’s work, and to help hold each other accountable. From the FAWM promotional materials, this is the 4th Annual FAWM, and participation is free. It began in 2004 with a mere 4 participants (who all met or passed the 14-song goal), and grew to over 350 hopefuls in 2006. So-called fawmers are a mixed bag of music professionals, students, homemakers, and folks who work day jobs but rock nightclubs (and even a Resident Media Pundit…).
There’s a nice flash jukebox on the home page so you can listen to the demos that the songwriters have posted so far. There’s a lot of great songs already in the first five days of the challenge. Give a listen and support the songwriters brave enough to commit to writing 14 songs in 28 days.
