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★ Kick writer's block
★ Silence your inner critic
★ Make friends & write songs!
Challenge Dates:
DECEMBER 12-16, 2022
THE 5 IN 5 SONG CHALLENGE
P r e s e n t e d b y S o n g F a n c y
The no-excuses, speed-songwriting challenge to silence your inner critic.
Happening DECEMBER 12th-16th
Say G'BYE writer's block, perfectionism, & procrastination!
Write 5 finished songs songs over 5 days
A new beautiful song prompt each day
Make new friends and cowriters
A private Facebook group for accountability
Here's how the challenge works:
You're going to finish a bunch of songs.
YOU’LL BE WRITING AN ENTIRE SONG EVERY DAY FOR 5 DAYS.
This super fast paced speed-writing challenge is one of the best and quickest ways to write through your negative inner dialog. How? Don’t think, just write.
We'll give you the prompts to start with.
EACH DAY: A NEW PROMPT.
No worrying about what the heck to write about. Throughout the 5 days of the challenge, you’ll be given daily song prompts. Your mission? Write the heck outta that prompt and finish the song!
You'll get feedback from friends.
A PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP TO SHARE SONGS WITH
Our private challenge Facebook group has been an incredible catalyst for our songwriters - you get feedback, share songs, make cowriter connections, and grow as a songwriter with a group of your peers. It's a blast!
What the songwriters are saying:
Participants in past challenges have gone on to record albums, have other artists cut their songs, even win contests. All because they joined the 5 in 5 Song Challenge and proved to themselves they were capable of writing more songs, better songs, and faster!
Ready to come write with us?
Register for the 5 in 5 Song Challenge below!
Challenge dates: December 12th-16th
How the Challenge Works:
1. GET THE PROMPT EACH DAY
Each day, I'll post a prompt inside the Facebook group in the wee morning hours (Nashville time). Come to the group and check out the prompt each day - this is what you'll be writing from.
2. WRITE YOUR SONG - FAST!
Write your song based on the prompt! The goal here is to write quickly, with little editing. Push yourself. It will be hard, but that's why this is a challenge. Give yourself an hour, 30 minutes, all evening, or just your lunch break - but whatever you do, finish that song!
3. POST YOUR SONG IN THE GROUP
Come back to the Facebook group when it's all finished and share with the class! The 5/5 group is a wonderful place to get vulnerable, receive feedback, and feel the rush of sharing a brand new tune.
FAQ
I'm always changing up prompts each challenge to keep it interesting and to inspire as many different kinds of writers as possible. Some of the prompts we use are:
- WORD SETS - A set of 10 words, where the writer is prompted to write a song using at least 5.
- TITLE PROMPTS - A title for your song! Write a song with this title.
- PHOTO PROMPTS - Write a song that is inspired by the photograph.
- SETTING PROMPTS - Write a song that alludes to this theme. You can use the exact wording, or choose not to.
- DARE PROMPTS - I dare you to do something crazy!
Please! Ask away! That's one of the most beautiful parts of this group - everyone is super helpful and read to jump in with their assistance.
If you ask for feedback, please give it in return. Find a song where the writer is asking for feedback and help 'em out!
Absolutely! Feel free to share this page with them so they can get in on the fun.
Of course! Come back to the group anytime and post your polished songs. We write a ton of drafts in during these challenges, so it's really fun to hear the finished product when it's all done!
A finished song constitutes a song that you’ve started and seen through to the end.
That will very a bit from person to person. For example, if you write lyrics and music, then a finished song will be a full written lyric, with all melody and chords. If you're a lyricist only, then a finished song may only be a finished lyric. But there are no blank lines, no empty spots. Every blank has been filled in and the song could be performed right at that moment if you needed to.
It’s not required, but honestly, it's the best part of the challenge! This challenge is designed to push you beyond your comfort zone. So I encourage you to share your worktapes and lyric sheets! It’s one of the most fun parts of this challenge. There are benefits to sharing your work and works in progress:
- You get feedback and helpful advice
- You push yourself to overcome self doubt
- You prove to yourself and others that you’re writing
- You keep yourself accountable
Make a post or a comment with a link to your song. Quick iphone worktapes, Garage Band recordings, YouTube videos of you playing your song, lyric sheet pdf links, links to Google doc’s, images of your lyrics, are all acceptable ways to share.
I like Soundcloud and YouTube because they are (in my opinion) the easiest (and the free-est) way to upload work quickly. In both places, you can set your uploads to private and share a private link, which is nice if you only want to share a song with the 5/5 group and no one else!
Please only share songs that are written to the daily prompt. The daily prompts are there to give you a place to start, so you don’t have to worry about brainstorming new ideas. We'll all be writing to the same prompts, which adds another level of inspiration when you see what your peers are doing with the same idea.
Of course, the spirit of this challenge is to finish an entire a song a day for 5 days, not just write what I tell you to write! So if you wind up going off the rails and writing something completely different that doesn't fit the prompt, by all means, write that song! Just please do not share it in the group.
There are 30 prompts available from 2017-2018's challenges for sale here in an awesome bundle: http://bit.ly/30Prompts-Collection
You can have them emailed to you once a day for 30 days, or download them all at once!
Don't worry, I got you!
- You can grab 30 prompts from 2017-2018 5/5 challenges here: http://bit.ly/30Prompts-Collection
- Or you can order my book, The Beautiful Book of Songwriting Prompts for your writing room!