How I Wrote Over 400 songs in 2020

A few years ago, I stumbled upon the act of songwriting. I had always memorized the lyrics to popular songs and television themes and when I got bored, I changed the words to make it fun.

This led to my first song. I sat on the end of the couch with a pen and notebook in hand thinking I would write a short story or something. I started humming words and phrases, writing everything down.

Before I knew it, I wrote a song. I don’t even remember what it was about or the name of it, but it was a song. And twenty minutes ago, it didn’t exist in the world. But now it does.

Like all forms of writing, songwriting takes creativity, skill and persistence. In 2020, I took songwriting to the next level.

Before the turn of the year, on New Year’s Eve 2019 at midnight, I had written about 30 songs or so up to that point. I was inconsistent; I only wrote when an idea hit. Before the ball dropped, I made a goal to write more songs than I had written in my life total. I just had to write more than 30.

In the first few months of 2020, I wrote songs here and there, but I had no plan, no focus.

When the pandemic hit and everyone was locked into their house during quarantine, my songwriting aspirations soared. I listened to almost everything: old songs, new songs, country, pop, rock, funk, R and B, rap, anything you can think of.

The more I listened, the more I wrote.