Develop a daily writing practice
Free writing everyday can really help you develop story material for your solo show. This practice is in addition to and a little different than your songwriting.
Now Singer/songwriter’s are already great writers. You know about metaphors, imagery, rhyming, and bringing all the senses to life. But I want you to develop a daily writing practice that is apart from your songwriting. This kind of writing should feel like a breath of fresh air – away from the pressure of writing a great song -away from rules, expectations. This daily writing practice is a called a Free Write.
What’s a free write? A free write is the opportunity and the practice of writing freely – with no rules. Don’t edit yourself. Don’t worry about grammar. Don’t even worry if it makes sense! Just keep your pen flowing on the paper – don’t stop. This is the best way to allow the stories form your deeper subconscious to emerge. Don’t worry – just allow. Time yourself for 10 minutes. This is called your raw material.
You can also try improv speaking instead of writing. Same rules apply. Time yourself for 10 minutes and make sure you record!
Here are some great writing prompts for you to get going.
An event that changed your life
A person that changed your life
Best day
Changed forever
Saying goodbye
A good coach will flush out a ton of great writing prompts to uncover the story you most deeply need to tell. After this process, you’ll go back to the more compelling stories and begin to fill them out with more and more details, putting them in the present tense and bringing people right into the action.
Slowly but surely you will begin to see a story thread. It will emerge. Most people do this work backwards which stops them in their tracks. They feel like they have to come up with a storyline first. This is the opposite of how it works. Storylines emerge after lots and lots of writing.
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