Personal / Storytelling

Some songs I plan. I sit down with an intention, a theme, a structure in mind. I know what I am trying to say before I say it, and the writing process is mostly about finding the right words for a thing I have already decided I want to write about.

And then there are the other kind.

The other kind comes out of nowhere. Or not nowhere exactly, but from a moment that catches you off guard. A conversation you did not expect to be moved by. A realization that arrives while you are doing something completely ordinary. A feeling that shows up uninvited and will not leave until you have given it somewhere to live.

Those unplanned songs are almost always the ones that mean the most to me.

I wrote a song not long ago for someone I work with who was leaving her role. She had been a presence in my professional life that I genuinely valued, someone with warmth and integrity and the kind of leadership that makes you want to show up and do better. When she announced she was moving on, I did not plan to write her a song. It just started forming, the way those songs do, and by the time I finished it I knew it was something I had to share.

I also wrote a song about being a homeschooling mom navigating some of the harder moments of that journey. About being afraid that I was not enough for my kid in a season where he really needed me to be. That song was not on any content calendar. There was no plan for it. It came out of a quiet moment of honest prayer and self-examination, and it ended up saying things I did not even know I needed to say.

I think these songs find their way out because the heart has a backlog. All day long we are processing things, carrying things, setting things aside for later. And sometimes creative work is the only container big enough to hold what will not fit anywhere else.

If you are a songwriter or any kind of creative, I want to encourage you to follow those unexpected pulls. The project that interrupts your project. The song that asks to be written before you are ready to write it. The piece that does not make sense for your content plan or your release schedule or your brand.

Those are usually the truest ones.

They do not show up on my calendar. They show up in me. And I have learned to take that seriously.

Until next time,

Melanie

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