Introducing NaSoWriMo!

You've probably heard about the different month-long writing challenges out there -- there's National Novel Writing Month, National Poetry Writing Month, there's even National Album Writing Month. But there hasn't been a month-long challenge devoted to writing individual songs, so we decided to start one, and that's how National Songwriting Month was born!

In keeping with the naming conventions adopted by the other challenges, we'll be calling this endeavor NaSoWriMo. Yes, we know "songwriting" is really one word, but NaSoMo just sounds weird. We've chosen the merry month of May for NaSoWriMo -- it's the gateway to summer, and it's a great time to get inspired and make music!

Here are the instructions:

Write one song every day in May. That's 31 songs in total.

Each day, make a recording of your song and upload it to SoundCloud or YouTube. You can also comment on this blog with your URL and we'll add you to our list of NaSoWriMo participants.

If you have questions about how to record, please hit us up. We can link you to some resources and such to make it easier on you.

Songs can be any length you desire. They can be instrumental or they can have vocals, but they must be your original work!

That's it. You don't have to be a professional musician or a recording engineer. You don't have to be in a band. You don't need anything but an instrument (voices included) and a computer.

Make sure you share this site with your friends so they can follow along. Then, take some time to gear up for the challenge. Set up your SoundCloud or YouTube account (if you don't already have one), change your guitar strings, oil your banjo, dust off that keyboard, gargle with some salt water (or take a shot of whiskey) and let's make music in May!

Check back here for updates leading up to May 1, 2012, when NaSoWriMo officially begins! Be a part of Internet history. See you soon!

~RJ and Karen of Essential Machine