FAWM Quickstart

What's going on? We're all attempting to write 14 songs in 28 days.

Isn't that crazy? Nah. Think of FAWM as a big, free, international songwriting workshop that only requires an Internet connection. Other fawmers will become your friends, collaborators, and accountability partners; they are sources of feedback, advice, and inspiration.

Can I really do that? Yup! Each year thousands of fawmers try... and hundreds make it to 14 songs. Some haven't written in years, while others have never written a song before. (Of course, some can write 14 songs in their sleep.) On average, even "non-winners" walk away with half a dozen new songs. Not bad for four weeks’ work!

What’s the point of taking part? The basic premise of the challenge is that if you get a teeny tiny bit better every time you write a song, then writing a lot of songs will help you to get a lot better. FAWM will encourage you to write more songs.

When you don’t have a deadline for creative work, it’s a big temptation to delay starting it until you feel “in the mood” and your muse shows up with inspiration. The usual result of this is that nothing happens. No songs get written. During FAWM, you don’t have time for procrastination. You can’t be precious about whether a song idea is good enough. If you’ve got an idea, use it! You have to put your muse to work, and do it now. Your inner editor gets to take the month off, too. It’s not allowed to tell you that a song isn’t good enough. Instead, you will be working as part of a community of your songwriting peers, and we’re all focused on helping each other to write songs. For many fawmers, this opens the floodgates, creatively speaking. And after a few years of taking part, you suddenly find you've become one of the old hands and are helping the next cohort of beginners with their first songs, and it all becomes even more fun.

OK, So... I have to write and record a whole album in February? Write, yes. Record—well, that’s up to you. Our focus is on songwriting (or composing), not recording. Rough demos are encouraged if you want to (see below). There are some fawmers for whom the production aspect of songwriting is part of their creative process, but for the rest of us there's plenty of time for that from March onwards. If you aren’t interested in production values, or you feel that they get in the way of your creative process, don't let them!

What constitutes a "song"? Can I write instrumentals? Pop songs, instrumentals, "sound art," whatever. The goal is to be challenged and have fun—whatever that means to you. Let your muse fly free!

What if I only write lyrics? That's totally cool. There are many other fawmers who do just that as well. Equally, some fawmers don’t write their own lyrics but instead love to create musical arrangements for other people’s words, so there’s a good chance that someone out there would jump at a chance to work with you! You can search the site for songs tagged #MusicWanted or #LyricsWanted which have been posted by people looking to collaborate. Or you could just ask around in the forums.

Note

Make sure that you read the collab guidelines page before you start work on a collaboration!

How long should my songs be? That’s a good question! It depends on the genre you’re writing for, but in general, maybe aim for 3 minutes? Having said that, fawmers have written punk songs that are over in ten seconds and prog-rock extravaganzas lasting more than twenty minutes, so you do you.

And I can't start until February 1? No. You might find the idea of starting with a completely blank canvas a scary one, but fawmers have written more than a quarter of a million songs since the challenge began and it turns out that you’re likely to be more successful (and have more fun) if you embrace the fear and just dive in.

If you have a lonesome hook/idea you've been bouncing around for a while, it's OK to polish it off for FAWM. Or, if you're planning a concept album it's OK to start doing research. But the “clean slate” approach is likely to work best.

Note

The website will unlock song posting at midnight at the international date line on February 1st (see “When can I start posting songs to the site?” below). If you’re up for the authentic challenge, you shouldn’t start work at all until then.

What happens if I use a song I really wrote earlier? Nothing. But why take any old song you already wrote, and claim it for FAWM? What new songwriting chops will you develop by doing this? How will it help you to get better as an artist? FAWM is about unlocking the songwriting potential you have immediately to hand, and trust us: it’s there, even if you’re not aware of it. There’s no point in posting the album you recorded last year, not just because your fellow fawmers will almost certainly be able to tell, but also because you won’t learn anything by doing so—remember, the challenge is about developing your ability to come up with a song right now. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Give it a go. Trust us: it can be a life-changing experience.

What about a cover song? Is that a new original song? See the next answer.

What about a parody song? You must not copy someone else's music or lyrics without their express permission. If you copy or closely imitate someone else's work, you are likely to infringe their copyright, particularly if it’s a composition which has been released commercially. If this results in FAWM being served with a copyright takedown notice, we will remove your song from the site. Obviously we’d rather not have to do this, so our advice is simply: please don’t.

We're songwriters (not lawyers) so this isn't legal advice, but if you are going to imitate another song, it's best if you do so as an educational exercise, or to "comment" on the original song. Regardless, you could be accused of copyright infringement and/or we could have to take down your song.

What do I get for "winning"? Many new songs and the admiration of your songwriting peers! Oh, and a little trophy icon next to your name on the website. What more do you need?

How long will I be able to listen to the results? The website and its forums open at the end of January. People post songs in February. March is for catching up, revising demos (if that’s your thing), continuing to leave comments on other people’s songs, and organising FAWM Over Parties, or FOPs! The site goes back into hibernation for the rest of the year on March 15th. (See Off Season, below).

Note that when the site opens again next year, it will be wiped clean and this year’s songs will NOT be available, so remember to make backups of your submissions and save them locally!

What's the community like? FAWM exists in order to help people grow as artists. It’s about helping each other to develop our abilities as writers, as performers, and (if you’re that way inclined) about growing as an arranger and a producer, too. FAWM is a big community and its members have a lot of experience and knowledge which they will gladly share with you.

Please remember that fawmers are your peers. They’re trying to improve as songwriters, just like you are. The "fawmily" has a positive, encouraging, we're-all-in-this-together kind of vibe. You can check out the Community Guidelines section for tips and the glossary to get a crash-course on our inside jokes and such.

Can I plug my other work here? FAWM is about helping you to develop the creative aspects of songwriting. It’s not intended to be somewhere for developing your business or improving your SEO results. Please do that somewhere else.

Remember that the community here are your peers; we’re all trying to develop our chops as artists, just like you are. Treating other fawmers as a marketing opportunity or a captive audience isn’t cool, and the site was NOT created as a free PR resource for your next campaign. You’ll just annoy people if you treat it like that, and you are likely to have your account suspended.

Is FAWM really free? It is to you, but not to us. To help us to cover our costs, please consider making a donation or buying some merch. Just imagine how cool you would look wearing a Ukulelecorn t-shirt!

I don't think I can make it to 14 songs. Should I even try? YES! You will surprise yourself. Even if you only write one song, that's more than zero, right?

Do they have to be good songs? Some will be awesome, some not as awesome. If you're feeling iffy about a tune, just hammer it out (the expression we use is that you should "fawm it") and move on, but don't give up. A salvageable line or melody may still come out of it. You might not be happy with a song as a whole, but what if it turns out to have a killer hook? FAWM will definitely help you grow as a songwriter.

Do I have to post lyrics and demos of my songs? Nope. You're only required to post a title for each new song so we can track your progress. Posting liner notes, lyrics, audio demos, etc. is optional. A cool thing about FAWM is garnering feedback from fellow songwriters, but some may not be able to or even want to record/post demos of their songs, and that's fine. But in general terms, the more information you can provide about your efforts, the more engagement you are likely to get.

So why should I bother posting my songs? Because of the feedback you will get. Other fawmers will help you to examine your creative choices. They may help you to discover better ones. In the process, you’ll gain an understanding of how different people respond to a song. They may reveal things about your work that you didn’t know were there! Other fawmers can also learn from the work you post.

You don't have to accept any feedback if you don't agree with it, of course. But discussing why you did something the way you did it can reveal new aspects of your writing process and help you to develop good habits (and to abandon bad ones you might have picked up along the way).

How good do I need to be as a musician to take part? You’re absolutely fine just the way you are right now. Seriously. There is no entry examination. There's no minimum skill requirement for people taking part. Nobody is going to judge you for not knowing what a crescendo is or what a “DAW” does. Absolute beginners are very welcome.

What quality should my demos be? Whatever it takes! Whatever you’re happy with. Sketches that give an idea for the song are fine. Some fawmers just sing into a voice memo app on their phone and that’s totally acceptable. The point here is to write 14 songs, not to record them, so don't get too hung up on recording them—unless you really want to, that is. You have to stop thinking in terms of "This one's finished" and learn to think "This one's good enough to meet its public" instead.

Yes, some fawmers produce slick, fully-produced recordings but please remember: comparison is the thief of joy. They may well have been doing this for much longer than you have. It doesn’t mean their songs are necessarily any better. Nor does the fact that their song has thirty-two tracks of harmony guitars on it guarantee that you’ll get earwormed by the results, although that sounds like it would have been an awful lot of fun to make. At FAWM, every other writer is your equal; they are your peers. Talk to any of them and they will tell you that the ability to write a good song is not something that happens because you have lots of gear. You can’t buy talent!

I’m not sure I’m good enough at this yet. Maybe I shouldn’t… Getting to the point where you’re ready to upload your first song to the FAWM website is probably the scariest thing you’ll do during the whole challenge. Some people sign up but they never post a single song, and that’s really sad.

We get where they’re coming from. Every song is precious to its creator. In the eyes and ears of the person who wrote it, every song has the potential to be a hit. But like the cat inside the box in Erwin Schrödinger's famous thought experiment, if nobody ever looks inside the box (and listens to your song), you'll never know if it's a thriving, living thing or just plain dead. It's only when someone else observes the cat—sorry, the song—that reality is revealed. The FAWM community is just about the safest, most supportive bunch of people you could pick to help you open that box. You are good enough. You can do this! We want everyone who registers on the site to produce at least one song..

What happens if someone doesn’t like my song? Fawmers are in general a very kindly lot (actually telling someone that they suck is frowned upon to such a degree that the newbie many years ago who left a comment on somebody else’s song that just said, “Shit’s weak, dog” is still talked about with horror to this day). Fawmers know that the songs being posted here are rough sketches that are only a few hours old, and they make allowances for that fact. They’ll focus on the bones of the song itself, telling you what they are responding to emotionally or intellectually. They'll home in on what it is about the song that's exciting.

This sort of feedback is golden if you’re looking to write better songs. And if you’re prepared to take that feedback on board, you’ll start to hear results fast.

And if someone doesn’t like what you do—well, there’s no accounting for taste. Move on to the next song!

But—and this is a very important point—everyone who takes part in FAWM is required to play nice. There’s “not liking” something, and then there’s “being a dick”. We expect everyone to follow Wheaton’s Law. Please see the Community Guidelines for more details.

Why does the number of song comments sometimes appear blue, but others are grey? A song that you have already left a comment on will have a blue comment counter. If you haven’t commented on it yet, it will be grey.

If I post lyrics or demos, does FAWM own the copyright? Nope! Review the Terms of Use. Your songs are yours, and always will be!

What about collaborative songwriting? This is absolutely encouraged. Working with other songwriters is one of the most powerful ways to learn the craft that there is. If you are in a band with several songwriters, see if you can collaborate with all of them. If you don’t have a band, see if you can find a kindred spirit here in the community. The website even officially supports posting songs as collaborations between two or more FAWM accounts. We guarantee you’ll learn a lot by working with other fawmers. Make sure to read the collab guidelines for advice on the best way to go about doing this.

Is there an age limit on participation? Yes. You must be at least 16 years old to take part. You can be as old as you like. If you’re under 16 years old, don’t despair; you can always get a parent or guardian to sign up for you and represent your work.

Great! Where do I sign up? Why, at FAWM.ORG of course!

I hate my username now. Can I change it? If you’re logged in to the FAWM website, you can change your username once every 120 days (which is longer than the site will stay open every year).

When can I start posting songs to the site? The “Add song” button will appear on the website when it’s midnight on the International Date Line on February 1st. That’s 10pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time, 1pm Central European Time, noon Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time, 7 am Eastern Time, and 4 am Pacific Time.

And when does posting stop? The “Add song” button will disappear when it’s no longer February anywhere in the world, which is at noon Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time on March 1st.