Skirmishes

What Is A Skirmish?

A skirmish (originally songskirmish) is a timed creative challenge where participants all write different songs, at the same time, based on a shared prompt. It's a time of shared inspiration (or at least perspiration) that brings fawmers across the community together. In short:

• A surprise prompt revealed at a scheduled time
• One hour of focused songwriting
• Completely open-ended; your creativity guides the way!

The beauty of a Skirmish lies in its simplicity: one prompt, one hour, infinite interpretations.

How skirmishes began

The the skirmish idea was proposed by fawmer @cowex in 2010. It is an adaptation of the Song Fight! weekly songwriting contests, which are popular among fawmers, except a skirmish is only one hour and has no voting or "winners." The first ever skirmish prompt was "Second Hand," provided by @nancyrost.

Today, about 15% of all FAWM songs from any given year are skirmish songs.

Why Participate In A Skirmish?

The basic goal is to silence your inner critic and just embrace the creative process.

Your song will probably not be great, but maybe it will be! It's less about perfection and more about making something in the moment. Importantly: you won't be doing it alone.

A skirmish response song can be:

• A half-finished demo
• A raw instrumental piece
• Lyrics that capture a fleeting emotion
• Anything that feels authentically you

There is no wrong way to skirmish, and it's okay if you don't entirely "finish."

That said — in any given FAWM event, only 25% of fawmers participate in any skirmishes. So while they are popular, they are far from obligatory. If you don't take inspiration from this style of songwriting, don't force it! There are many other ways to engage in the community.

How To Participate

You can find the Skirmishes link in the main menu on the left in in your browser. On mobile, access this menu with the [] "hamburger" button in the top left:

This takes you to the skirmish area, which will:

• Highlight the next, current, or most recently finished skirmish
• List the next three (3) skirmishes coming up
• List the last five (5) skirmishes most recently finished

Additionally, a yellow indicator badge appears just above the FAWM main menu and/or link one hour before a skirmish is about to begin. If you visit the site during an active skirmish, this badge is green. This is to help you keep aware of skirmishes, if you have an hour and want to join.

Each skirmish prompt reads TO BE REVEALED until the specified time, at which point it is revealed to all fawmers. You can click through to the specific skirmish page to read any additional notes or encouragement the "host" has left in the description.

Participation is straightforward. Show up, wait for the prompt, and then write for an hour!

Don't stress about timing. Missed the exact start? No problem! Get to work when you can (preferably soon after the official start, though), and post whenever you're ready.

Posting And Commenting

Some fawmers try to write and record a demo all in the same hour, others only write for an hour and take more time with their demo (if any).

Submitting your finished skirmish song is easy:

• Post the song using the normal process
• Be sure to use the Skirmish drop-down to categorize it

That way, your song will show up in the special filters for skirmishes, which are linked from every skirmish page. This helps other listeners know which songs are from which skirmishes, and prioritize their listening accordingly.

Once you've posted your response, you can listen through all the other songs for that same skirmish, and learn from how they approached the same prompt!

Note: Skirmish song commenting etiquette

Historically, it was considered good practice to listen to and comment on every song in a skirmish if you participated in it. However, as skirmishes gain popularity this gets harder to do.

Do what you can, but don't stress over it. Especially if a skirmish has many participants!

Hosting A Skirmish

Any fawmer can host a skirmish! Doing so is a great way to give back to the community.

Click the giant Host A Skirmish button on the skirmish home page, which will open up a form where you can:

• Choose a Start Time (note the Timezone!)
• Craft a Prompt (see tips below)
• Enter a Description with additional notes, context, or encouragement

After you click Submit, FAWM will schedule a skirmish at the specified time, and create a page that includes its own "mini-forum" discussion thread, and a direct link to the songs page with the filter for your particular skirmish.

You can click the Edit button on your skirmish's page to change the prompt and description as often as you want up until the start time (which cannot be changed). You can even leave the prompt blank! That way, you can reserve the time slot and wait to decide on your prompt for the community until the last minute. Or, plan ahead if you prefer.

When creating a skirmish, keep in mind these rules:

• Skirmishes must start at the top of the hour (e.g., 2:00 P.M.)
• Skirmishes must be at least 2 hours apart
• Skirmishes from the same host must be at least 48 hours apart

Also, if your prompt is still empty once the skirmish begins, a random prompt will be chosen for you and you won't be able to change it.

Tip: Writing an effective skirmish prompt

Originally, a skirmish prompt was a title and response songs were meant to use that title. This isn't necessary, but it is still a simple and effective approach. Regardless, a good skirmish prompt is:

• Specific
• Concise (2-5 words)
• Accessible (not too complex, esoteric, or abstract)

Your prompt should try to immediately invoke a feeling, idea, or mental image in the reader, inspiring them to get writing right away without any further thought or research.

The prompt "That Friday Feeling" gives you more to dig into than just "Happiness." Similarly, "Before The Blue" is good, but "Pressure" is too vague, and "Eight of Swords Reversed" may sound cool but isn't very accessible. In 2011 there was an excellent prompt, "Psychic Driving," that longtime fawmers still talk about to this day!

Finally, anything requiring a lengthy description or a Wikipedia article to fully understand or explain is probably not well-suited as a skirmish prompt. Maybe start a forum challenge for that idea instead!

Super-Skirmishes

Historically, super-skirmishes were a series of skirmishes all taking place consecutively over the course of several days (usually, every 3 or 4 hours over a weekend). This would allow fawmers in all timezones to be able to host or participate in one or more real-time skirmishes.

For better or for worse, once skirmishes became a "first-class feature" of the FAWM website in 2023, it seems as though the entirety of February is now one month-long super-skirmish! So fawmers don't really talk about organizing them anymore.

Important: Keep skirmishes out of the forums!

Originally, skirmishes were organized as regular forum threads, each with their own #hashtag.

Since 2023, however (see History), the built-in features explained on this page have made that obsolete.

Please refrain from using the general forums to announce/schedule skirmishes. The only exceptions for that are: (1) asking questions about skirmishes or (2) coordinating a SuperSkirmish (see above), which isn't a feature in the website. Please use the "Games and Challenges" section for these.