Every January as the winter starts to take on a never ending presence I start to ask myself if I’m really going to be up for it again this year.  Am I going to be able to harness the creativity and discipline to write 14 new songs and post demos for them during the shortest month of the year?  I did it in 2005, 2008 and 2009, but still, it never gets easier or less daunting.

February Album Writing Month was started in 2004 by a couple of songwriters who were tired of never being able to complete a song, or at least not the amount of songs they wanted.  Taking National Novel Writing Month as an inspiration, they decided to start a new challenge built around music.  Write 14 songs during February, the shortest, and here in Minnesota, the most brutal month of the year.

I completed it again this year and found myself going in some unexpected directions.  I’m happy to have the new material, and at some point will probably play a show with other local artists who participated.  But even more than having 14 new tunes to strum, I’m reminded of what you can accomplish when you give yourself parameters and stick to them.  Left to my our own devices things really can take forever.  Especially when they’re creative endeavors.  But give yourself a due date and announce it to other people and you hold each other accountable.

Advertising is similar.  The industry has some of the most creative people in it, but these same people might never finish a book or a painting.  They need due dates and entire traffic departments to keep them on track.  But the end result is the same.  Something that never would have otherwise existed is now part of the world.

Usually that’s a good thing.