Minnesota Songwriting Moment

Last night, I had a Big Magic moment where a song idea came to me out of nowhere. 9/10 times I write lyrics first, and then the music. .8/10 times I write music first. And then sometimes, both come to me at the same time. An idea latches on and if I don’t write it down immediately, it’ll be gone forever.

So, I wrote down a couple verses and a chorus, and when nothing else was coming to me, I went to sleep.

This morning, I did a little work around the house and then opened the window blinds to let some natural light in. I then sat back down at my piano to finish the song.

I was working on verse 3 when I started to stumble over a line. I looked up and outside the open blinds. It appeared calm outside, with a light breeze blowing through the trees. I wrote the line, “I can’t get a handle on summer turned fall.” But I started to churn the words and wrote, “I can’t get a handle on winter turned fall.” About 30 seconds had passed from the time I first started writing the line. I looked up and out the window again. About a second after I looked out the window, snow flurries hit the air. Winter turned fall, it is.