Like a lot of creative people, I’m curious about varying mediums and challenging myself. Until recently, I hadn’t shared the lyrical side of my repertoire, but yeah, I’ve written a few songs. It has always been about entertaining myself, exploring other kinds of writing, and keeping my skills sharp.

Genres include hip hop in the style of Prince’s 90s NPG era, hardcore punk, and country. All of that is going to be a surprise to people who know me.

Wanting to focus more on my novels, I hadn’t been putting effort into doing more with my lyrics nor have I spent much free time working on them. Writing is a job, after all, and you want to put the most time into the most viable projects. Suddenly, however, maybe I did.

As I’ve written recently in Collaboration like peanut butter and chocolate, Sharing is caring…and inspiring, and Writing Exercise – An unexpected prompt, I’ve unexpectedly found myself as one half of a songwriting duo.

So I started writing more songs. A lot more. In the last six weeks, I’ve started 25, completing 10. My partner has written new music for at least four songs, though honestly, his feels like the more difficult and time-consuming part of the deal.

Already, we have 2 songs that I’m absolutely thrilled with, even if we’ve got some work to do. The musical arrangement took lyrics I was happy with and turned them into songs I think are really special: the sad, haunting Let Me Down Easy and the powerful love song Did You Run?

Here are the other eight I’ve submitted to him:

• YOU’RE OTHER – hardcore punk song yelling at the bigots
• The Coyotes Roam But They Ignore The Bones – folk song about 2 murdered girls hidden at a New Mexico ranch
• Together and Apart – two people who stayed together longer than they should have
• A Day Survived Is Yesterday – sometimes you just need to get through that dark day
• I’m Leaving You Behind – a person leaves the love who’s using them
• Unrequited – an infatuated person slowly comes to terms with their one-sided love
• Black Dog, Cry – a take on the Beatles’ Black bird (yeah, I know) about a sleeping dog who wakes at the sound of an intruder and alerts her family to danger
• The Garden Bloom – a person is emerging from the darkness of a breakup

Are all of them viable? Who can say! The wonderful thing about collaboration is sparking ideas in each other. As an example, the first music pass at Did You Run? transformed it from a song about a person lamenting a one-night stand to a duet about two people wishing they hadn’t gone their separate ways after meeting on their vacations. Creation is about possibilities, not about sticking to a destination before you know where you really need to go.

Even if all these songs end up falling short of our high standards, we’re on a journey of discovery and learning. And we’ve got plenty of other viable material to work with. Most importantly, we’re having fun collaborating and filling our spare time with something that delights our souls.

Good luck with your own creative endeavors!

–Mike

PS: I’ve added the lyrics work to my Progress Tracker, a calendar that captures changes I’m making to my various creative projects.

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(C) Michael Wallevand, June 2026