Recently a colleague and I connected over lunch about our creative passions. To my surprise, his are music composition and arrangement. To his delight, writing is mine.

It wasn’t quite as legendary as this seminal Gen-X moment in advertising, but maybe it’s close.

There’s something freeing about sharing your creative passions with others, especially those who have their own. The conversation evolves and builds momentum in a way that doesn’t happen when only one person is sharing.

And let’s be honest: most people enjoy the back-and-forth dialogue. They don’t want to feel like a talk show host who’s there to keep a guest talking. Or worse still, simply be an audience for someone who loves to hear themselves talk.

We shared our projects and the things that fired our creativity. We delighted in finding someone who was mutually respectful, energized by the creative process, and with whom the conversation was never forced. We discussed the craft, each from our own experience and through the language of our chosen medium.

We had two creative passions moving in parallel directions, and while we didn’t know where we headed, we knew there would be an intersection. Personally, I love this approach because it prevents us from putting up artificial guardrails that stifle creativity. We were just talking about the ways words and music could come together.

It was simple, casual, spontaneous.

Freeing.

A quick tangent. In my office life, I’m a product manager. I spend a lot of time creating visual concepts and rapid prototyping. I don’t need a full working solution to a problem – I need something that simply conveys a concept and inspires people to see potential. In my experience in sales, marketing, and product, I’ve always found it easier to convince people when they take an idea and begin to think creatively about it. Me coming in with a decree is never as successful. Or as interesting. Or as fun.

We came to a point where he was describing scenes in a story he wrote, and he wondered how to present his accompanying musical composition for readers to enjoy. My product manager brain started visualizing something as he spoke. About 10 minutes after our call ended, I whipped up this quick visual.

Text: John peered around the corner, more interest in the appearance of looking than actually scouting for the sniper. The plaster exploded in his face, just as he knew it would.

Clearly, I’m not qualified to teach musical composition. I mean, I used Power Point, clipart, and a screencap tool for crying out loud. I remember just enough of my musical training to use some correct terminology, but I also visually changed the size of the bars to quickly convey my thoughts of the partnership between story and music. I’ve described just enough for people to think creatively.

And then, I whipped up another visual from a different tack.

Introductory piece

CH 1 – The beginning to the first chapter. “John peered around the corner, more interest in the appearance of looking than actually scouting for the sniper. The plaster exploded in his face, just as he knew it would.”

Interlude

CH 2 – Beginning of Chapter 2. “Marvin knew he was going to die today. Just as he knew that yesterday and every day since they’d landed in Cherbourg. It wasn’t gallows humor. It wasn’t reality. It just was. They were all dead men, until they weren’t.”

Culmination of first third

END – Final chapter begins: “All was still. The errant church bell had finally stilled after days sounding like the bell of a safety coffin who’s occupant was desperate to escape. Had Frank been more poetic, he might have appreciated the metaphor.”

Outro

Once again, to get my point across, I don’t have to compose music (he’s done that already), and for the same reason, I don’t need to write the text (though in this case, these are actually my words, because I wanted to surprise him). This is the vision that’s intended to spark additional conversation with my new partner. It’s an important step that many collaborations overlook in their desire to start solving the problem, or when one person only wants their vision to be considered. Boo.

Where did we go from there? Well, that creative spark ignited something more – so much more. I’ll recount that in a future post, but for now, let’s say that we reached the intersection of chocolate and peanut butter. And it tastes delicious.

Good luck with your own creative projects!

–Mike

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(C) Michael Wallevand, May 2026