Assignment: Write about the word “puddle” for 10 minutes.
At my Grannie’s funeral, I said she could catch catfish in a puddle. I loved writing that eulogy. A moment in time to contemplate this person I called Grannie (yes, that’s how she spelled her name with an “ie” instead of a “y”). The person who taught me how to tune the guitar. I smell the salty sizzle of catfish frying in her big iron skillet. Crunch. A perfect mouth-watering bite. White flaky flesh steaming. A little puff escaping as I break open the cornmeal crust. The shrill sound of the pitch pipe. The pluck of the bronze strings. The red, white, and blue old guitar. A Buck Owens special. The warmth of the heater, an old radiator style heater that stood in the corner of the living room not too far from the guitar, warping it little by little over the years. Sliding my fingers up and down the well-worn neck, pressing my small hands hard against the strings to practice my barre chords. Rock-n-Roll. The hot breeze blowing across the front porch where I strummed for hours on end on a hot Texas day. Nothing more meaningful. Nothing better than a day spent on my Grannie’s front porch waiting for fried catfish, a mess of greens, and her cold sweet ice tea.
This exercise is from the book Writing Better Lyrics (Second Edition): The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting by Pat Pattison. I highly recommend it if you’re wanting to improve your songwriting.
If you’d like more creativity in your life, check out my next workshop The Artist’s Way for 50 and Beyond. It’s a 12-week guided workshop to reignite your creativity later in life because it’s never too late to create!