Before we begin, let’s quickly revisit what we’ve learned so far. 🎵 SONGWRITING ALCHEMY #1: CHORD PROGRESSIONS https://www.skool.com/ink-alchemy-2100/songwriting-alchemy-1-chord-progressions-lyric-writing?p=adee238b We learned that chord progressions create the emotional landscape beneath a song. The chords create the feeling. The lyrics tell the story living inside that feeling. The same progression can become a love song, a heartbreak song, or a song about transformation depending on the words we choose. 🎭 SONGWRITING ALCHEMY #2: PERSPECTIVE https://www.skool.com/ink-alchemy-2100/songwriting-alchemy-2-another-perspective?p=245760da We explored writing from different points of view. Instead of always writing as ourselves, we stepped into the voice of an ex-lover, a villain, a future self, an object, or even someone we disagree with. We learned that sometimes the truth becomes easier to write when viewed through another set of eyes. And without further ado… ✨ SONGWRITING ALCHEMY 3 - SETTING THE SCENE Today we’re exploring another idea inspired by Pat Pattison: Where does the story happen? Many beginning songwriters write emotions. Great songwriters often write places. Instead of saying: 💔 “I miss you.” Try showing us where that feeling lives: An empty kitchen at midnight A bus stop in the rain A beach in winter The setting becomes part of the story. A hospital hallway creates a different feeling than a wedding reception. A childhood bedroom creates a different feeling than a crowded city street. The place shapes the emotion… WHY IT WORKS Pat Pattison often teaches the importance of specificity.- Specific places create stronger imagery. Stronger imagery creates stronger emotions. The more clearly we can see the scene, the more deeply we can feel the story.

Write a poem or song using Sensory Imagery ⤵️ A few weeks ago in Songwriting Alchemy #2, we explored a lesson from Pat Pattison’s work: readers and listeners connect more deeply with experiences than with explanations. Instead of telling someone what you’re feeling, invite them into the moment through sensory details. This technique is called sensory imagery. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you feel? What do you taste? Example Instead of: “The room felt lonely.” Try: The clock ticked loudly. A cold cup of coffee sat untouched on the table. Notice how loneliness is never mentioned, yet many readers will feel it. Your Prompt ✍️ Close your eyes and describe the room you’re in right now using as many senses as possible. Use sensory details to help your reader step inside the scene and experience it alongside you 💜 Bonus challenge: Try to include all five senses. Most writers naturally use sight, but the strongest imagery often comes from sound, smell, touch, and taste.

Last night I dreamt up a crazy world… thought I would share it with all of you. Johnny and I were driving together in an SUV through rolling green hills. I don’t remember exactly what we were searching for, but it felt like we were headed somewhere far. At one point, we stopped near a house and got out of the car. Scattered on the ground were euros. We picked them up, surprised to find money simply lying there, and then continued on our way. Later, we arrived at a park. There, we found even more money—additional euros and a few American bills, including hundreds. It wasn’t a fortune, just enough to feel like unexpected abundance, as though someone had left it for us to discover. What stood out most were strange white paths spread throughout the park. From a distance, they looked like pathways made of snow winding through the forest As we moved closer, we realized they weren’t snow at all………………. The white paths were actually made of flowers and blossoming vines growing so densely together that they looked like soft trails of snow laid across the earth. The flowers were so abundant that they created entire pathways of white blooms that looked like snow….. While exploring and walking directly on these paths of “snow”, we met a young woman who worked there. She explained that the flowering paths were dangerous. She told us they could consume people. Some people had become trapped inside the vines, tangled beneath the blossoms and pulled down into the earth itself. I remember feeling both awe and disbelief also fear lol. 😂

Today somebody asked me to DJ a party. The funny thing is, I haven’t booked a professional DJ gig in over a year. After my mom passed away, I think I got lost in my head for a while. My creativity became tied up in feelings, and I just wasn’t making music the way I used to. Wasn’t booking underground shows. Wasn’t mixing on twitch and barely releasing mixes on my SoundCloud. Maybe it happened gradually. life got busy. Maybe other priorities took over, like masterminding a new community on Skool 🖤 Maybe I stopped noticing how much time had passed. —- But, I never stopped creating. I’m always writing. The one thing I can definitely identify with the most is just being a storyteller and an artist. my medium may change from time to time, but I am always somehow creating. In fact I received my copies of the books I published in through @Jason Strickland in Art of Poetry just this morning… I wrote all about my mother passing in these poems. And lately I’ve been writing song lyrics and full songs a lot more. In fact, I’m getting ready to do our next songwriting alchemy prompt this morning before I head out to London.. But my dj mixes tell stories too. And I miss them. I miss making them. I miss listening to them. I miss birthing the idea for each of them. Most of my mixes don’t use many words. Sometimes it’s just a phrase or a hook. The story is in the beat, the emotion, the release, and the journey the music takes you on. So today I started to dust off some mixes and songs and reconnecting with a part of myself I hadn’t visited in a while. If you’d like to take a journey with me today, I’ve dropped my SoundCloud link in the comments. Can you relate to this??? Your Prompt ✍️ Write a song or poem about being distracted from something you love. What pulled your attention away? What have you been giving your energy to instead? Is the passion still there beneath the surface, waiting for you? Whether it’s music, art, writing, a dream, or a part of yourself, explore what happens when something meaningful gets lost in the noise.

The room glows softly. Music drifts. Thoughts slip into dreams. A journal rests open beside a luminous laptop. Beyond the window, city lights flicker like distant stars. My loyal companion, Lucille Ball, sleeps nearby as inspiration hangs in the air. In moments like these, creativity breathes. Your turn….. Write your scene... Where do you create? On a porch with a cigarette and a thousand unfinished thoughts? Curled in a worn chair, a laptop balanced on your knees? Alone in a dark kitchen, lit only by candlelight? Your Prompt✍️: Begin a poem or song or story from your imagined scene. Lead your reader from the journal page before you into a story beyond its margins. Perhaps the writer becomes the narrator. Perhaps the narrator becomes the maker of worlds. A doorway may open into a medieval kingdom. Dragons may wheel above distant peaks. A forgotten lover may wait for your words to wake her/his story. Begin in the room. End up somewhere else entirely.. 🖤🖋️