Posted on March 1, 2022
Over the last few years, I’ve been attempting the challenge of February Album Writing Month, also known as FAWM. For those of you who don’t know, FAWM is an annual songwriting challenge where all of the participants attempt to write fourteen songs in the twenty-eight days of February. I wrote about my history with this challenge in last year’s post so I won’t repeat myself but I look forward to it every year.
Even before 2022 began, I knew it was unlikely (very unlikely) that I was going to be able to complete the challenge this year, or even do it at all, given how badly the ADHD meds were affecting me. I was so anxious and depressed that I could barely get out of bed – for months – let alone write. Not that my brain was working anyway: my creative brain seems to go into hibernation when I’m depressed. But then, after I stopped taking the ADHD meds and started taking antidepressants again, a song dropped into my lap and I thought that maybe I could use the challenge to get back into writing, even if I didn’t manage to write fourteen songs. So here are some the songs that I wrote (there are a few that I don’t want to write about right now because I don’t know what’s going to happen with them and/or they’re not mine to talk about)…
Had this been another year, I would not be happy with having not reached the goal of fourteen songs but the last few months have been so awful that I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to write at all. So eight (plus) songs after months of depression and no writing at all is definitely progress and I’m proud of that. It’s been really fun to write again and it’s reminded me why I love it and why I wish I could spend all of my time doing it.
I do want to write more about how my depression (and medication) affects my writing but I think that deserves its own space. So that’s another post for another day. I hope everyone who took part in FAWM enjoyed themselves, whether you reached the goal or not, and I look forward to doing the challenge again next year, as well as working on the songs I’ve been writing over the last month.
Category: autism, depression, emotions, medication, mental health, music, special interests, writing Tagged: adhd, agents of shield, anxiety, challenge, collaboration, cowriting, daisy johnson, depression, fawm, FAWM 2022, february album writing month, inspiration, lauren alex hooper, medication, mental health, mental illness, reign, singersongwriter, songwriter, songwriting, songwriting challenge, writers block, writing
Posted on April 24, 2021
So, on the 4th January, England went into another national lockdown and this list was once again revived. This one felt much more like the first lockdown than the second, where many schools, businesses, etc were still open. When schools and universities started to open, my course remained online (it was one of the courses that could function solely online and meant less people going back to the uni) so lockdown continued for me. My life has only just started to involve going out again – swimming, getting a haircut, (safely) seeing a few people – and that’s why I’ve kept this list going as long as I have…
As I said in the last part of this list, hopefully there won’t be reason to continue this post; hopefully there won’t be any more lockdowns. But I guess only time will tell. I’ve found it strangely comforting to keep this list; it’s kind of like a time capsule for these strange periods of time, if that makes sense.
I hope you’re all keeping safe and well and I’ll see you in the next post.
Category: adhd, autism, covid-19 pandemic, death, diagnosis, heds, medication, meltdowns, mental health, music, tips, trichotillomania, university, video, writing Tagged: a&e, about-face, absentia, acoustic ep, acoustic sessions, adhd, adhd diagnosis, adhd medication, ancestry, ancestrydna, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ava, betsy lane, birthday, blood & water, cat family, christmas present, chronic fatigue service, chyler leigh, collaboration, coronavirus, covid test, covid vaccination, covid vaccine, covid-19, cowriter, cowriting, cowriting session, creating the queen's gambit, criminal minds, dare me, dbt, dialectical behaviour therapy, ecg, escape from pretoria, evermore, family history, fawm, fawm 2021, fearless (taylor's version), february album writing month, film, films, folklore, friends, grammys 2021, grey's anatomy, grief, grief anniversary, haircut, halsey, heds, honest ep, honest ep (sunburst sessions), hospital, how it ends, how to train your dragon, hypermobile ehlers danlos syndrome, hypermobility, inattentive type, interview, kalie shorr, lexie grey, lockdown, lockdown 2021, lockdown 3.0, luce, masters, masters degree, masters degree in songwriting, masters degree year two, masters part time, medical trauma, medication, meltdown, migraine, movies, my cat, my cats, my dog, natalie hemby, new amsterdam, new music, new music release, new music uk, new single, nicola walker, occupational therapy, online concert, part time masters student, peppermint, politics, put it in a postcard, remote writing session, research conference, rheumatologist, rheumatology follow up, richard marc, social distancing, songwriter, songwriting, songwriting competition, sunburst sessions, taking lives, taylor swift, the bay, the dig, the one, the one netflix, the queen's gambit, the shires, the wilds, therapy, tim minchin, tiny pretty things, travis meadows, trich, trichotillomania, triggered, tv show, unforgotten, university, us politics, world autism awareness week, world autism awareness week 2021
Posted on March 1, 2021
So, every February for the last several years, I have been attempting FAWM or February Album Writing Month, an annual songwriting challenge where participants try to write 14 songs in the 28 days of February. And it’s definitely a challenge. If you have a job, are in some form of education, or have time consuming responsibilities (such as looking after family, handling health issues, etc), you likely have limited time to write. But having a time based challenge like FAWM – with a Twitter spitting out prompts and forums full of people sharing ideas and tips – can be a really great way to help carve out some time and boost motivation. I’ve always found it to be a great experience, one that has produces really interesting songs, whether I actually manage to complete the challenge or not.
I completed it last year and wrote some songs I’m really proud of it, plus I had so much fun, so I was really excited to do it again this year. I was collecting ideas and come 1st February, I was raring to go but then a lot of difficult medical stuff came up, hitting me like a ton of bricks. All of that really messed with my head and it suddenly felt a lot harder to manage everything: my physical health, my mental health, my uni work, writing at all, let alone extra writing. I felt like I was constantly on the edge of burning out. But then, as time passed and I worked my way out of the fog, I was able to focus on songwriting again and, for the second year in a row, I managed to complete the challenge of writing 14 songs in 28 days.
These are the songs I wrote:
I actually worked on several more songs but didn’t manage to finish them or couldn’t arrange the cowriting sessions within the time period to finish them. And while most of these songs are still first drafts, I feel really good about a lot of them and where they’re headed. So I’m pretty proud of myself, especially considering how much I was struggling earlier in the month.
Although it’s called February ALBUM Writing Month, I don’t tend to think about writing a cohesive album, more an album’s worth of material. Creating a really good body of work takes so much thought and planning and usually a lot more than 14 songs to get a really good, cohesive body of work. But the challenge gets me so excited and energised when it comes to my songwriting that that’s the real benefit for me. I’m not going to be able to keep writing at this pace with all my uni work and health stuff going on, but I’ve really enjoyed this time to really dedicate to my writing and obviously I’m going to keep writing as much as I can around everything else I’m balancing.
I’d love to include links to these songs so that you guys could hear them (recording, production, and uploading is part of the challenge but I don’t want to put them out there when I don’t know what’s going to happen with them). I haven’t had time but, as I said, I don’t know if I’m going to release them or not and I wouldn’t want to spoil that. Because some of these songs are definitely headed for release…
Hi! I’m Lauren Alex Hooper. Welcome to my little blog! I write about living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD (Inattentive Type), and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), as well as several mental health issues.
I’m a singer-songwriter (it’s my biggest special interest and I have both a BA and MA in songwriting) so I’ll probably write a bit about that too.
My first single, ‘Invisible,’ is on all platforms, with all proceeds going to Young Minds.
My debut EP, Honest, is available on all platforms, with a limited physical run at Resident Music in Brighton.
I’m currently working on an album about my experiences as an autistic woman.