Guess what?  The Songwriting Channel is on – it’s playing your shows, it’s ‘friending’ you, it’s writing you tweets, it’s calling your number.  But you have to tune in.  You have to pick up.

On TV there’s always something broadcasting on Channel 9, day and night.  But you’ll never see or hear a bit of it if you’re not tuned in to that exact channel.  Tuning in to Channel 3 won’t do it.  On facebook or Twitter or Hulu there are literally millions of things going on every second… but you won’t know about them unless you’re on that particular site. When someone calls or texts your phone number, you won’t have any idea what they’re calling about unless you pick up or look.

I noticed years ago that people who tune in to the ‘money channel’ – that is, who pay attention to money – seem to gather more of it around themselves.  People who are enthusiastic about any area of life and give time and attention to it usually seem to accrue more of it.  This seems to be true for almost anything.

If some area becomes a focus of your attention – if you open yourself to it – you realize there’s a lot more of it floating around than you previously noticed.

So, how to tune into the Songwriting Channel?  Simple: Pay Attention. When an idea comes, take it; write it down or record it.  And Give It Time.  Devote some regular time in your day/week to consider and develop these ideas that have flown into your head.

If you were a carpenter and someone came along intermittently and left a load of priceless wood on your porch, it would behoove you to spend some time thinking about and working on what you could build out of that beautiful material.  But if you never went out to the porch…

This doesn’t mean you’ll be good at it right away.  That takes time, practice, study, craft (which all takes attention too).  But it does mean that you will receive the ideas, the possibilities, that are floating around inside and outside you.  You’ll have something to work with.

The first thing is to tune in to the channel!  You have your own and it’s broadcasting only to you.  How do you know you have your own?  Because you have the strong desire to write, to create.  And that desire won’t leave you alone.  I think that’s the indicator.

You’re a writer and your ideas are your material… those thoughts in your head, those emotions, that urge to create something that only you can create.  Don’t undervalue any of it.

Tune in to the Songwriting Channel.  There’s no telling what might come on.