It feels like I’m going through a personal renaissance with art.

Once I started writing again, I found myself returning not only to fiction and screenwriting, but also to poetry and songwriting. I used to write songs out of boredom in high school and throughout my twenties, and now I’m exploring it again—and, even scarier, actually singing what I write.

I’m not the best singer. It isn’t necessarily my strongest natural talent, and I could probably benefit from a vocal coach. But I enjoy karaoke.

There’s something freeing about singing and dancing even when you’re not particularly good at either. Stage fright is real, but so is the joy of doing something simply because you enjoy it.

When I was younger, I used to come home after school and karaoke whenever no one else was around to hear me. Now I’ve started practicing again, hoping the neighbors don’t hear some of my rougher attempts.

It’s humbling, but that’s part of what makes it enjoyable.

Writing music has been interesting for another reason. Like screenwriting, novel writing, think pieces, or technical writing, songwriting has its own rules and rhythms. The words have to do something different.

One of the best ways I’ve found to test a song is simply to sing it.

It reminds me of reading a novel aloud while editing. Suddenly you hear where something drags, where the rhythm breaks, or where a line that looked perfectly fine on the page becomes awkward once spoken.

Songs work the same way.

When I was younger, most of what I wrote revolved around teenage angst, crushes, unrequited love, and all the emotions that came with them.

Now I’m challenging myself differently. Sometimes I’ll listen to a beat or instrumental and see what story it brings out of me. Other times I’ll pull from characters, situations, or ideas I’ve already written about and try to tell them through a song.

Then comes another challenge: singing it without trying to sound like someone else.

I’m learning to listen for my own natural voice while working on things like enunciation, vocal strength, rhythm, and confidence.

Right now, it’s mostly a creative exercise—something I do because I enjoy it and because it pushes me outside the kinds of writing I already know.

But who knows what might come from it someday?