Allison Asks
I'm In! My First Co-write!
A Blog Series By: Allison Barrett
Hi everyone! Welcome back to Allison Asks! It’s been so fun getting to know members and their writing styles, stories, and advice they’d give other writers. I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up the year than with concluding my co-writing adventure, so this month the question I asked was ‘can I sit in on your co-write session?’ Thankfully Natalie Otto and her friend Michelle David were down to let me join!
I have learned that the first thing many people do when they get into the room is to get to know their co-writers. Since Natalie and Michelle are already friends they had little trouble jumping into the write after quickly catching up. This also helped when they were bringing in ideas for what they might write that day. Michelle knew that Natalie is a mom, so she brought in a great idea that I hope they write if they haven’t already. (I hope you ladies are reading this!) This goes back to when writers say do research to learn info about the other people or artist that you are writing with. This helps you pitch ideas that are relatable and that the other writers in the session might write better than another person or group you pitch it to. I look back and wonder what this write was like in comparison to the first time that Natalie and Michelle wrote together.
I also studied their writing practices. They both arrived at NSAI on time and prepared. They mentioned that they like to write on a computer in Google Docs over a notebook for collaboration purposes. They also let me know that some songs take more time than others, sometimes even multiple sessions. It’s always interesting to hear which songs come together quickly and which ones needed many edits, and from listening to different members it seems that either way you can get a great song!
Once they started getting into writing I wanted to let them have creative space so I left the room. I do wonder what happened after I left. Did they finish the song that day or has there been a follow up session? Did they decide to switch ideas after I left? As someone who is not a songwriter this has been so interesting learning about and then seeing how ideas about writing are applied. I do hope you all have enjoyed the Allison Asks blog as much as I have. Some of you have asked and I am excited to say that in 2024 the Allison Asks interviews will be available in both audio AND written formats. We will start the year off with Steve O’Brien and you do not want to miss it! Happy holidays everyone!