Are you playing a sonnet, a love song or ballad?

Are you screaming out metal or crooning out swing?

Close your eyes over the mic and imagine them listening.

Don’t let it scare you or make you lose your lines. Know they are hanging on the very note you hit and the melody you carry. Know that they are lost in your message with a bass to guide that tapping foot.

Think of him. Your audience. The look in his eyes and the rhythm in his gait. The choice of her shoes and the song in her ‘hello’. The crease in his brow and the train he catches to work. The drink she sips at the bar and the friends she is chatting to. Laughing with. Crying with. Think of him kicking off his shoes at the door. Greeting the children or the answering machine. Think of her jogging to the beat streaming through her headphones. Searching for his car keys in the morning and moving through the traffic as the wipers clear the rain and the radio reports the bulletins. Think of her cheering on her team and shaking hands on a closing deal.

Think of them. Your audience. They’re listening.

And now.

Begin to write.

By Ara Eden