In February of 2018, I engaged in what I called "FAWM Squared". Instead of fourteen tracks, I improvised fourteen 14-track albums. Having met my goal, I celebrated by making another album. Then to help the community reach a song milestone, I made two more fourteen-track albums.

At one time, I was going to try writing 1026 songs over the year. With my February output, I've totally proved I can do so much more than that. My passion is in writing, though, so I've refocused my efforts there.

Am I doing 50/90? Hell yeah. It'll be listening to songs with my kids and sometimes writing a song (or album) during skirmishes. Since 50 tracks is barely more than 3.5 fourteen-track albums, I can basically hit 50 without trying. (I've thought about cranking out 50 ~3 minute songs on the first day, just to see if I can, but I know I can so it doesn't seem like a challenge.) If I'm _really_ not trying, maybe I won't hit 50 at all. Who knows?

I know I'm not done with songwriting. I have acoustic guitars and really would like to learn to play one day. The goal with the improvised songwriting was always to do it with a portable instrument of some kind at some point.

Plus, I've realized that fifty 50-track albums is only slightly less than two 14-track albums a day for 90 days. I did FAWM Squared, now I really want to do 50/90 Squared. (Not this year, and probably not next, but eventually. It's on my list.)

Also: I shared some of my songs at a local filk circle, and I had fun, so this year I'll be focusing on more songs I can similarly share.

Update 2018-07-02: I had an epiphany about my creative endeavors that I'm still coming to terms with. I'm definitely hitting 50. I might explore the notion of an improvised album as a short story told in verse.

Update 2018-07-04: I've mentioned the "A Strand of Hair" album. Here's the cover: http://yam655.com/project/2018-50-90/A-Strand-of-Hair-cover.png Progress on the album is on-going. 11 of 14 songs have a rough draft, but I'll be revising the words and re-recording them as-needed. This should be released on Bandcamp before 50/90 is over. (First the album cover was created, then it was named, then I wrote the songs.) The album is so-named because the original photo started with a picture of my hair. Also: Evil hair that kills is a reoccurring theme for me.

Update 2018-07-06:

- I have first drafts for the entire "A Strand of Hair" album. Song number 3 was inferior, though the basic story in it is sound, so I'll probably do a 3in10 specifically focused on that story to find a better version. The album after this is currently slated to be "Plain White Sugar", and it is supposed to be modeled after a short story. (That is, outlined like a short story, but not based on an existing story.) I just need to create the outline for the album/story.

- Album idea: "Put the crap back in crapcapella". It is possible I have more songs drafted for this album than for my "Plain White Sugar" album. Can I polish a turd? (Sounds like a song!) Update: currently 6 of 14 drafted.

- New album: "41 songs about turning 41". By some estimates there are 12 drafted for this. I kind of want to overshoot so I can thin some things out.

Update 2018-07-20:

- I vacationed, and it was good. I thought I was going to be sketching some songs during my vacation. That didn't happen. Instead I collected raw images for cover art. Now I just need to make an album of songs for each cover. That's how that goes, right?

- I'm going to try my hand at an album of Firefly Filk. Currently the goal is to spew out 42 songs for this, write down the lyrics for my favorites, tweak anything salvageable, and aim for 6-14 quality songs on the album.

- I don't know. I kind of accidentally made another 20 covers. They have titles. I guess I should sing them?

Update 2018-08-10: The issue I had with "A Strand of Hair 3" has been resolved, opening up posting it (and the following songs) here. I've been sitting on them for a while.

Update 2018-08-14: I finally sat down and managed to sing out an album. "When You Need Him" has an initial rough set of songs. I'll decide if anything needs replaced as I type up the lyrics. I'm pretty sure that "Plain White Sugar" will be relegated to an EP. I have an EP-number of songs for it, I just need to type up the lyrics.

Final tallies:

Regular Success:
- "41 Songs About Being 41": more than 41 potential tracks.
- "A Strand of Hair": 14 tracks written, some rewritten
- "Putting the Crap Back in Crapcapella": 14 tracks.
- "Plain White Sugar": Enough tracks for an EP (goal). Might be long enough to be an LP, though.
- "When You Need Him": 14 tracks written, a few rewritten
- "My Grandfather's Commute": 14 tracks, though I might shelve this one for now.
- "The Crane": I guess I improvised 14 tracks for this, but neither listened to nor posted them.
- "Window of Insight": An improvised album that was entirely untouched.
- "Another Day's Commute": More than 14 tracks added the last weekend of the event, so room to drop some.

Surprise Success:
- "Dreams and Lies": 14 songs
- "Stories Right and True": 14 songs
- "One-Off Sci-Fi": More than 14, so some can be dropped/moved.

Less Successful:
- "Firefly Filk": Got barely a single release's triplet. Need more, particularly as one of them isn't well-liked.
- "Fruit of the Garden": Only half-improvised.
- "Mitochondrial Lesions": Only four done.