Songwriting Challenges: How to Write 50 Songs in 90 Days

Fifty songs in ninety days sounds impossible until you do the math: it works out to roughly one song every two days. A songwriting challenge like this forces you past perfectionism and into the habit of finishing. Here's how the best-known challenges work, why volume makes you better, and how to plan, stay accountable and actually reach the finish line.

1. Know the Two Big Challenges

The two best-known songwriting challenges are 50/90 in the summer and FAWM in February.

50/90 asks you to write 50 songs in about 90 days, running from early July (traditionally the Fourth of July) to the end of September. FAWM, short for February Album Writing Month, asks for 14 songs in the 28 days of February. It was inspired by NaNoWriMo, the novel-writing challenge.

Both have online communities where participants post lyrics and rough demos and comment on each other's work. There are no prizes. The reward is a pile of new songs and a writing habit that sticks. Dates and rules can shift from year to year, so check the official sites before you sign up.

2. Why Quantity Builds Quality

Writing many songs quickly teaches you more than polishing one song for months.

Every song you finish is a full rep: you pick an idea, shape a structure, land a chorus and decide when it's done. Do that 50 times and those decisions get faster and sharper. You also stop treating each idea as precious, which makes you braver about trying strange titles, new genres and odd structures.

Volume also reveals your patterns. By song 30 you'll notice the chord moves you lean on and the topics you keep circling. That awareness is hard to get any other way. If you want to see what a daily version of this looks like, read about writing a song a day.

3. Plan Your 90 Days Before Day One

A 90-day challenge goes smoother when you decide when, where and how you'll write before it starts.

Fifty songs over roughly 13 weeks is about four songs a week. Sketch a schedule that fits your real life, not your ideal one:

• Pick your writing slots. For example, three weeknight sessions plus a longer weekend block.
• Define what counts as a song. Lyrics plus a sung melody is the usual bar. A rough phone recording is enough.
• Set up a tracker. A simple list with song number, title and date keeps you honest and shows progress at a glance.

Plan for bad weeks too. Travel, illness and busy stretches happen, so build in a few catch-up days instead of assuming a perfect streak.

4. Keep a Prompt Bank Ready

Never start a writing session with a blank page and no idea what to write about.

Before the challenge, build a bank of starting points: titles, phrases you overheard, objects in your room, a feeling you haven't written about yet. Constraints work well too, such as "write a song using only three chords" or "tell a story in the second person." For a ready-made list, borrow from these songwriting prompts.

Mini-exercise: set a timer for 15 minutes and write 30 song titles without judging any of them. Circle the ten that make you curious. That's two and a half weeks of starting points done in a quarter of an hour.

5. Build Accountability Into Every Week

Accountability turns a private goal into a promise that's harder to quietly drop.

Post your songs in a challenge community, or find a writing buddy and agree on a weekly check-in where you each share what you finished. Even a group chat with two friends doing the challenge works. Hearing someone else's rough demo also reminds you that everyone's drafts are messy.

If you fall behind, don't quit. Adjust the pace, write two short songs in one session, or decide that 35 songs is still a huge win. The point is momentum, not a perfect record.

6. Finish Rough and Fix Later

A finished rough song is worth more during a challenge than a perfect half-song.

Set a minimum standard for "done": a title, two verses, a chorus and a melody you've sung into a recorder. That's it. Placeholder lines are allowed. A chorus like this is fine on day 23:

I keep a second cup out for nobody,
Just in case the nobody is you,
Every morning it goes cold beside me,
But I pour it like I always do.

It isn't polished, but it has a hook and an image you can improve later. Keeping lyrics and melody together helps here. In Fast Rhymes, the lyrics editor counts syllables automatically and has a built-in voice recorder, so the words and the tune live in one place. When the challenge ends, pick your five strongest songs and give them a real rewrite.

7. Create Your Own Challenge

You can run your own songwriting challenge any time of year with a number, a deadline and one simple rule.

Try one of these:

1. 10 in 30: ten songs in a month, good for a first challenge.
2. Genre month: every song in a style you've never written.
3. Co-write sprint: one co-written song per week for eight weeks.

Write the rules down, tell someone, and put the end date in your calendar. Smaller challenges are a great warm-up before you commit to the full 50/90.

Conclusion

A songwriting challenge works because it trades perfection for practice. Plan your schedule, stock up on prompts, find people to check in with and let rough songs count. You'll come out the other side with dozens of drafts and a much faster writing process.

When you're racing to finish song 37 and need a rhyme, a synonym or a beat to write over, Fast Rhymes keeps your challenge moving.