We had the fine fortune of attending John Roderick's Write Like I Do installment at 826 Seattle last night, and 'write like he does' we did -- for almost two hours, we went through his takes on the dissection of lyric writing, heard practical tips and did real-time exercises that taught how bridge the gap from journaling to storytelling, and were even treated to a bit of insight into some of John's more personal experiences and musings. For most of us, the path from Baby, you hurt me so bad (yeah) to If I kissed you now / like sun streaming through a tavern door is not an easy one to walk -- and while we're not going to be releasing the next "Hindsight" anytime soon, we all left the classroom a little more bolstered up to our own potentials, and a little more keen on our respective capabilities for sharpening and expanding our stories without feeling like we'd done our truths a disservice. Not an easy feat by a long shot, and one that John led us through with ease.

And on top of learning something new, we supported a great cause, had a good time, and even got a little bit of performance out of it at the end of the class. Here a few photos of the night:

And here's a clip of John Roderick doing "Clouds" for us on a tiny blue ukelele:

Make sure to join us next time! More information on the Write Like I Do series can be found here.

{All photos by Victoria VanBruinisse. Check out the rest of the evening -- and more! -- in our imaginary flickr pool!}