Imagine your English teacher assigns an enrichment project after reading a novella, and among the eight options, you see one that seems almost daunting: compose an original song. Although the idea intrigued me, I hesitated—I had never written a complete song, and we only had two weeks to pull it all together. Still, above other compelling options like painting or writing a poem, I was drawn toward songwriting, and I took the challenge.

Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, the novella we’d read together as a class, left me with vivid images and emotions—just what I needed to craft three minutes of original instrumental music and lyrics. I opened Logic Pro, a music production software, and started with an interesting chord progression that I made a week or two earlier. Oddly, it reminded me of Christmas, which clicked with the story’s snowy setting and the love between Ethan and Mattie. Building on the synth chords, I layered in drum beats to represent the story’s “smash-up”—a pivotal moment I won’t spoil for you—and added a roaring bassline to capture the intense emotions Ethan and Mattie would have felt afterward. The instrumental was nearly complete.

Now, it was time for the lyrics. With just three days left to finish the assignment, I was completely focused. I started by brainstorming for a captivating title: winter… snow… love… the smash-up… After some thought, I landed on the idea of being buried under snow. But “Buried Under Snow” didn’t feel quite right, so I went with “Submerged Under Snow,” adding a little bit of alliteration.

With the title in place, I was down to 48 hours to write the lyrics, come up with a catchy chorus melody, and create decent verses and bridges. Following Mr. Whitehead’s advice to be poetic and descriptive, I wrote lines like “Coldness around me / don’t know where we are,” which—though I don’t know if they’re poetic enough—were pretty descriptive.

Then came the final step: recording everything. By 9 p.m. the night before the deadline, I shut my door, singing through the song repeatedly until it sounded right, hoping I wouldn’t wake my parents.

The next day, I stepped into the class with a microphone and the orange portable amplifier I use for Busking Club. This amp is powerful enough to fill the entire cafeteria (or even the main gym), so in the smaller classroom, it might’ve been overkill. I started singing, holding the lyrics sheet in my left hand. I wanted to convince people that I had memorized the whole lyrics though, so instead of reading off the lyrics sheet, I asked my friends if the sound was loud enough whenever I forgot the lyrics. They assured me that it was very loud, but standing behind the amplifier, I was not satisfied with the sound and kept turning the volume up. Anyway, I ended the performance pretty well. Some of my classmates seemed astonished, some of them told me that I have such a nice voice, and some of them seemed to be annoyed by the loud volume. Oops.

When I heard the song again in the summer, I realized that the audio sounded quite muddy and my pronunciations were unclear. So I re-recorded, remixed, and remastered the song throughout the summer, adding other musical elements to symbolize some other aspects of the novella.

I always dream big—maybe too big. The moment Mr. Whitehead mentioned the song option for the project, I was already dreaming of being a star. That hasn’t happened yet, but who knows? A music video that I hope to film during this winter break might make it possible. This holiday break, try listening to “Submerged Under Snow,” along with other Christmas carols. If you’d like, save the song on Spotify using the banner below! You can also use this link for other platforms.