Way back when as a fledgling songwriter I got my butt handed to me in some feedback sessions.
It took me a couple times of getting told before my ass told my head to knock it off…
So maybe I’m a slow learner.
I remember getting done playing my tune for a group.
The Grand Poohbah of the group said something about one of my lines.
My response?
“You know. I wondered about that line.”
His response as he looked up from my lyric sheet, put on a one-sided grin, and said…
“Well, if you think there’s a problem with a line, there usually is a problem with the line.”
Duh!
He was the gracious one.
I was the one who handed my rear-end to myself for being an idiot.
Of course, I learned that lesson at least once or twice more.
That little tid bit, as simple as it seemed, really helped me in my writing. I trusted my writing intuition more.
So trust that little bugger when it raps you in the noggin’.
Granted, intuition is a muscle which grows more aware as you write, but…
The problem is, when your intuition says there is a problem with a line, what do you do with it?
How do you fix it?
Most often I see writer’s with lines which are missing some character.
They sound like everything written in every song before.
For instance, how would you say…
“He likes to drink.”
You aren’t thinking stuff like…
He likes to tip afew…
Sip the suds…
Knock them back.
Or any number of drinking clichés out there.
If you are, I’m going to have you arrested by the cliché police.
I ain’t kidding.
They’re going to show up at yr. door.
Put the cuffs on you.
And run you downtown to lock you up good.
And the only way you are getting out is to write an original line with some character.
Fortunately, for you its pretty damned EASY to do, you’d have August’s Tune Booster to give you some real-time techniques to write your butt out of there.
It’d be your Original Line Get Out of Jail FREE card, even though it ain’t free. But, it’ll run you less than one swallow of your Starbucks per day for the entire month. More info at: https://www.tunesmithtips.com/tunebooster/
P.S. I’m not making a big deal of it, though it might be for you. But I’ve made some slight changes to the newsletter. Learn as you grow, right?
The podcast idea?
Toodles.
Some other changes which if you’re not signed up to Tune Booster, you’ll never miss when you sign up today, and if you are subscribed?
Probably not miss it either. You’ll see when you log in, but it’s mostly background stuff. Content and info is the same or better.
This does two things.
And I’m trusting my intuition I’m not screwing myself on this one…
But drops it to $3 a month.
The other thing it does is, when I publish my songwriting book, you’ll get it FREE.
You’ll have to be a Tune Booster subscriber, but it’s an extra perk. No promises if or when I’ll get to it. It is a fair distance off shore yet, not sure I even see land yet.
Now. Go thee forth and writeth ye songs.