Say It Awesome.

The average person has an absurdly short attention span. A&R reps have incredibly huge work loads on a day-to-day basis. Having said this, I feel I can pretty much say the same thing and have it apply to both the advertising and songwriting businesses. The following are just a few thoughts I have on how to make sure your writing is punchy and memorable.

1) Your First Idea Sucks- I'm sorry, but its true. And really, if I were to be more accurate, I should say "Your First Ten Ideas Suck". This is because we are bombarded with thousands of messages everyday and far more of them get integrated into your subconscious than you think. I promise you that first concept you think of (or that first line you write) is a derivation of something you have seen before. It's nothing to be ashamed of, everyone does it. The key is digging deeper than those first, "off-the-top-of-your-head" ideas and getting into the meat of what you are trying to say. Which brings me to...

2) Cliches Are The Antithesis Of All That is Good- I hate cliches. I find their uses range from annoying to downright repulsive. And yet I catch myself writing them more often than I would like to admit. This is because they so permeate our vocabulary that you don't necessarily recognize them when you see them, which is why they are so dangerous. Cliches weaken your writing by using phrases that are so common they have completely lost any effectiveness. Your audience doesn't even absorb them.

Let's take an example: "You broke my heart". You've seen that so many times you can say it out loud without feeling a thing. But consider for a moment the VERY first time someone uttered those words. Get into the mind of the individual who in attempting to articulate how profoundly sad they were could only express it as having their heart broken. When you think about it like that it can send chills up your spine. The challenge for us writers is to invent the new cliches. Say something so uniquely meaningful that your audience feels every syllable in their gut.

3) Borrow Voices- As talented as I'm sure you are, you are only one person with one perspective on life. This presents a challenge because to be a good writer, you frequently have to be able to come at life from a completely different perspective than your own. Also, borrowing the perspectives of others can help you arrive at ideas that you would never have thought of had you stayed inside your bubble.

If you are writing a love song, its tempting to stick to the big universal truths. Unfortunately, the big universal truths are boring. They've been in every love song since the dawn of time. Change things up. How does a gondola operator in Venice see love? How does a workaholic lawyer see love? How does a teenage orphan see love? I'm sure all these people would agree on some basics, but its the nuances that make them interesting. I'm not saying necessarily write a song about these individuals, but consider looking at life through their lens.

If you are writing an ad for a chain of car-washes, how does a sports car owner see it versus a mini-van driving soccer mom? What would a cab driver say about it? A limo driver? These aren't concepts in and of themselves, but they are great jumping off places to get a start.


In conclusion, I would like to say that the bad ideas are often used because we are told to go with our instincts. Don't. If you do 50 concepts and have 5 good ones, you're better at this than me. If you write a song and get it perfect on the first draft, congratulations, you're a genius. But for the rest of us mortals, hard work pays off and in the end you really only need one awesome idea.

Back on Thursday.