Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Writing about songwriting

Tom Slatter over at Songwright is putting together a free ebook called 10 Tips for Songwriters. A variety of indie songwriters will contribute 10 tips each.

He's at the soliciting-for-contributions stage, and I've volunteered.

I had a momentary flash of doubt after signing up. Though I've learned a lot about the creative process and love to talk about it, I didn't know if my experiences will help people who don't think the same way I do.

For instance, I write very slowly, and I edit and rewrite as I go. By the time I have a full set of lyrics, they're generally the final version. As a result, I can't advise you on how to edit a sketchy first draft that you dashed off on your way to the grocery store. That's just not the way I work.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize it doesn't matter. Other contributors can help the people I can't, and vice versa.

I'm going to have as much fun reading the other songwriters' tips as I will compiling my own.

1 comment:

John Wenger said...

Your first piece of advice should be a quotation from this article. Tell people that everyone has a different way of composing, that yours is the way you describe, and that other ways are fine as well.