Building on Strengths
constraints by asking other songwriters who are in your same situation how they manage to do so. Even if you can’t do any of these, you may find some avenue that you hadn’t considered just by listening to how others succeeded—it may give you some ideas of your own. Keep trying until you find a system that works for you, but mostly, just keep trying.
LYRICS
Watch for details, here. It really does help to do a spelling and grammar check on all your work, and then go over it word by word several times. Many are the times I copied something onto the computer, and it didn’t catch an obvious mistake where I used a proper word that was actually a misspelling of the one I had intended. Did you demarcate which section was a verse, a chorus or a bridge? To me this is really stupid, but many idiot reps will use this as an excuse to reject your work. It really helps to know a little about the group or person you submit your work to, and what little idiosyncrasies of nitpicking tend to happen there. Make sure you do or don’t include your name or copyright date where appropriate, and follow whatever rules you are given for submission to the letter. Sometimes critiques can be based on the silliest of things, so you shouldn’t take them personally. I was invited to a well-known singer/songwriter’s home for a songwriting circle, once, and had her get all nervous and jumpy because I used the word “compelled” in a new song I’d written—I couldn’t figure out why she responded so angrily to that term and insisting that I change it (I ignored it, and it is one of my most popular tunes to this day), until I found out that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is a prime reason why, in Olympic events, the top and bottom scores are tossed, and the rest are averaged—you can get some serious head-patting for your efforts, and some serious slamming—the real meat of what you need to hear is probably all the stuff in between. Write down all your responses and note if you hear the same ones more than once (tally marks next to the side could help). You might note, too, if possible, the sex and age group, and any other physical information you can on the critic. If your song appeals to
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