Folks,
I know, I know, you have heard it from me before. "Les, ol' Chap", you say, "yer wearin' me out" with all this
rewrite stuff". However, folks, I cannot be any more adamant about it now than I was a couple of years ago.
It is a rarity; I mean it falls into the "Seven Wonders of the World" category, when a song comes out of the box, completely finished, polished and ready for worldwide publication in one sitting. It is almost impossible to do. However, when it happens, it is magic to be sure! It’s like looking for a four-leaf clover. If you make up your mind you are going to hunt down a four-leaf clover, you could spend days if not weeks, combing every lawn, field or meadow before your hunt is successful. Every once in a while though, under the most serendipitous moments, when nothing is on your mind, you just happen to look down and there, by the magic of the wee people, a four-leaf clover appears from nowhere. Your "Lucky Day"!
Let's face it. Yep. Let's cowboy up! We just don't find a four-leaf clover every time we sit down to write a lyric. No sir, or ma'am, as the case may be. We dig deep to just come up with a first draft. Yes, that first verse comes rolling off the tongue with the greatest of ease. It flows like the clear snow waters over the smooth glacial stones in a mountain stream. And then. Something happens. We start reading that verse and before we know it …… well, read on my writing friends!
The first writing or first draft is where creativity lives. That is when we lay it on the line. That is where we open up and let the muse in to take over our minds. Not that I believe in muses’ or anything. Though I do have a warm spot for pixies, impish sprites and a leprechaun or two. The creative moment is when we get our thoughts on paper "pre-edited". Raw material. The essence of the lyric. That is why a first draft is, as it states, a first draft. Raw material. A first draft is just to get the ideas down and out into the open. That is the fun part. That is the adrenal rush of it coming together for a few moments in time and space. The coolest part of the creative time is when the mind opens up and we are transported into the lyric itself. We are living the lyric, real time. But what happens at the end of that creative moment? What is it we do? Just before we descend from that creative high?
We post a first draft to a public forum for all the world to see and read.
Now folks, I am as guilty as all get out for this. I'm so proud of myself for finding such clever lyrics. Lyrics, the likes of which have never before been seen, heard or read. I want to share them right now. I know I'm a crafty composer! I'm a wizard of words. A melodic magician of music! Until three days later. When I re-read those lyrics and I says to myself, "self", I says, "just what did you mean by that phrase?" Just what was going on in that mind of yours, "self", when you posted that lyric? As the great lyricist John Prine penned, "I gotta shake myself and wonder".
If there is one item I can contribute to any songwriting effort it is, without a doubt, the word we song writers deplore, despise and detest the most. “
Rewrite”. Let me say that word again. “
Rewrite”. And a postmortem call, “
Rewrite”. OK. Here comes a question. How many of you "edit" your first draft while actually writing the first draft? Come on now. Let's see a show of hands. No one is looking. I promise! Well, except maybe your spouse or partner and they will just give you a funny look. This is why I ask the question and why, if you raised your hand, you should not "edit/rewrite" while in the creative mode.
The creative mode is just that. You write exactly what your mind tells you to write because the "muse", or in my case a mischievous pixie, owns your mind during the creative mode. The last thing you want to do is stop the flow of energy by going back over and re-hashing a verse or even a line while being creative. Plus, you will start to tick off your muse. The real reason however, is if you start the edit process before you get your stuff down on paper, you skew the whole song writing process. In other words, if you stop in mid verse to go back and change a line, you lose "X amount" of creative energy. Once you lose it, you do not get it back. Now, if your juices are flowing and literally dripping off your ink pen and while you are writing a new line and a righteous word hits you for the last word of the previous line, by all means, change it. If you get an extra special moment of creative insight, do not edit it in; add it in. However, if you stop to analyze and edit verses on the fly, you are bound to miss opportunities for possibly a great lyric. This is why we have "
Rewrite". Once more, "
Rewrite". OK, Mantra, "
Rewrite". Get my drift?
Get the first draft down. Get your ideas down. Get the foundation laid. It doesn't have to rhyme at exactly the moment you "first" pen the lyric. It doesn't even have to be in any time-line order. Want to know why? Yep. You guessed it. It's because we have "
Rewrite" option. Repeat. Repeat and rinse!
Rewrite is the time you spend to technically get your ducks in a row. Frankly, your Creative Muse could care less about ducks. The Muse is off messing with your left eyebrow by now.
Rewrite is the time when your mastery of language and grammar and prowess of poetry kick into gear.
Rewrite is when you get down to the nitty-gritty "job" of taking your wildly and chaotically created composition and turn it into a viable, long-lived lyric.
There was a quote floating on the board not to long ago. It went something like “don’t be afraid to write a crappy lyric”. So true. If you are afraid to write a bad lyric, then you are not even coming close to tapping your potential as a “good” songwriter. By being afraid to write a bad lyric you are limiting your work to, at best, mediocre work. I digress.
Back to the “
Rewrite”. The
Rewrite can be a long and sometimes drawn out affair. It is serious work. It’s mind bending work. It takes an unbelievable amount of energy, time and effort. You take all the creativity you conjured up and mold it into a working lyric. Think of Michelangelo and his sculptures. Mikey somehow procures a rather large piece of marble stone. He looks at that stone and he sees David. Yet, before he can get to David, he must make rough cuts here and there to start forming the shape of David. Once the shape has been carved, Mikey then starts the process of refining his cuts, bit by bit and chip by chip, to ultimately find David. It is the exact same process with writing a song. You, as the writer, can hear and see the song you are writing. Your vision. Your first draft/writing is your “vision”. From your vision, by using a pen to
Rewrite rather than a chisel to carve, you can get to your David.
What’s that mantra? Yep. Thats right! Rather,
rewrite!
Addendum.........
I post my lyrics on several web sites. I posted the lyrics of my tune.
I Won't Say Goodbye to one such place and this was one of the critiques ...
" This is one of the better songs I've read on this site. Not that the other songs aren't good, but I just think this one might have more appeal to everyday listeners. I can almost hear it in my head. It actually has a rhyme scheme. Good job."
And in the commercial world, that is a darn good thing to hear! And all because I spent time rewriting the lyric. I learn more and more everyday!
As always, thanks for getting this far!
**
LC
You sure had some 'creative juices' flowing in that post - fantastic - I couldn't stop grinning - you describe exactly the excitement (and pride!) of the 'creative moment' ...and then how reality re-assserts itself (for most of us!) later - I assume you are having a good day! Excellent advice too. We sure are lucky to have you on this site. 
