Those who don’t probably aren’t even reading this. You either recognize what you want to write about or you don’t. The flash of inspiration comes from all over. Then there are the songs I record down to the last note before there’s a single word written. Still others come from a concept I want to share. In my own case, sometimes it starts with a single line. Not only is there no particular way to write a song or song lyric, there may be as many ways as – or more than – there are songwriters. In fact, if someone claims to know that secret, they have enough beans to keep you in chili the rest of your life. Oh, if you’re looking for the secret recipe about how to write songs, you won’t find it here. It’s a concept that fits well into songwriting as a process, and it’s one that I’ve adapted to my own personal work methods. Those of you who write songs while working in auto manufacturing industry may be acquainted with the concept of kaizen – literally, “change for the better” – a philosophy of continuous improvement. For that matter, it’s not particularly easy. 1.) The secret? Effective self-criticism.
