Don't write what you need to say...

Write what you need to hear.

A wise man once told me, Don't write what you want to tell someone else, write what you need to hear. Wise indeed.

As writers we can too often get caught up in preaching to our audience. We know everything, it seems, and are the only source of education for our general audience. Lucky them. How did we get so wise? Do we know more about everything because we are songwriters? Hmm. Maybe not.

Well, you can be wise, and here's how.

Instead of figuring out what everyone needs to be told and writing that into a song, figure out what you need to hear and write that. You will be preaching to yourself and reinforcing what you need to make your life better. The audience can listen in and learn from the instruction or not, their choice. You won't be offending anyone by preaching to them or assuming they don't know something.

When writing this song, practice writing it from different perspectives. If you write a straight-ahead This is what you need to do song, you are preaching. That's not popular with a lot of folks.

Try writing it from another's viewpoint. I like the Wise bartender approach, where someone goes in ans states his problem and the wise bartender gives him the answer. Such songs usually have a And this is what he said to me... chorus. I wrote one that goes:

He said, if you keep her in diamonds and lace
She won't care to wear the pants
Waltz her around in an ev'ning gown
And you can lead the dance
Make her the queen of everything
And you can wear the crown
Put her so high on a pedestal
She can't put her foot down.

I'm not singing to the audience, I'm letting them hear a conversation and take what they want from it.

Tim McGraw has a great song called Live like you were dyin' about a fellow who found out he had cancer. Whoosh! Heavy concept. What do you do? he asks. The man answers to him and we get to listen in, I went sky-diving, I went Rocky Mountain climbing, I went two-point-seven seconds on a bull named Fu-Manchu ... and he said, I hope someday you get the chance to live like you were dyin'.

The song tells us to not put off the important or fun things, to do them today, but a song that just said that wouldn't have been popular. This one catches you and leaves you with the message. Perhaps it's what Tim needed to hear.

I was feeling down one day and wrote a song called The Only One Saving You Now. It's about being cause over your situation rather than the effect, the person in charge rather than a victim. It could be construed as preachy, if it wasn't funny, but it is very tongue-in-cheek and it is not a sermon to you, it was what I needed to hear. I singing it to myself from time to time just as a reminder. Listen to 2 minutes of it at www.cdbaby.com/jonbatson1.

In the EmmyLou Harris song, A Ways to Go, written by Lannie Marsh, the second verse says:

There's a junkyard dog a barkin'
In the valley down below
He's wanting me to stop and
Gather up a heavy load
Ain't gonna heed his call
Ain't givin him the time of day
You mangy mutt once and for all
I said I threw that stuff away


The verse says that we are often invited to carry junk with us, yesterday's argument, last year's failed relationship and so on, a 'heavy load'. Such suggestions come from a source as low as a junkyard dog, a mutt not liking anyone and not liked by anyone. It is, again, a conversation that we get to listen in on and learn from or not. If we like, we can just hear the words and go on untouched by them.

In Carrie Underwood's hit song, Jesus Take the Wheel, a woman and her child are driving down the road when the woman loses control of her car just as she has lost control of her life:

She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was sooo scared
She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel

She is not preaching to us that we have to give over our lives to Jesus, she is telling you what that woman did. It's a very stirring song and makes a point, which you, the listener, can take or leave or enjoy vicariously.

That's a suggestion of how to write it, but the point of this article is what to write. Write what you need to hear. Are you not getting enough done in life? Write about someone who solved that problem and how he did it. Have him tell his son or friend about it and propose the solution in the chorus.

Kelly Fitzgerald wrote,

I wanted this but I got that
Someone to hold I got a cat
I wanted rain; I got a flood
Wished for revenge and I got blood
I wanted peace and I got silence
Wished for excitement; I got violence
Sometime to kill and now I'm bored to tears
Bring on experience you bring on the years
I'll be careful what I wish for next time


It's what she needed to hear. She is making her statement and her resolution and you get to listen in. Do you have to decide to also be careful what you wish for? No, but you can if you want.

Kenny Chesney sings about having a fight with his wife and going into a bar and asks for the good stuff when the wise bartender (yup, him again) says,

You won't find that here
Cause its the first long kiss on a second date
Momma's all worried when you get home late
Droppin' the ring in the spaghetti plate
cause your hands are shakin so much

It's the way that she looks with the rice in her hair
Eatin' burnt suppers the whole first year
and askin' for seconds to keep her from tearin' up
Yeah man, that's the good stuff

So try it. Figure out what you need to hear, what lesson you need to learn in your life. Write down how that would go into a song. You will be wise indeed.


Jon Batson is the author of the Songwriter's Hook Book, available at www.cdbaby.com/jonbatson3.