Songwriting Paralysis By Analysis

iDoCoach.com

Ever suffer from paralysis by analysis? Stressed out over a line or a melodic phrase? Easy to get caught up in your song with the smallest of details. If you tend to overthink your song just …don’t.

I’ve mentored a ton of songwriters through the years both online, in sessions, workshops, and writer retreats. Can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve come into a room and found co-writers have retreated into their respective corners and the song has come to a complete halt. I’ll ask them to take me back to the beginning of their co-write and walk me through it. It’s usually a short walk. Why? Someone is overthinking and doing it too early in the process.

Maybe it’s the writer who writes a line or two and immediately begins to dissect them. Basically editing before there is much to edit. Whatever it is that’s caused the once-promising idea to go on life support is something to overcome. The time to edit is really when you have a whole bunch of ideas on the page. That’s when you need to analyze what you have and consider possible ways to make it better. If you find yourself paralyzed, indecisive, and unable to move forward consider getting away from the song for a while. If you’re co-writing on the day and don’t have the luxury of time, try being acceptive of the other writer’s ideas even when you’re feeling they may not be the best ones. You can always revisit these when you have the bones of your song. Move on.

An age-old tool is to use placeholders in your lyric. Rather than stopping time by waiting for that perfect line, just make something up - anything - and keep the flow going. Again, you can come back to it later. The Beatles were particularly good at this technique and sometimes the nonsensical lines actually ended up in the final version.

You probably know the most famous of these placeholder stories. If not, Paul McCartney was writing a beautiful song but totally stuck for the title. He had the cadence down but rather than letting this stop him he carried on with a working title of “Scrambled  Eggs”. Eventually the title “Yesterday” took over from “Scrambled Eggs” and worked out ok for the song and for Paul.

Pays to think about these moments in your song but not to the point of paralysis by analysis. It will come and sometimes when you just quit thinking!

Mark Cawley

Nashville, Tennessee

Image: Shutterstock

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Mark Cawley iDoCoach

Mark Cawley is a hit songwriter, best-selling author, in-demand speaker, songwriting coach, and popular blogger. As a songwriter, his songs have been on more than 16 million records to date with cuts ranging from Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, and Diana Ross to Wynonna Judd, Taylor Dayne, Paul Carrack, The Spice Girls, and many more. Through his coaching service iDoCoach.com, he has coached thousands of songwriters worldwide.

His book, Song Journey, was released in April 2019 and went to #1 in 6 categories on Amazon. Mark is a past judge for the UK Songwriting Contest, Nashville Rising Star, Belmont University’s Commercial Music program, and West Coast Songwriter events. He’s also a contributing author to USA Songwriting, InTune Magazine, Songwriter Magazine, a sponsor for the Australian Songwriting Association, and a past mentor for The Songwriting Academy UK. Born in Syracuse, New York, Mark has lived in Boston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and London. Mark now resides in Nashville, Tennessee. The Daily Song Journal is his second book.

 Here is a link to “ The Daily Song Journal” on Amazon

You can also find Song Journey on Amazon.