Songwriting: One Word Says It All

I like digging around in that toolbox when I’m either bored with my approach to writing or  just plain stuck. Some tools are great for challenging you and here’s one that's so simple it’s easy to overthink it.

One word for your title. Think “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, “Cream” by Prince, “Yesterday,” “Royals,” “Beautiful,” “Thriller”…there are a million one-word hits so how can you go about writing your own? Sometimes it’s as easy as taking one of your existing titles and seeing if one word can stand alone. Do you have some song titles that seem to lose power the more your title “says it all”? Take another look and see if there’s a keyword in there. Could it stand alone? Might be stronger, more of a statement and at the same time more open to interpretation for a listener? The Beatles “Help” comes to mind. How about FGL’s song “Dirt”? Adele’s “ Hello”,  The Stones “Satisfaction”, “Chandelier” by Sia, “Grenade” by Bruno Mars , “Stan” by Eminem, “ Perfect” by Ed Sheeran or “One” by U2? All one word wonders.

Suppose you had a title like “Imagine There’s No Heaven”. Keep “Imagine” and lose the rest. You’d have one of the most powerful single word titles ever written. This is not only great to start out with and build from but a unique way to revisit some of your older ideas.

Once you get familiar with the idea of seeing if you can get to the heart of your idea with one big word look to some other mediums for examples. Movies? How about “Titanic”, “Casablanca”, “Jaws”,  and of course…”Alien”.  Books? “Beloved”,  “Atonement” or Stephen King for the win with…“It”.

Even stars look for the power in a single word for their names. Prince,  Cher, Madonna, Bono, Sting, Drake , Beck and  Beyonce.

You get the idea. Theres’ power in the word!

Mark Cawley

Nashville, Tennessee

Image: Shutterstock

if you'd like to stay up with iDoCoach including receiving the latest blogs and my favorite 7 Toolbox tips here ya go!

http://idocoach.com/email-newsletter

I'm currently coaching writers worldwide, online, one on one and taking new clients for the winter and Spring. Visit my website for more info www.idocoach.com or write to me at mark@idocoach.com

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 six categories on Amazon. Mark has been a 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.

Heres a link to “ The Daily Song Journal” on Amazon

You can also find Song Journey on Amazon.