Songwriting: Staging Your Lyric

iDoCoach Blog

If you’ve been writing songs for awhile you’ve no doubt heard the phrase “show, not tell”. It’s the art of letting the listener into your world, letting them see what you see. Color and detail are your tools. But how do you go about doing this more?

Think of your lyric writing like a stager.

A stager is the person who goes into a house for sale with the job of making it inviting for the potential buyers. If they cram too much into the house it’s harder for the buyer to picture themselves there. If they were to just take everything out of the house they present a different problem. The buyer has to imagine themselves in this empty space. But, if the skilled stager can put in just enough to give the buyer a feel for how the house could work for them, it makes a world of difference and contributes to the sale of the house in the end.

I first heard of this idea from Jimmy McDonough’s bio of Neil Young called “Shakey”. It’s a brilliant analogy for any lyricist to think about how they can invite the listener into their story. It’s also an art to balance the right amount of color and detail. If you endlessly use words to describe every part of your lyric a listener has no room to put themselves in it which is what a great song has the power to do. But if you put in just the right amount of color and detail, the listener can see what you want them to see and they can take it from there.

Sometimes this can be as simple as giving someone a name instead of “she or he”. Maybe it’s using a word like “auburn” instead of “red”, “Rebel Yell” instead of “whiskey” or “Penny Lane“ instead of “my street”. You get the idea. Think of your song like that  house for sale and stage your lyric to sell.

Mark Cawley

Nashville, Tennessee

Image: Shutterstock

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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.