Today I am thinking about three things.
I bring this up because last week I asked a band to describe themselves and five minutes later I had to be shaken awake. Then the same band asked me to listen to a six minute and twenty three second song which caused another unplanned nap. And then a dear friend asked me to edit his long winded weekly newsletter. And when three or more things arrive at about the same time, I am relatively sure the Universe is speaking to me. TA-DA! A theme appeared.
Three things. Edit. Condense. Repeat.
EDIT.
Songwriters: as Jon Bon Jovi used to say, “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!” And there’s another acronym, too. KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. To me the real meaning of that is make it easy to understand. Get to the point.
Artists: please come up with an “elevator pitch” of who you are and what you do. Please don’t go on and on and on. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
CONDENSE.
Once you get the editing done you are almost there. Professional songwriters refer to “word economy”. That means fewer words with greater meaning. Say no more. Dig in and toss the words that are fluff. If you’re writing a song and each word doesn’t point to the title go back and make sure each individual word is meaningful and necessary.
This works for songwriting, writing an artist bio or creating your perfect artist pitch.
REPEAT.
After step two, I suggest letting it sit for awhile. Take a walk or a nap. Pet your cat. Watch some inane videos on YouTube.
Then come back and edit once again.
I hope you find these three things, these three ideas helpful and valuable.
Please feel free to reach out to me and let me know.
chris@chriskeaton.com
Photo Credit c2020.
