Years ago I was sitting with the great songwriter Doc Pomus at a New York City music club (the recently closed Kenny’s Castaways), listening to a young songwriter sing his songs.  At one point Doc, irritated, turned to me and said, “He just doesn’t say what he means!”

Years later – years of me trying to write a good song – I came across a quote from author Barbara Kingsolver on the Gotham Writing School website.  When asked how she got her writing going when she was stuck, she replied that she simply asked herself, “What am I really trying to say here?”.

I’ve started to see more clearly the tendency in myself and some writers I work with to beat around the bush, to  NOT say what we mean…

Often I ask writers who are struggling with the lyric of a section of a song (and I go through this with my own songs as well) to sing or read me that section.  Then I ask, “What are you trying to say there?”.

If they can answer that question, my reply is “Well, why don’t you just say that?”.  Often it takes care of the problem.

Say what you mean.  Ask yourself: What am I really trying to say here?

Then say it (or, in our case, SING IT!).