Do You Always Write Toward a Specific Target?

[Mark Kaufman]

Do you always write for a specific target? Or do you also write whatever strikes your artistic fancy?Most TAXI writers appear to be involved in several genres. This allows you to use several different creative "muscles". It occurs to me that if I always wrote the same sort of songs, it would be like flexing the same muscle over and over again...eventually leading to strain, and weakness...or burnout.If I had to write an album's worth of songs all in the same genre...I think I would end up writing several other different types of songs in-between, just to "go somewhere else" and then return with fresh eyes.How about you? Do you always write with a goal in mind?

[hummingbird]

Depends how you define "target".I write to communicate something, of course. I use music as a medium to express my perspective. Texture, colour, shade, shadow, light, heavy...I do write for targets, I go over the listings and use the needs of the market to give me a frame for the music I'll write. I don't find that limiting, I find it challenging and inspiring.For albums, I tend to write on a "theme" that is general enough to allow creativity in presentation. But of course it is all "me" in the end.

[jchitty]

I've never been able to write for a specific target...I wish I could, and I admire writers who can do that, but my songs just hit me like little bolts out of the blue. I am constantly getting ideas, so I do write a lot, but if someone says, 'hey, write a song about this topic', it just won't work for me. If I did that, my songs would sound wooden and contrived. I write mostly country, but yes, I write in other genres....alternative, jazz, Americana, rock, etc. Songwriting is such a mystical process for me...I have no idea where my songs come from. Some mornings, I can wake up with just a hook/chorus in my head, sometimes, just the melody. I can be driving down the road and see a billboard sign with a saying on it, and all of a sudden, I'll start singing the saying along with a melody which pops into my head. I listen to people's convos like most people do.....I get ideas from the television, but once again, for some reason I can't write when people say, 'create a song for this.' One thing I do is watch comedy shows 'coz comedians can say the most interesting things....things that haven't gotten to be buzzwords in the popular culture yet, but that are original enough that you can create a hookline from some of their jokes. Since I write a lot of country songs with conversational lyrics, this serves me well.

[squids]

Nope, don't write to a target unless my cowriters have one. Someone'll generally have an idea and we'll go from there. I've only written to target maybe twice and was lucky both times but it's not on my to-do list generally.

[mazz]

I'm not a songwriter right now but I can say that I write better and more prolifically when I have a target. Targets are motivators for me. Waiting for that mystical muse or lightning strike has not served me thus far and believe me, I've tried. I'm lazy when someone or something isn't riding my ass.Mazz

[devin]

Up until a year ago, I was just like Chits (well, except her quality level is higher!) where a song would start just out of the blue...usually in a calm moment right after a period of some stress (work, workout, family, etc). This free form method is still responsible for 95% of the songs I start...but the target approach is responsible for about 95% of the songs I finish. Once I have an idea that I still like a day later, I have to get serious about finishing it off.The target approach comes in at a different time in the creative cycle for me compared to the "a-ha!" moment of a song being born. I first read about "the creative cycle" while at a party a couple of years ago (I was the designated parent in a basement full of kids...talk about stress!). There was a book on the shelf about "how to write a screenplay", and the book magically opened to a page with these 4 steps to creation:#1. Exposure to external events or new stimuli (a heavy bout of remembering can also serve this purpose)#2. Incubation (let the subconscious do it's thing)#3. Revelation (the act of creating...this is the phase that keeps me up at 1:13am)#4. Evaluation (later critiquing what was written down and deciding what to keep)I apply the target at #4, then force myself back into #3 with the target in mind.If I really really have to write a targeted song from scratch though, I have to imerse myself in aspects surrounding the target (step 1) until it's driving me nuts...then when I walk away from it for a bit, a line or image might pop out when I'm not expecting it. Getting that initial muse for a specific song is really hard for me...it took 3 months to start a meaningful song that my wife asked for.One of the ways to shape up a loose idea is my partial interpretation of something out of the Luboff's "101 songwriting wrongs":- write the target (or hook) in the middle of a piece of paper- decide who is speaking (the singer)...write a quick paragraph that describes this person on the back- decide who is listening (the singee)...write a quick paragraph that describes this person on the back- write up to 100 conversational lines the singer would say in this situation (on other sheets of paper)- write the best lines on the front of the original paper, in the corners, and start filling in the blanksOf course, this style doesn't work for everyone. Willie Nelson wrote "Crazy" while driving home across country, without writing anything down. He just kept singing it and changing it as he drove...by the time he got home, he was done. He's quoted as saying "If I couldn't remember it, it wasn't worth it!" or something like that.Good thread!

[mazz]

I think Devin makes some good points here, particularly the ideas from the Luboffs. I truly believe that creativity can be cultivated and molded just like instrumental technique, and that creative energy never "shuts off", it is always available to those who cultivate their receptivity to it. Of course, sometimes it's just plain hard work and some of those techniques can jump start the flow. Beethoven's music didn't just spring from him completely formed, he wrote and re-wrote until he got it the way he wanted it. His sketchbooks are well studied and documented. There's plenty of examples of this process from history.Our modern society values quick solutions and superficiality but those in the know where creativity is concerned realize that it just plain takes time to develop a consistent way of accessing the huge, unlimited reservoir of creative energy available to all. For me, it's having deadlines and TAXI listings to write for. Necessity is truly the mother of invention.Mazz

[Mark Kaufman]

I just knew this would be interesting... As for me, there are different types of writing. Sometimes I wake up with an idea and I pursue it wherever it may lead. (Non-Target) When I look at a TAXI listing, I think about what I might do, and (although I haven't done one yet) that listing would lead me. (Target)When I agree to write music to an existing lyric, I let the lyric and the lyricist's suggestions guide me. (Target)Sometimes I sit there, guitar in hand, and think, man, I'm in the mood to rock out...and so I try to write a rocking tune. (Target)And sometimes I set out to write something specific (Target) but veer wildly off-course during the creative process and run with it (Non-Target) and it becomes something else.Interesting...I expected more people at this forum to say they wrote toward specific targets.

[mazz]

Mark,I think that this thread being in the songwriter's section may have culled out the instrumental composers (except for busybody Mazz ) who are probably more apt to write to targets (and may also be more used to writing to targets). Since songwriters are responsible for words and music, I would imagine that adds another layer to the process of writing to a target. I don't think one is harder than the other, just different. I would imagine that professional Nashville writers who have 2 or 3 writing sessions a day 5 days a week are probably pretty darn good at writing to a target that their publisher walks in with. Again, it's exercising those creative muscles, no matter what they are.Great thread!Mazz

[crs7string]

Like Mazz and a bunch of others around here, I primarily write and record instrumentals with the target of TV and Film placements.Hence, this focus is towards writing for the listings. You have to develop the skill set of becoming a "musical chameleon" and work quickly, especially if it's a Dispatch listing due in 2 or 3 days.I try to write something everyday and do it the old fashioned way of writing to paper at the piano. I usually jump start by choosing a key. If I wrote something in G yesterday I might choose Db today just to see what comes out. I also try to vary the rhythm. If I started with a quarter note on one in the piece in G. I might start with a rest on one and a sequence of syncopated eight notes.I have found that this is as much a process of creating something. Sometimes it ends up being recorded, sometimes not.Just a few thoughts on the subject.Chuck