“Reject!” (Thoughts on Style & Quality)

I like to think of the song writer within me as having two split personalities: the artist and the editor. It’s the artist’s job to come up with new, creative ideas. And it’s the editor’s job to determine if the artist’s ideas are good enough to keep.

Although it may sound a bit schizophrenic to think this way, there are a lot of benefits. For instance, when you have an idea that you decide is not good enough to keep in a song, how does this affect your psyche? For most song writers, coming up with sub-par material is a negative experience. Not so, in my world. In my song writing world, when the artist has created an idea that the editor rejects, BOTH have done their jobs! The artist’s job is to come up with new, interesting, creative ideas. And the artist has done this! It’s given something to the editor to evaluate. And the editor has done his job, too! The editor has kept inferior work out of my song! The artist is responsible for creativity and the editor is responsible for quality. So in my world of song writing, the rejection of an idea is a good thing, not a bad thing! It’s the editor’s job to improve quality by keeping inferior work out. So the way I view song writing, a rejected idea is not a negative experience. It’s is a positive experience. It has served to improve the quality of my work.

The separation of the song writer within me into two separate personalities, the artist and the editor, allows me to keep my ego out of it, too. Because the artist part of me doesn’t care if it’s “good” or “bad”. The artist only cares if it’s new and creative. The fact that there’s no “good” or “bad” from the artist’s perspective allows me to keep my ego out of the creative processes. But it also keeps my ego from getting hurt when an idea is rejected by the editor. The editor is supposed to reject some things! Otherwise, he wouldn’t be doing his job! And his job is to keep inferior work out of my songs. But the editor is not just in charge of “good” versus “bad” decisions. It will also be making a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down decision based on stylistic tendencies.

And this is another aspect of the editor that is extremely important. The editor not only influences the quality of your work, he also has a great deal to do with your style. And this is an important concept. There are a lot of books about song writing. But within those books, you’ll find precious little information about the development of your style. It’s because this topic is difficult to put your arms around. What exactly is “style”? I would say that “style” consists of those aspects of your music that are uniquely you.

And how do you develop this aspect of your music that is uniquely you? How do you develop your style? This is another reason to separate the song writer within you into two personalities: the artist and the editor. Your artist should be focused on generating new ideas, but not whether they are “good” or “bad” ideas. That’s not the artist’s job. The artist is solely responsible for creating something new. This is where the “unique” part of your style comes in. It’s the creativity of your internal artist that provides that part of your style that is uniquely you.

But the editor has a great deal to do with style as well. And I’d say that the editor’s role in the development of your style is more important than the artist, because it’s the editor that will decide what to keep and what to throw away. Think of the style in your songs as being a lot like your hair style. Your hair style is created by taking all your hair, and cutting parts of it away. Your song writing style is created in a similar manner, by your editor cutting away some of the things your internal artist has written. Your style emerges from the songs (and parts of songs) that you decide to throw away. So it’s not just the quality of your songs that your internal editor controls. It also controls your style, too.

This past weekend, I sat down with an acoustic guitar in my hands, with the intention of writing a really good acoustic guitar tune. But this time, for some reason, I decided I was going to push myself in terms of the quality of this song. My approach was easy: there was no additional pressure on the artist within me. His job was still the same: to come up with new, creative musical expressions. It was my editor who had the tougher job. If I wanted a “really good” new song, it was up to my editor to raise the bar. My editor had to do a better job of keeping the mediocre parts out of this song.

I realized this approach of “raising the bar” on quality meant that I might walk away from this song writing session with nothing. But for the sake of quality, this was the path I decided to take. And sure enough, by the time I put my guitar down on Friday night, I did not have a complete song at all. As a matter of fact, I had only one part written. But I didn’t abandon this song. I knew I had a few hours on Saturday to continue writing, to continue the exploration of musical territory that is the process I call “song writing”. I continued my strict editing as I wrote the various parts of this new song. And by the time I put my guitar down on Saturday, sure enough, I had exactly what I had intended: a really good acoustic guitar tune.

A lot of song writers in my situation would have been uncomfortable, especially ending like I did on Friday with virtually no music written (at least not much “keeper” content). At this point, most song writing egos would have gotten involved with inner voices about being an inferior song writer. But my approach allowed me to avoid all that. I knew that my reduced output on Friday was a result of a very strict editor, not an inadequate artist. I knew that in the end, the quality of my work would be improved because of my approach. Most song writers would have left my Friday night session deflated at the lack of production. But I knew better. I knew that my artist and my editor both succeeded. My internal artist kept cranking out new ideas. And my internal editor rejected all but the very best. I didn’t get down on myself because I knew that Friday was very productive in terms of the quality of my work. The editor had a very productive evening on Friday, and because of this, my finished product on Saturday was much better than it would have been had my editor been lazy on Friday and let inferior parts into my new song.

There are many benefits from splitting the song writer within you into two parts: the artist and the editor. With the artist controlling the creativity and the editor controlling the quality, you have straightforward approaches for affecting the quality and style of your work. And you can do so without getting your ego involved at all. Even when you spend an evening hearing your internal editor say “Reject!” time and time again, you can do so without getting discouraged. You’ll feel just the opposite, because you’ll know that your internal editor is doing its job. You’ll know that every time it yells “Reject!” at one of your internal artist’s new ideas, the quality of your work and your style grows a little bit more.


Copyright ©2009 W.A. Blevins