words of wisdom on writing well

"so my advice is to bring more tangible elements into your lyrics -- physical de­scrip­tion­s, current events, place names, body parts, etc -- you catch my drift...
and don't focus totally on feelings, which is what your lyrics tend to do know and which is dan­ger­ously parellel to cliche land

i don't feel like i'm saying this very well, but i think your world and your mind are full of in­cred­ible nouns and verbs and ideas

if you can step outside that "heart space" as you currently define it , you will be able to return to that space with more concrete language and examples and song ideas

the arty words for this stuff might be: spe­cificity, context, loc­al­iz­a­tion, quo­ta­tion, immediacy

lots of the best poetry is written using tangible words to reflect grand ideas, rather than grand words"

- from a good friend...to me...

explicit natures...

i don't have to take this.

i know it's just business.

the music business is such an anomaly. now, before you start thinking i'm on some industry rant, have no fear, i've graduated...we all know the music industry leaves much to be desired. today, i struggle with the risk nature of the individual, unsigned artist and the lack of hesitancy on the part of everyone else to exploit that. people see new music as a chance to make money off that artist. i succeed with much joy at having created artwork and the crowd's first thought is, hey, put this on my website for a cost equal to half your current monthly budget for basic living expenses.

one could say, there's lots of money to be had out there, it's easy to accumulate money to pay for musicians, recording costs, travel time, promotion, printing costs, show prep costs, rehearsal space rentals, strings and other equipment costs, but one would counter that with the argument that you need a third job to accumulate that expendable income. i say "third job" because i've already accepted and learned to live with the duality that is the working musicians life.

but know here and now, i am a business man as well as an artist and songwriter, and i see that other industries, when presented with the risk you ask me to make by purchasing your service is inexhorably high compared to normal acceptable risks, and i disprespectfully decline.