Anne Lamott’s Inadvertent Songwriting Advice

Let me dump a quote on you and let’s hope it benefits your writing. Anne Lamott says I should tell you a story, but I’m going to ignore her for this post.

In Operating Instructions, Lamott talks about her father, who was a writer.

I think he believed that our job, that of a writer, is not to get up and say, “Tomorrow, in battle, most of you will die…” Instead, a writer must entertain the troops the night before. I think he believed that the best way to entertain the troops is to tell stories, and the ones that they seem to like the best are the ones about themselves. (page 47)

There you go.

Takeaway point: songwriting should involve stories. So go tell a story and don’t just spew information like I’ve done here.