[Eeva_r&b]

LOGICAL GAPS CAN KILL YOUR SONG

Unlike poems, (which can be read and re-read until you understand them), songs come at you--line by line. And if listeners come upon any big logical gaps in a song or confusing bits, they will often stop listening and start solving the mystery.
Meanwhile, the song just keeps coming out of the speakers like a line of freight cars. Once they pile up...the listener gets frustrated and gives up. Then he's fiddling for another button on the radio.
In my experience, these gaps often happen because YOU as writer know the story in your head already. But listeners only know what you tell them in the song's lines. Inexperienced writers will often leave things out without realizing it. Sometimes the gap is right at the beginning...the song starts and the listeners are immediately lost. If you don't let them have their bearings, they'll just turn you off.


I've had new writers argue that they don't want to give too much away...they want to hold some important details back for mystery's sake. As we learned in the last tip, music listeners do LOVE surprises. But they don't love being lost.