I was in a cowriting session the other day with a friend. She and I both presented some song ideas. We dissected each and looked at what was interesting, their strengths and weaknesses.
The first one could go in this direction. It could be about this topic or that topic. The subtext would be about such and such. This other song idea could maybe be about this other topic. The third song idea? Well, it had a great title, it would be a fun title to sing.
They were all great ideas and excited us for different reasons. But we kept going on like this for an hour, burning through valuable writing energy and headspace.
Brass tacks? We didn’t write a song that day.
It was a classic case of commitment issues.
So much of songwriting is throwing caution to the wind, and going for it—saying yes to your idea and sticking with it to the end. It’s hard to let go of other thoughts and ideas, the potential of “what could be.” But at the end of the day, an idea turned into a song is better than three ideas living in abstraction.
Try to make a point of committing within the first twenty minutes of a collaboration (after all the pleasantries, etc.). The only litmus test should be whether the idea excites you and your cowriter. That way you’ll save your brain calories on the thing that really matters: turning the idea into a song.