I heard a great piece by the Irish author Kevin Barry recently on Ian McMillan’s programme The Verb on BBC Radio 3. Kevin’s description of the daily struggle to create words from nowhere powerfully reminded me of Neil Gaiman‘s recent advice for aspiring writings when we chatted on my show recently. The message from both authors was simple: PERSEVERE.

This is as true for songwriters as it is for authors of poetry or fiction. We all have to go through an awful lot of bad days in our writing before we even get near The Good Stuff. As in my favourite James Thurber quote: “Don’t get it right, get it written”. Hear the relevant clips below…

For more biased, personal advice & suggestions see these videos of my songwriting workshops for BBC Introducing:
2011 Masterclass
2012 Masterclass