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So you want to write a song! Or maybe you've just completed one. Great! You are now one of fourteen million songwriters in America alone. That's right, FOURTEEN MILLION Americans claim to be songwriters. But out of those fourteen million, only FOURTEEN HUNDRED have ever made even one penny from a song they have written. And the number of songwriters that make a living, writing songs, is much smaller than that. The people who have gotten wealthy writing songs, is even smaller yet. So if your motivation for writing is all the money you are going to make, then you better go back to school and study a subject that will assure you a high paying job in some other field.

Most writers begin writing because they feel like they have something to say. They will pour their heart an emotions all over the page for a period of time. They may write ten, twenty, fifty, or even a hundred songs. It all depends on how much they have to say, and that's alright. You need to get those feelings and emotions out of you, and practice putting them in lyric form. Unfortunately, for the gospel songwriter, what we have to say is really irrelevant. It's what God has to say, through us, that is important. It's not until we run out of our own words and thoughts, that God can really begin to speak through us. And God will usually let us ramble on and on until we're done. He knows just how long it will take for us to realize that we can't do this without His help. It's not until we run out of our own words and ideas, that we are forced to turn to THE WORD as our source of message and music.

Every word that you set to music must line up with scripture. If it doesn't, then it's not the gospel.

I'll never forget when I was asked to come and listen to songs at a Country Music Songwriters Meeting in Nashville. I was working for Homeland Records at the time in their publishing department. The head of this songwriters group let the writers know that a Gospel Music publisher would be there to judge their songs for possible publication. So they all showed up that night with their Gospel tunes. But that night, I can't say that I heard even one Gospel song. I heard a lot of songs, some very well written, that were full of religious sounding words like "God" "Angels", "Grace", "Love", "Devotion", and even "Heaven". But I didn't hear a Gospel song. One of the songs was about a man who cheated on his wife. This writer thought he had written a gospel song because he said "There must be a place in HEAVEN, where fallen ANGELS go" I tried to explain to the writer, that even though this was a well constructed country song, that religious words didn't make his song scripturally sound. According to the Bible, all the fallen angels that left heaven with Lucifer, went to hell with him. That's where fallen angels go.

If you are not a Bible scholar, then it's time you become one. And the nice thing about all this is, God can start using you right where you are. Maybe you only know a few verses from the book, but if your lyrics agree with those verses, then God can use it. That's when you'll discover what no one can teach you about songwriting. It's called anointing. When God decides to anoint your song, it really doesn't matter what kind of structural errors are present, it will accomplish what God intends for it to do.

I know this from experience. When I was fourteen years old, I had already written a few songs. None of them were very good. But my heart was sincere before God. It was during this time that my thirteen year old cousin died in a hunting accident. My aunt asked me to sing one of my songs at his funeral. Not only had I never sung one of my songs in public, I had never sung at a funeral either. I was so nervous. But God anointed me and my song that day. It ministered to my aunt like no other song I've written since. It's not a very good song, but oh how God used it!

Until next time, keep writing everything He inspires you to write.

Daryl Williams

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