Average Words Per Song and the 80/20 Rule

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In preparation for a song-a-week project several years back, I wanted some numbers to give me an idea of how much writing I would need to do.

Using the 80/20 rule — only 20 percent of my writing will make the cut while 80 percent will go into the waste basket — here is what I came up with:

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen averages 281 words per song.
Nothing Like The Sun by Sting averages 206.
The Beatles’ Abbey Road averages 102 and Let It Be averages 139.

This means that if a song has between 100-300 words, I’ll need to write 500-1500 words. Not a very difficult task when you look at it that way.

This gave me a really good rough idea of how much writing I would need to do.

But the Lyric Triad changes all that. It gives you a bullseye to write for and flips the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of your writing will make the cut while 20 percent will go into the waste basket.

Find out more about the Lyric Triad.

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