How to Write One Song

by Jeff Tweedy

So grab something that you’ve been working on and write it all down on a legal pad. Or if you have access to a printer, print it out double-spaced. You can probably see where this is going. The cut-up technique requires scissors, or at the very least a steady tearing hand. The easiest cutting strategy is line by line, but word by word or phrase by phrase can provide equally interesting results. Once you’ve cut up your text, you can either put the strips in a hat or turn them over and pull each line/word/phrase randomly. Then scan your randomly chosen poem construction for any unexpected surprises. I almost always find at least one newly formed phrase or word relationship that moves me or makes me smile. Another way to use your cut-up strips is to forget about trying to make random associations and just use them as movable modules of language. It’s always fascinating to me how much more alive lines I’ve written can become when I’m able to have a simple tactile experience reorganizing the order and syntax of the lines and phrases.