---
title: 'This Songwriter Got Unstuck After Almost 30 Years'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cqqvVhl9lJc'
video_id: 'cqqvVhl9lJc'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 116
---

# This Songwriter Got Unstuck After Almost 30 Years

> Source: [This Songwriter Got Unstuck After Almost 30 Years](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cqqvVhl9lJc)

## Summary

A songwriter who had been struggling to finish a song since the late 1990s finally completed it after a single feedback session. The breakthrough came not from more effort, but from recognizing the song needed a different musical form. This short anecdote illustrates how a fresh perspective can unlock decades of creative blockage.

### Key Points

- **The 30-year songwriting struggle** [00:03] — In a feedback session, a songwriter confessed he had been working on a song since the late 1990s and still couldn't finish it.
- **Honest admission of the block** [00:15] — The songwriter opened up about his personal attachment to the lyrics and why the song felt impossible to complete.
- **Fear of having used up the story** [00:29] — His main blockage was the fear that he had already placed too much of the story in the first two verses or sections, leaving nothing left to say.
- **The wrong song form** [00:44] — The feedback revealed the song was written in verse-chorus form when it actually wanted to be in AABA form, and the refrain line was the true point of the song.
- **A day's work to the finish** [01:08] — After the realization, the songwriter saw that with a single day's work he could finally reach the end of his long creative journey.
- **One conversation can unlock anything** [01:33] — The speaker reflects that no matter how long a song has been carried, one little conversation or feedback session can bring the clarity needed to finish it.

## Transcript

some of our community members and when we're doing a feedback session I always working on it? And in this particular case the songwriter said, I've been working on it since the late 90s. For us
You know, the the question is why have you been working on this song for so long and unable to finish it? In this particular case the songwriter was really honest and you know, they told us about the story, the fact that
it was very personal, the fact that the the language in the lyrics was really them personally and the blockage was that they just didn't know how to get to the end of this story. They they feared that they had put
too much of the story in the first two verses or the first two sections and there was nothing left to say. And so we went through this beautiful moment of talking about the song, talking about the fact that it was possibly in a form
that wasn't helping serve the song, that actually written it in a verse chorus form but it wanted to be in an AABA form. We took the refrain line and said maybe that's the point of the song and let's just, you know, work on that as
song. And it's a beautiful thing to work with a songwriter who's literally been carrying a song for decades. To then see in their eyes this realization that with a day's work they
to the end of this journey. So matter how long you've had a song, no matter how hard it feels to finish
or one little conversation that can unlock that for you and and help you get to the end of the song and I I find that just one of the most satisfying parts of the work we do and the the feedback sessions particularly
seem to be able to bring that kind of joy and that satisfaction to uh to songwriters that we work with. So yeah, food for thought.