Editing Your Lyrics: What to Cut First
Cut the lines that explain, then the second-best image in every verse, then anything that only exists because it rhymed. Almost every first draft is twenty per cent too long.
First: the lines that explain
Every draft contains lines that tell the listener what to feel about the line before. They are the easiest to write and the first to go.
Find them by looking for abstractions arriving straight after concrete detail. A verse that names an object and then says what it symbolised has answered its own question, and the answer is the weaker half.
Second: the second-best image
Most verses contain two images doing the same job. Keep the better one and give it the space the other was taking.
Writers resist this because both images are good. That is exactly why it works: two good images competing dilute each other, and one good image with room around it lands.
Third: anything that only exists because it rhymed
Read the draft looking only at line endings. Any line where the meaning bent to reach the rhyme is a line the listener will hear as false, even if they could not say why.
The fix is usually a near rhyme rather than a rewrite. Song blurs endings anyway, and a near rhyme that keeps the sentence honest almost always beats a perfect one that does not.
Fourth: the adverbs and the qualifiers
Slowly, softly, gently, just, really, somehow. They fill syllables and add nothing, and in a form where every syllable is contested they are pure cost.
The exception is when the qualifier is the point, as in a line about somebody almost saying something. Then it is doing work and it stays.
Last: consider losing a verse
If a song has three verses and one of them is weaker, the song is usually better as a two-verse song. A weak verse is not a neutral presence; it costs you the listener's attention at the exact point the song needs to build.
The commonest version of this is a third verse that restates the first. Cut it and go straight to the final chorus.
Then read it aloud, flat
No melody, no performance. A lyric that only works when sung is usually one where the tune is carrying words that are not pulling their weight.
Anything you stumble over is a real problem. If your own mouth cannot get through the line, a singer's will not either.
Questions
How do I edit song lyrics?
In order: cut lines that explain the feeling, cut the second-best image in each verse, cut anything that only exists to complete a rhyme, then cut adverbs. Read what is left aloud with no melody.
How long should a song lyric be?
Shorter than the first draft. Two strong verses beat three where one is weak, and most drafts are around twenty per cent longer than the finished song needs to be.
How do I know if a line is bad?
Delete it and read the verse again. If the verse still works, the line was explaining or repeating. If it collapses, you need more concrete detail rather than the line back.
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Last updated 2026-08-23.