These 7 Techniques Ed Sheeran Uses Can Accelerate Your Writing

Insights from a global best-selling, award-winning songwriter

Photo by Austin Prock on Unsplash

(Note: This is the first in a planned series of posts, looking at the processes of some of the biggest songwriters in the world and how you can apply what they do to improve your own writing.)

Ed Sheeran is renowned as one of the greatest singer/songwriters working in music today.

He has got to that position by crafting catchy songs in multiple genres that generate popular and critical acclaim across the board.

When I first heard him talk about about his songwriting process, I was excited to try and apply what he said to my own long and short-form writing.

Let me play some of Ed’s pearls of wisdom back and see if this resonates with you.

I know it will.

The 10,000 hours rule

Ed sometimes talks about the 10,000 hours rule, or theory. This was an idea popularised by Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success’. Gladwell states that:

“the key to achieving true expertise in any skill is simply a matter of practicing, albeit in the correct way, for at least 10,000 hours.”

417 days.
Or 3 hours a day for 3,333 days — a little over 9 years.

Sounds like a lot.

Ed’s advice is:

• write lots of songs (he writes 2 or 3 a day)

• perform lots of gigs (he once did 6 gigs in one day at Glastonbury)

• keep at it — even on tough days

I’m definitely trying to bring this to my writing. Practice, practice, practice. Try new things out. Layouts, formats, topics.

This is just my second month on Substack, and I’m happy that this is an experimental writing phase. I’m just starting out, lots of time to settle on a voice and a style. This is the time to find out what works.

Dirty tap theory

He likens his songwriting approach to “turning on a dirty tap”.

“When you switch a dirty tap on, out flows shit water for a substantial amount of time. Then clean water is going to start flowing.

Now and again you’ll still get a bit of shit coming through, but as long as it gets out of you, it’s fine.”

So, when he started to write, his ideas weren’t brilliant. But he kept going, and eventually, the better ideas started to pour out.

This sounds very familiar to me. Yep, lots of shitty water in here.

When I start to write now, I acknowledge that what comes out isn’t going to be the best at the beginning, but I understand that breaking through that barrier is an essential part of the process to get to the good stuff.

And I’m confident that the water will start to run clean eventually.

The takeaway here is: get past the shit.

Continuous practice means the water will come out cleaner over time and sometimes I’ll still have a shit article in me. I’ll get it out and move on.

I’m getting more comfortable with releasing work that I’m not entirely happy with. It’ll never be perfect, so why should I try? Is it good enough to go? Ship it.

Always be nice to people

Sounds easy doesn’t it? It’s amazing how many of us fail at this every single day. I mean, I try my best to be nice all the time, but sometimes frustration boils over and somebody cops for that. (If it’s ever been you, I’m really sorry!)

Talent will only take you so far. Being easy to get along with will let you hitch-hike the rest of the way. In any situation. I see this all the time. Learn how to make this work for you, it’s so important.

Niceness is the oil that greases the wheels of life.

Be nice to folks who read your work. Read theirs. Know that the effort that went into your articles, went into theirs too. Leave useful comments and join Discord or Telegram writer support groups. You’ll be amazed how people get used to seeing you pop up in them.

Experience is valid regardless of age (or experience!)

Ed says he felt more comfortable writing singer/songwriter songs at 32, than he did at 19, simply because he’s older and he can write songs about his own experience, from a place of reflection.

It feels odd as a youngster trying to write about emotions or situations you have no experience of. And it’s easy for older cynics to dismiss people who try.

Young writers still have valid experience though, and should still feel free to document their journey.

There’s always someone younger than you coming through, who is more inexperienced or just curious and wants to understand where you’re coming from, so it will help them as they try to get to where you are.

Handling mistakes

Ed Sheeran has played with a loop pedal since he was 14. He knows his way around this piece of equipment. But anyone who has tried one out will know it takes time to master — and it’s easy to make mistakes with.

Experience and practice has given him the confidence to see those mistakes as marking his performances out as special and different from each other.

I write a lot of words every day. They’re not all going to be right every time. Sometimes, I write so much, I can’t even see the words. They all blur into each other.

But I like Ed Sheeran’s approach that occasional mis-steps that don’t betray a lack of competence are fine — and can capture where you were at a given time.

I used to look at stuff I wrote years ago and think “Ugh! What the hell was I doing here — this sounds like it was written by a 10 year old.”

Don’t revisit an article months later and kick yourself over a phrase you used. You were in the flow, and wanted to get your work out for the world to see. Wear it like a badge, like Ed Sheeran. And me.

Words shape experiences

The song ‘Perfect’ is about Ed’s wife. But when people listen to it, they imagine it’s about their partner.

Writing is written by artists, but then owned by the reader, or listener. The words are for them.

When you write, it becomes a shared experience. The emotions that a piece of writing invokes belong to the audience.

When I started writing, it used to be to all of you. But now, I try to imagine writing to just one of you. Not necessarily ‘you’, but whoever ‘you’ is that this article may be useful for.

That’s ‘you’, isn’t it?

And if you can grasp what I write and feel how I try to make you feel, then congratulations — you’re on the other end of a shared experience with me!

How fulfilling.

Stay true to why you create

Ed says he’s “released the wrong thing here, listened to the wrong opinion there”, but ultimately he writes songs purely because he loves to write songs.

The best writing comes from a genuine love of the craft regardless of how it’s received by others. Stand by your work!

Create things that you like and believe in. Don’t change to chase commercial success.

He says:

“There are 7 billion people in this world and there is no one like you. No one who’s going to write songs like you. No one who’s going to sing like you, as long as you keep it exactly yourself.

Once you’ve found your voice, stick with it.”

Ooh this is a tough one, isn’t it? When no one is reading your work, and you know a Medium earnings update article might just pay for your monthly subscription, it’s tempting isn’t it?

Personally, I think Medium has much more usefulness than being a platform that houses meta-content about the platform. While it’s impossible not to click on someone’s earning update to see what they’ve made (damn you, human curiosity!), it also doesn’t re-wire my brain or change how I think about life after I’ve read it.

And that’s one of the reasons I’m writing and reading online. To have my thinking challenged by things I read.

Are you better served standing by your convictions and writing about exactly what you want? I wouldn’t exclusively rule out writing about Medium, I’ve done it before. But it doesn’t light a fire inside of me. And if I don’t get excited when I’m writing, why would anyone read my work?

Thanks for reading!

Are you enjoying the newsletter?

If you enjoyed reading this, there’s a few things you could do to help me:

• Support my writing and buy me a coffee!

• Like it, leave a comment and re-stack it to share it with your audience

• Recommend Think. Write. Ship to your subscribers using Substack’s Recommend feature

• Subscribe to Think. Write. Ship to continue enjoying my posts

• If you already subscribe, would you consider upgrading to a paid subscription? It costs less than the price of a coffee per month. It helps me prove to my family that I can have a real go at this writing malarkey and buys me more time to keep words of quality coming your way

• If you have upgraded to paid, then cheers! Thank you for your support - your next task should you choose to accept it, is to talk me up to your friends, and get them to pay for a subscription too