If you’ve ever tried to write poetry or prose, you’ve likely spent a good amount of time staring at a blank page and waiting for the words to magically appear. Sure, for some folks inspiration strikes and words just flow out. David Bowie wrote “Life on Mars” in an afternoon, and Dolly Parton only needed a single writing session to come up with both “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.” (Editor’s Note: Sheesh!) That’s not always the case though—in fact, that’s almost never the case, even for proven songwriters and lyricists.
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Below are some tips for beginning songwriters and those who might just feel like trying their hand at writing some lyrics during some down time.
What Would Your Idol Do?
Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There’s always something or someone that came before us. Before any of us write a song, we first fall in love with other people’s music. Those influences usually find their way into our music one way or another.
If you’re stuck on where to begin, listen to one of your favorite songs and figure out what you love about it. Analyze every component of the tune, line by line, word by word.
How to Analyze Your Favorite Song Lyrics
These are some aspects you might want to pay attention to:
- How many song parts are there?
- How long are the phrases?
- Are there any interesting metaphors?
- Are there rhyme patterns you think particularly work?
- Is the songwriter writing from a personal perspective or narrating a story about other characters?
- Are the lyrics about a place, a feeling, a person, a particular time, an event, or something else?
Try on Someone Else’s Style
The next step is to take these insights and apply them. This could be an exercise in which you write a response song to the original song. Try to match the style and use the way the original lyrics were written as a blueprint.
The purpose of the exercise is to get a feel for how your favorite songwriter’s or artist’s songs are written and learn more about what your own style of lyric-writing could become. Don’t worry about ripping anybody off just yet—if you love what you come up with, you can worry about revising it so it’s not so derivative later.
If you’ve already written a lot of songs and have trouble coming up with new ideas, you can do this exercise with a song that’s very different from your own style.
Just Put Something on That Page
Writing zero words will lead to zero song lyrics. So, whatever you do, just put some words down. Even if you end up writing the worst lyric you’ve ever seen on a page—anywhere—you’ll still have something, which you can either edit and turn it into something great or discard in order to start a better one.
[RELATED: 5 American Songwriters Who Revolutionized the Art of Storytelling]
It’s important to adopt a mindset that’s free from self-judgment and fear of failure. Treat songwriting as a game you’re playing; enjoy the process of it, and be prepared to discard a huge percentage of what you come up with—most great lyricists do the same thing.
Try This Free-Writing Exercise
One way to kick off a writing session is to set a timer and simply jot down whatever comes to mind. Just put down words, phrases, or sentences without—and this is the important part—without censoring your output. Even just five minutes could do the trick. And once you’re done, see if anything stands out:
- Is there a topic that particularly piqued your interest?
- Any metaphors that came up?
- Any phrases you can elaborate on?
- Did a potential song title materialize?
The goal of this exercise is not to use all of what you wrote during the five minutes, but to find the good nuggets and build on those.
Using Prompts to Write a Song
The reason many songwriters start out with a prompt is that most people find it easier to get started when there are limitations in place. Just think of the difference between someone telling you to paint any picture you want and someone telling you to paint your favorite animal while using only the colors purple and yellow. You could probably get started right away on the second one. That same strategy works for songs.
Where to Find Prompts for Song Lyrics
Don’t overthink the prompt. This is important because when you use the internet or your phone to find a prompt, the temptation will be to find the best prompt. Don’t spend your time going down rabbit holes. There is no best prompt. Just stick with the first one that catches your eye and go for it.
Start with a visual prompt. Flip through your photos or use the internet to search for a painting or photograph. If you find that setting a timer is helpful, give yourself five minutes and combine a free-writing session with the visual prompt.
Start with an object-writing session. Open objectwriting.com and write down what comes to your mind regarding the word of the day. When you read the prompt, which words come up that are inspired by the five senses: sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste? Can you think of any sensations in your body such as your heartbeat, sweaty palms, or a belly laugh? Can you think of your own movements in time and space in relation to the object?
Use an app. Apps like WordPalette can provide a worthwhile starting point. A combination of random words appear in the form of four sliding lanes of scrambled text. You can then re-arrange them to form phrases or change the available collection of words.
Come up with a song title first. Instead of tackling song lyrics directly, think about a title for your next song. It will force you to narrow down the lyric options to a specific topic or message.
Match Lyrics to a Melody
The melody of your song is going to be one of the most important parts of the process; it’s just as important as the lyric. If you’re having trouble writing lyrics, start by writing the music.
A melody can often dictate what kinds of lyrics you can write. It’s a bit like a puzzle where you try to see which words fit each melodic phrase. You’ll have to figure out how many syllables fit into a line or where you need a word with a vowel that can stretch over a long note.
Sometimes it helps to sing gibberish over the melody and see if certain vowels make more sense than others, or if there are spots in the melody where you need to place words you want to emphasize.
Bottom line: Try it all. Have fun with it. Be bold. No one else needs to see what you write except you, until there’s a breakthrough. When you have something you are truly proud of, then show everybody you know!
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