A Songwriting Exercise

If I could remember every song I started to create, I wouldn't have enough songbooks for it all. And I wouldn't be able to finish all the songs. I've come up with so many ideas that were later forgotten. I'm the type of person that needs to scribble down the idea so I don't forget about it. The other issue is that when ideas do come to me I'll often get several at a time and I also tend to get the lyrics and the melody at the same time. If I can write it down I can barely keep up with how quickly the words are coming. If I can't write it down I'm lucky to remember any of it later. I've started doing some writing exercises to see if it would help me retain some of those ideas better. When I set aside time to write, I usually start by working on some pieces I already have, so brainstorming new ideas is rarely part of my writing session. I spend most of the time adding to something that I already have, so when I'm ready to do some writing I already have a starting point for the work I want to do. The past couple of days I've started my writing time with a short exercise. Before I look at any of the projects I want to work on, I'll get a pen and paper and find a short prompt to help me come up with ideas. My favorite writing prompts to use are quotes and pictures. I think over whatever prompt I've chosen for a few minutes without writing anything down. If I'm really focused, I'll have more ideas running through my head than I can count at that point. After I've spent a couple minutes thinking over the prompt and creating ideas, I'll take about ten minutes to do something else, usually writing in my diary since that's the routine that I'm most used to. After the ten minutes have passed I write down on the paper as much as I can remember. I couldn't believe how little I could remember the first time I tried this. I felt so inspired when the ideas were flowing in my mind, but ten minutes later I couldn't pull them apart and write them down. It's not that they were all bad ideas or that I didn't care about any of the ideas, but they were all coming at the same time and because I couldn't separate them enough to focus on any of them I couldn't retain them. It's like hearing five people talk at the same time while you're eyes are closed. You can recognize the voices and know who is talking, but hearing and understanding what each person is saying is impossible. That's the way it is with my song ideas. When I get those ideas, they arrive scrambled and if I can't unscramble them quickly enough I forget them. After doing this exercise a couple of times I have noticed an improvement. At least I know the exercise is helping. I suppose everyone's creative process has its own frustrations or difficulties and these are the ones I have to deal with. I just need to find a better way to focus instead of letting those moments overwhelm me. ~Eliza

Song Topics

Sometimes when I get stuck on songwriting, I find that brainstorming general song topics helps me generate more specific ideas. Each song song topic generates thoughts about my own experiences relating to the topic. That doesn't always result in lyric ideas that I can use, but it's usually helpful.

Love

This one's easy. It's also a bit of a broad topic. There are love songs about falling in love with someone, the experience of being in love, a desire for love, the person you love, etc. Let's take, for example, falling in love with someone. Think about how you would write about these things:

-the moment you met and what drew you to that person

-the moment you realized you were in love

-what you love about the person

-what made you fall in love

-the first time you told someone you were in love

-how much you are in love

If you have someone in mind these prompts are probably already giving you ideas. Even if they're not ideas you could specifically use for a song, you're at least thinking about the topic and exploring it.

Anger

This one can also be broken down into several subtopics. Why you're angry, who you're angry with, things that make you angry, how you express your anger, etc.

-the last time someone made you angry

-the last time you told someone they made you angry

-something you regret that you did out of anger

-things that always make you angry

Jealousy

Who are you jealous of, why are you jealous, do you express it or keep it hidden? This one is especially easy for me! ;)

-what it is that you want and can't have

-how your jealousy effects how you act

-how your jealousy effects how you think

-what, if anything, makes others jealous of you

I don't think I need to go through every song topic I can think of for you to get the point. Brainstorming ideas and breaking down subjects or topics is a technique that is not only good for story or essay writing, but also for lyric writing. Don't toss aside a technique that could be helpful to you simply because you think it is better applied to other forms of writing.

~Eliza