Some songs are lyric-centric while others focus on production, but no matter the case, it’s important to know how to translate a feeling into words. The most captivating songs are the ones that you can relate to, and lyrics are the bridge that allow for that.
Understanding how to craft a text that not only makes sense but sounds good can be tricky, and every seasoned writer goes through periods of writer’s block. The best way forward is to keep absorbing your surroundings, writing in different forms, and following the 7 tips below to stay creative.
1. Keep a Journal or Notebook
In order to improve your lyric-writing skills, you need to be jotting down words, phrases, and ideas constantly. For most people in music, ideas pop up in the randomest of moments and are often met with an “I’ll remember that for later” – but we never do. Have a notebook, journal, iPad, or any note-taking device close by at all times so you make sure to never forget a potential line. Revisit your notes later during sessions when you’re lacking inspiration and build around what you have.
Sometimes writing down even the most mundane thoughts in prose can help you with song ideas you would never have thought of otherwise. Learn how to observe the world around you, noting down casual lines from conversations you had or your thoughts on something you experienced. This takes pressure off of having to jump into lyric-writing and instead allows you to read and dissect your own thoughts and simplify them into fewer words, or just leave them as is for the song. Good lyrics can sometimes be a happy accident – they come to you when you least expect them to.
IMPORTANT: Free writing without a filter or intention is an important exercise. Learning to let go of a goal and write about anything and everything that comes to mind will help the creative juices flow and help you think freely. Try this exercise both in and out of studio sessions to practice.
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2. Active Listening
A song is often memorable because of its narrative quality and the message it carries. When you listen to music, pay close attention to the lyrics and their purpose. In all the best songs, every line serves as a way to carry the story or message forward in some way. Ask yourself how an artist is doing this when you listen to music and why they chose that phrase in particular, out of everything they could have said, to best represent the feeling they were trying to bring to the listener.
Take a moment to understand the symbolism behind any lyric that may require some thinking. Many artists opt for few words to describe big feelings, giving them a deeper meaning that listeners can choose to read into or not. As an aspiring songwriter, you should take the time to truly understand what is being said. Sometimes these types of lyrics refer to other works or bigger messages that require more context – visit lyric breakdown websites like Genius if you need a hand. You will learn a lot about the difference between how something can be felt vs. how it can be expressed in a song.
Example of lyrics with a deeper meaning:
3. Use a Narrative Arc to Structure Your Song
Songs are stories. Applying a narrative arc to your writing is a clever and effective way to make your songs more interesting to your listeners. It also helps in guiding you during the writing process – what happened next?
Whether you’re writing about something you went through or a completely made up story, alternate between narration and feeling. One without the other will feel very two dimensional and fall flat. After any lines that describe an event, follow up with a couple lines about how it affected the characters in your story. This allows listeners to better understand the gravity of the situation and invest in it emotionally.
TIP: Building a song to a climax followed by resolution is a foolproof and recurring method in pop music. Similarly, hinting to upcoming parts (between the introduction and resolution) keeps the listener on the edge of their seats.
Example of lyrics that describe an event followed by the feeling it evokes:
Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine
Some songs feel like written stories that weren’t paired with music until afterwards. Creative writing is a great way to let go of the notion that every song has to be about something you’ve experienced yourself and can instead be about a made up narrative that lets your imagination run free. A great “recent” example of high quality storytelling is “Wet Dreamz” by J. Cole. Observe how every line functions as a way to gives us either 1) context, 2) plot, or 3) feeling, with the final line being a resolve that ties the whole story, and song, together.
4. Dissect Your Favorites – Learn from the Greats
We all have musical idols that we admire, and these figures are an inherent part of our development as artists and musicians. Every songwriter takes inspiration from the best songwriters that have come before them, so don’t be afraid to study the greats and learn from their work.
Analyze the songs you like and try to figure out why the lyrics strike you and what makes them so good. A few songwriting traits you could focus on are:
- Song structure (ex: verse 1, pre-chorus, chorus, verse 2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus)
- Rhyme scheme (ex: AABA)
- POV (ex: first person, third person)
- Timeline (about the past? present? future?)
Take note of any patterns and if you particularly like a certain style of writing, and try writing a song using those traits. You may find it easier given that you’ve already absorbed this style of writing in listening to it so often!
IMPORTANT: Lyric choices can very much depend on the music they’re paired with, so also consider how long lines are compared to the tempo (and thus how many words are in each line), what vowel and consonant sounds have been chosen, and what feeling or message the lyrics convey (which often match the instrumental).
5. Collaborate
If you find it difficult to write lyrics on your own or find yourself reusing the same themes and techniques over and over, try working with other people. You’ll learn a lot by sitting down with another musician and working on a song together, especially if you’ve never done it before. Collaborating with writers from both familiar and unfamiliar genres can really help you escape the familiar track of thinking you often go down when you write alone. You can bounce ideas off each other, discover how someone else might perceive a story, and exchange tips and tricks that aid your creative process.
Almost every single hit has more than one writer behind it. It takes a village to fully develop and sculpt an idea. Co-writing songs allows you to:
- Build your network
- Introduce you to new songwriting methods
- Learn your writing strengths and weaknesses
- Get constructive feedback
- Help move your creative process forward
6. Experiment, Experiment, Experiment
Be a sponge: absorb everything you listen to and try to make something new out of what you know. Perhaps a rock song’s structure paired with folk instrumentation really fits your voice well, or Lil Wayne’s flow converted into a melodic pop chorus scratches an itch you didn’t know you had. Experiment with structure, genre, and style until you have something that gets you excited.
How Stromae combines French Folk, Hip-Hop, and Electronic to make a hit:
There are a whole host of myths and anecdotes about legendary artists who used completely crazy methods to write songs. A couple of the most well known are Bob Dylan who started each writing session with a few minutes of deep meditation by listening to a song that inspired him, or David Bowie who used the “cut-up” technique which consisted of writing a bunch of words that come to mind, cutting them out and rearranging them into ideas.
7. Stay Consistent and Curious
The important thing to remember is that nothing happens under a flash of genius – it comes with consistency and practice. The only way to get better is to write all the time. The songwriting process is like a sport, and it’s a muscle you must exercise constantly.
Not every session has to be a serious sit-down! Make it fun by challenging yourself to write a song to a free YouTube beat of a genre you would never touch otherwise. You still showed up and tried something, ultimately getting incrementally better along the way. Give yourself daily tasks: maybe you want to get better at writing bridges, improving your rhymes, or fine tuning your vocabulary. Dedicate a session just to rewrite hooks, experiment with the possibilities of a pre-chorus, or arranging where vocal harmony fits in.
You should also remember that everyone’s songwriting process is different. Some writers can come up with something off the top of their head on the spot, while other need to write, edit, take a break, revisit, write more, re-edit, and continue the cycle until it’s done. Both methods are valid and successful. Be patient with yourself.
Final Thoughts
Once you narrow in on what you want to improve, the songwriting process becomes a lot easier. Don’t be afraid to use outside resources such as a rhyming dictionary for playing with lyrics or drum loops and samples for composing a killer bass line. Songwriters don’t come up with good songs or a new chord progression confined in a bubble! They are influenced by the world around them and every song that came before. Find the joy in writing music and lyrics- and have fun!
| Read also: The creation of a song: first ideas to release
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– Article written by Amy Cimpaye in its original version, translated by Mackenzie Leighton –
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