Another way to bring ideas to the surface

Writing poetry is hard, and let’s face it—songwriting is poetry. It’s even more challenging because you’re trying to fit words to melody, as well as meter and rhyme. You have three or four minutes to tell your story, and a third of that time is eaten up by the chorus. A daunting task, and one that could make you freeze in the headlights.

Often, you’re afraid to put the first word on paper, or even to utter it. Insecurity is the fundamental barrier to creativity. You really do much better creating when you’re not scared. Lonely, sad, or depressed, perhaps; but not scared.

You have to do something to get things going. How can you do that? One approach I find effective is to simply write. Write about something that’s bothering you, someone or something you loved, your relationship with a friend, lover, or parent. A special time, perhaps, that held a lot of good or tumultuous memories.

But don’t worry about songwriting for a minute. Don’t rhyme. Don’t write poetry—unless that’s easy for you. Even then, let it ramble.

Now, go back and re-write your draft just once. Correct it for grammar, organization, proper paragraph division, and a structure that makes the most sense. And then let it simmer.

Come back in a day. There is a very good chance you will discover some interesting phrases. Reading it over will probably give you some ideas for a song, and they may not be the things you wrote about in the first place.

Have you been goofing around with some ideas on the guitar, piano, or whatever you like to write on? Try merging some of those ideas with the narrative ideas you came up with in this exercise.

I bet you’re off and running.