How do you know
where to begin with lyric writing?

You are going to sit down and do some lyric writing - but how do you know what you want to write a song about? Well, I don't know.

But I know that your topic must have ONE KEY MOTIVATION.

And that is YOU HAVE TO CARE!

YOU HAVE TO CARE ABOUT THE SUBJECT!

THEN YOUR JOB IS TO MAKE THE LISTENER CARE OR TO DRAW THEM IN.

Now this doesn’t limit you greatly...we care about a lot of things.

It may be about cats, it may be about how guys are all rats...
It may be about wishing you had night vision like bats.
It may be about love or the lack thereof
It may be about needing a job
It may be about how you feel lost in a mob
It may dance, or it may scream
It may haunt, or it may sing...
But whatever it is, no matter what you do
The listener has to go to that place with you.

Well, my little ditty may not win any awards, but, as far as lyric writing goes, the point is absolutely true.

You have to write about something you can get inside of and explore emotionally, so the words can take on a life of their own.

What do you spend your day thinking about?
Blessing out your boss, wishing you were rich, wondering why someone doesn’t know you exist - START WITH YOUR THOUGHTS. This is where good lyric writing comes from.

We have 24 hours in a day, and within those hours we all spend quite a few of them just thinking.

Turn that thinking into your idea. What is in your heart is in your head...what is in your head is where you find the words.

So you just begin lyric writing...write and write and write some more...on THAT TOPIC. Begin to climb inside that feeling and explore it. Compare it to other feelings, other things, other experiences. Put it in different settings and places. Contrast it to other similar but different things. Just write.

I am not an accomplished musician...
(I’m Paul’s wife, Susan. Hi! :)

Although I play a little and have written a few tunes, mostly I’m just a lyricist.

So how do I write music? I get what I call a "working tune" in my head that helps me to capture the mood and feel that I want for the song. It may not actually be a tune with a melody line, but rather just a feel and rhythm.

But that is very important to establish. The feel or meter of your words has to match the feel of the song.

Now unfortunately, like any art form, the empty "canvas" is the most difficult part. We start with a blank slate and we can write ANYTHING!

But just anything won’t work together to create a great song.

The elements of song form, meter, feel, rhyme scheme, and of course content, have to all work together to perfectly point to one thing...that one thing is the POINT OF THE SONG.

There is much to say about that...if you haven’t yet read:
Song Writing Tips – What’s the Point ? Check it out.

Keeping the main thing the main thing is the key in lyric writing. And then deciding what exactly you want to say about that main thing.

After you have thought about this "main thing," and written about this "main thing," and gotten a working tune or feel for this "main thing," then put the writing down for a day or two.

Come back to it and see what phrases say it all, say it with power, say it from the heart, say it in a new way, the phrase that GRABS you when you reread your writing.

I often will have stumbled on the "hook" as I was writing. That is the beginning...your "hook." If you don’t know what a hook is read
Developing a Great Hook for better understanding.

Some songwriters will teach that you should Title the song before you write it. This is the same principal. The hook is the title. The title is the hook. The hook is the MAIN THING.

Then you decide, if the hook is my chorus, if that is where I am landing, then what do I need to write to emotionally lead the listener to that place with me. And you work on the first verse...

You might even think through all the verses...not writing them all, but getting a blueprint in your mind of where the song is going. The overall picture the song is going to paint.

Or you might just jump in and start writing and see where you end up.

I read my work often when I am lyric writing. If I’ve written a verse or two and the chorus, for example, I stop and reread it carefully, slowly with my working tune in my head, so I know emotionally where I need to go next.

Sometimes just reading what I have already written, over and over, will lead me to the next thing that needs written.

If I get "stuck," I might jump and write a bridge that I have in mind, even if the verses aren’t finished. Or jump to the last verse, before all the verses are written.

Whatever works for you...lyric writing is an art form, not a science.

But eventually you get a finished first draft.

And then you need to put it down! Don’t look at it for a day, then pick it up and read it fresh.

Changes and edits will come up naturally after you’ve had some time to get away from it. And you need to do this over and over until you find there is very little, if anything, that you feel needs changing.

These are just some basic lyric writing ideas that have helped me.

You’ve got to make the listener care,
Even if it’s about your nasal hair...

Good Luck with that one! :)