Why Writing Lyrics is Hard : 3 Simple Steps to Help You.

After the first flash of inspiration, our train of thought often gets derailed. This is because we need other skills apart from just creativity to get the song finished. If we add bit of organisation to our lyric writing, it soon becomes fun and easy again.

There are literally dozens of obstacles which get in the way of lyric writing. Some real, some imagined. I've made a 'Big List' which you can see at the end of the article. For now, just remember the golden rules and follow the step by step method.

Golden Rule 1.

Lyric writing becomes hard if it's not organised, so it requires certain skills and methods to keep us focused.

Golden Rule 2.

Lyric writers are always trying to evoke an emotional response about a certain subject. They do that by telling a story. Then, they encourage the same emotion in the listener, usually in the chorus or refrain or the end a verse.

Golden Rule 3.

Make it nice to sing so that you enjoy working on it.

Step one : Identify the conflict or celebration.

Ask yourself 'what's the emotional response and the story behind it ?'

Until you've identified your emotion and it's cause and can put them into a word or phrase you're in a pickle. You'll find your lyrical ideas will jump around all over the place to unrelated subjects. This is only going to make it harder because you need to get emotional feedback from your own creation. So get thinking and scribbling. What do you think is motivating you to express yourself ?

Here's some examples :

Example 1

'They're having a party on Saturday night' in this case the emotions are joy, excitement, thankfulness, optimism.

Example 2

'There's been a flood - our house is gone,' in this case the emotions are loss, grief, vulnerability.

Example 3

There's a new guy or gal in town,' here, you might feel, cheeky, aroused, energetic, eager.

I can't stress how important it is to spend time identifing emotions and here I'll explain why.

Now that you know the emotions, your song's purpose, your song title, chorus or refrain are now plain to see, they're in each of the above examples. This is what the song is about. This is what you will keep coming back to. This is your focus. This is what will keep you on track and will make lyric writing easy and fun.

Example 1

'Saturday Night Party,' if that's too boring, re-arrange the words or focus on the place or time, 'Town Hall - 8 O'clock - that's when I'm gonna roll and rock - Gonna wear my little frock - ' etc.

Example 2

'Our House is Gone.' Again, that's all you need because it says it all. Not enough ? Ok, then list all the things you just lost.

Example 3

'New Girl / Guy.' If you think that's too obvious and boring, then go a step further. Make the focus of your lyric a question. For example, ' Who's This New Guy Messing With My Mojo ?' Alternatively, focus on one specific thing. 'She Wears Yellow on Sundays.' Or 'He's Gotta Loud Motorbike.'

Step 2 : Flesh Out the Main Theme.

That means, if you're writing a chorus or refrain, develop it now.

In the chorus or the refrain, you should be focusing on those emotions. But avoid repeating, 'I'm optimistic now,' or 'I'm so depressed,' that's only going to work for one of your songs. ( Probably your first one ) For all of your subsequent songs, focus on the details. Those tiny everyday things which every one understands. Like, where your pillow is going to be found. or what you'll be wearing for the party and who is going to be there Or why Sundays will never be blue again.

These details are all the related implications of your main theme. They are pointers to guide you and your listener back to that main theme, that's all you have to do. Try drawing maps, pictures and spider diagrams to help. This will remind you of details you can use as a lyrical line. It doesn't have to be complicated or clever.

I hope you can see how, just spending a few minutes thinking in the right direction, sets out the whole tone of your song and makes your lyric writing easy. It keeps you focused and on track and stops you wondering off into the bushes of confusion and getting lost.

Step 3 : Develop The Backstory for the Verses.

How you develop your verses depends on your chorus. That's why I suggest you focus on that chorus first.

If you have no chorus, your verses can include some the emotional implications I mentioned earlier. But you should still make a point of planting your story firmly in a place and time or giving it some other kind of context. Do this in Verse 1.

Here's the three example songs again:

Example 1

'Saturday Night Party,

I deliberately made this one tricky because your chorus and main emotion is about the time and place, so what you do is set up a contrast between the feelings you experince thinking about party time and those you get with some other time and place, like work or school or doing jobs around the house.

'I won't be listening to Mr O'Flaughty
Won't be wondering if the bike will start
Won't be yawning thinking bout the mornin
won't be pulling that washing apart'

Example 2

'Our House is Gone, This one is easier becasue it's all bad news

'It started raining 1st of May
Didn't think it'd wash my life away
don't know where my pillow's
all we got is next door's cat'

Example 3

'New Girl in Town', Again this one is easier but you can contrast the 'good' feeling with an old 'bad' feeling.

'It was saturday - I was pretty blue
then next door - somebody new
forgot about - my fight with you
she wore yellow - I said hello but she had a noisy motorbike'

If you have a chorus, your first verse can continue describing events which contrast or lead up to your main focus. Again keep it simple and focus on details and don't get too involved with the emotional stuff until you hit the chorus.

Once you have a refrain or chorus and 1st verse, believe it or not, the rest is super easy.

In the second verse, you can tell us the about the same details you mentioned in the first but tell us how they've changed. Tell us what the old man from the farm thinks about the party, will he be there ?. Tell us what the animals did in the flood, was there an ark ?. Tell us what all the other girls think about that new guy or girl and the noisy motorbike, I bet that bikes gonna cause problems !

If you want to write a third verse, you focus on the future. You tell us what you're gonna do when you're at the party, will you be cleaning up the mess, or will you be with some one ? With the Flood, tell us where you're gonna live or how you're going to gather all your belongings. With the new person tell us how you're gonna approach this new guy or girl, knowing that bike is gonna get in the way.

Remember, language is incredibly flexible. It's the most flexible tool in the songwriter's bag. It can be bent to suit all rhythms and it doesn't have to perfect. It just has to be good enough.

It's meaning is less important than how it sounds. If it's not nice to sing, then it's no business being in a song. Make it nice to sing, that's how you make lyric writing simple and rewarding.

Big list of Obstacles Which Can Make Lyric Writing Hard

1. 1. You're unable to identity what emotion we're trying to evoke.
2. 2. You have no back story for your verses to explain how this emotion arouse.
3. 3. You've no plan or method for writing.
4. 4. Failing to put the emotional 'big deal' in the chorus or refrain and forgetting backstory goes in verses.
5. 5. You don't realise how flexible and expendable words can be. If you have a rhythm which won't fit the lyrics, change the lyrics, they'll bend, rhythm won't.
6. 6. Thinking lyrics have to be clever or perfect - near enough is good enough.
7. 7. Fail to make the lyrics nice to sing. If it's not nice, it's not safe, lose it.
8. 8. Servicing the rhyme - a total no no. Write the song , bend the rhyme . Not the other way around.
9. 9. Trying to use too many words. Give your ideas and listeners space to come together, or they won't.
10. 10. Getting overwhelmed, emotionally and technically. Give it rest then go back to the plan.
11. 11. Getting dragged off into the bushes where other stories lurk, keep your eye on your squirrel or you'll just get a rash.
12. 12. Failing to get emotional feedback, not enjoying the process. Make it safe, nice to sing and make it fun.
13. 13. Expecting first draft to be perfect, it's just a start. Remember that messy is productive, chaotic is not.
14. 14. Failing to realise that we expect to be brilliant lyric writers when actually, we're all just stumbling around in the dark until we find something to grab on to.

Conclusion

Writing lyrics should be as easy and fun as falling off a log. Just make sure you follow a routine for identifying which emotion you want your listener to feel. Make a phrase around that emotion for your title, refrain or chorus. Then use your verses to tell the story that led to that emotion. And tell it plain and simple, as if you were talking in the street.

Writing lyrics can seem hard when we're only used to listening to finished songs. If you think about it, we rarely hear unfinished ones which are really messy, and need a lot of re-editing and re-arranging and polishing. Once we accept that our first ideas are just a step in the right direction, we can stop worrying about it and press on towards a finished version the song.

If your lyrics are a total mess, simplify, simplify, simplify. Stay with the bits that make you feel safe. Your song should be a safe place.