Writers block
It can happen to everyone. You may have a great verse, great lyrics or a great chorus... But you find you can't move it forward. Maybe you have nothing & are waiting 'for the muse'.
When I first started to write, I assumed the inspiration came from outside me - It doesn't! The key to writing is writing regularly - sometimes through the pain - and sometimes writing crap.
Writing is essentially a craft... and with most craft skills, the key to improvement is practice. You can sit down with that dreaded blank sheet of paper and stare at it but unless you have some sort of strategy, it's likely to stay blank.
So, what can you do?
Well, assuming that you're starting with lyrics, one of the best ways is to try spending 10 minutes or so, first thing in the morning, just writing down your thoughts - no rhymes or structure - just what comes into your head. No censoring! Just what comes. It may prove to be nothing the first few times but doing it regularly can free your internal censor & maybe produce a line or two or maybe a hook that you can use.
Sometimes a title might arise, a line for the chorus or it might lead you in a completely different direction. Sometimes, it will produce garbage but pusuing this approach eventually produces the odd diamond.
William S. Burroughs used the technique of cutting up press cuttings (& book pages) and re-assembling them to come up with new ideas. Bowie did the same, arguing that even cutting up sections of his own diaries & randomly piecing them together, could give insights into his own psyche or develop intersting concepts. Whether you accept Bowies' rationale or not - this sort of thing is always worth a try - psyche or not!
Assuming you have an idea for a song, a title/chorus line, or maybe a phrase for a verse, write a sentance that describes the song - not lyrics - just describe what the song is about. You can embellish this by using sensory words - what does it look like?, how does it feel?, how does it sound?, what smells or taste are involved?
Next, working on the assumption that you have a vague song idea, spend ten minutes writing down everything you can come up with around that concept. Just freewheel, don't criticise - write what comes into your head. It may be nonsense but that's O.K.
So, you have no song idea - where do you go from here?
Go onto Amazon books and scroll through the titles- something may come up.
Read the news - online or on paper.
Think about situations you or your friends have encountered.
Watch TV/Movies/ read books. It maybe the odd word or phrase will strike you.
Listen to conversations you hear. People you know or strangers on the bus - all of this can be useful material.
One way to start lyrics for a song is to take an existing song that you like and write new lyrics to it. Then you dump the original melody & write a new one.
it’s not the original idea that defines the value of a piece, but whether it gets finished and brings satisfaction.
Every writer, worth their salt, writes bad songs - but without the bad ones, the gems would never emerge.
So, don't wait for the muse! Write every day. Write often. Write everything that comes to mind & keep those ideas in a notebook for later use.
