12 Ways to Overcome Lyricist’s Writers Block

This is a guest post from Dan Weir, a San Francisco-based songwriter and filmmaker. He records with the Powerpop outfit Town & Country whose music is available via iTunes, etc. He also helms the studio project, Orphan Town. To listen to his songs, visit: www.myspace.com/weirsongs

photo by Annushka_74

Welcome to this, the first article in what I hope will be a regular series on lyric writing. In this installment: Overcoming Writer’s Block.

Dread the sight of a blank sheet of paper or computer screen? Spinning your wheels trying to finish a stubborn lyric? When your well runs dry, dig somewhere else. Here are some useful techniques for getting unstuck. Please add yours.

20 Questions

Working quickly with no thought to continuity, pose 20 questions about a scene, title, lyric fragment, whatever you have. Don’t try to answer them now. Start with the standard journalistic questions: Who, What, Where, Why, How? Think about motivation and sensory detail, especially visual images. For example, “If it’s not his car, why’s he driving it?” and “What did that bumper sticker say?” Invert questions to find interesting, contrasting details. For example, “Why does she suddenly turn on the radio?” vs. “Why does she suddenly turn it off?”

When you have your list, put it away, leave it in the fridge of your unconscious to marinate. When you’re ready, answer your questions as quickly as you wrote them, Rorschach style. A narrative thread will emerge. If you’re going for an impressionistic lyric, subtract the narrative stuff and use the resulting quotes, colors, gestures, sounds, and so on for grist. The idea is to gather sensory data that you can later use to reinforce or qualify some character trait or action so that you don’t rely on tired abstractions like “I’m so blue, I don’t know what to do.”

The Blurt

Something Paul Simon describes in Bill Flanagan’s excellent collection on songwriting, “Written in My Soul.” Again, starting with whatever you have, fill a page with random thoughts about your subject. Don’t pause while you’re writing, don’t edit it when you’re done. Write longhand, don’t type; you stimulate a different part of your brain when you use a pen or pencil.

Controlled Chaos

Record yourself and a friend riffing on some suggestion (from a photo, headline, joke, etc). The other person doesn’t need to be funny or creative, but the interaction will spur you in surprising directions. Edit the results as dialog, or use one person’s input as a monologue. The negative space where the other person’s input used to be will add interest and tension.

In Other Words

Take a song you know and rewrite the lyric entirely. Don’t simply restate the source. A useful exercise is inverting the original lyric’s intent, sort of He Said/She Said. Liz Phair’s “Exile in Guyville” is supposedly a song-for-song response to “Exile on Mainstreet” (though that strikes me as hype). For a better example, check out “The Wild Side of Life” (Hank Thompson) and “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” (Kitty Wells).

1,000 Words

Separately record several people’s gut reaction to the same photograph, painting, etc. Give them no more than one minute to free associate. Edit the results, looking for patterns, or interesting contrasts in POV.

Show Don’t Tell

One of the most common pitfalls in writing a lyric is figuring out where to go after a line like, “I’ve been loving you for so very long.” Substitute abstract feelings or images with concrete details. Even if you eventually use the abstraction, the surrounding lines will be better. In general, a good lyric shouldn’t sound like a lyric unless you’re writing in genre (a Delta blues song, for example). My rule-of-thumb is: don’t write anything you can’t imagine someone saying.

Adaptation

Good artists borrow, great artists steal. If there’s a scene in a movie, book, or even another song that strikes the same tone or creates the effect you’re after, try rewriting it. Remember to change the names of those involved to protect the innocent (and yourself).

Walk On By

Similar to W. Burrough’s idea of cut-ups, which Bowie used to great effect. Without seeming creepy, tune in to strangers’ conversation in the lunch room or while you’re walking the neighborhood. That jackass with the cellphone on the bus could be great source material. Notice body language. Later on, write down what you remember. See if anything happens when you slap these fragments together.

Chinese Whispers

Also known as Telephone. Gather a few people in a room. Whisper your lyric or scenario to the person next to you and ask him or her to pass it on. Record what the last link in the chain says. The natural distortion that occurs might offer a useful redirect.

Mind the Gaps

Record any conversation between friends, housemates, family members, etc. The subject doesn’t need to be emotionally charged. Later, look for musical lines and dispense with the connective tissue. As you start to write the lyric, you might introduce this material with some skeletal visual description.

Back it Up

If you’re up against the wall with a song that’s mostly done, step back for a minute. Forget about the rhymes and any musical constraints, transcribe it as if you were translating into another language. This is a good way to clear the underbrush.

Give it a Rest

A good lyric rarely springs from your head full-grown. Trying to write a great song in one sitting, even two, is a recipe for frustration. Like trying to learn a new lick, attack it in short, regular intervals. Rather than you working on the words, they’ll be working on you in this critical incubation period.

One last thing, when you’re brainstorming a song, stow that rhyming dictionary. It has its place, but before you worry about ornamentation, figure out what you want the song to do emotionally, narratively, or formally. A great line does not a good song make. Trying to find a clever rhyme for it at this stage will only limit your options.

Related posts:

1. Battling Songwriter’s Block? Revisit Old Songs
2. 4 Ways Keeping Your Day Job Can Help Your Songwriting Career
3. 20 Ways to Keep Evolving as a Musician

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