Camp_Band, There's an old saying "it's not where you got something from it's where you take it to".

I'm not talking about plagurism, using someone's else's work or phrases. But I'm talking about ideas. For instance recently I've been looking at the lyrics of contemporary songs for new song titles. There's a lot of cool, unique words in some lines. Maybe I would reverse a couple of words or look up some synonisms for the same words or idea.

Sometimes I hear a country song and I write a response to it or the other side of the story. Maybe it's about a girl who's left a guy. I'll write it the opposite way he left her for someone else. Or, I'll write a sequel to the story. Thinking about writing a response to the country song "Marry Me" where he actually talks to his best friend and let's her know he's loved for for a long time and will always be around if things don't work out.

You might find some cool words in a poem that could be a song title. Titles are not copyrighted in most cases. You might hear some cool words an actor might say in a movie line or a novel. It's all about looking at others work for ideas and inspiration.

So, like the Beatles wrote a song called "Yesterday" and it's all about how life used to be. What if you wrote a song called "Tomorrow" and it's all about how your life is going to be in the future and so different from today.

Everyday I do something with songwriting. I don't write a song everyday, but I may look at a song I like and try to figure out how they wrote it and what's so cool about it. I may just write a couple of lines of something or I may look for some titles or concepts to write a song in the future. The important thing is that you start a discipline of writing something for at least fifteen minutes a day.

If you're stuck you can also free write, that means just putting down anything that pops in your mind, don't try to rhyme or have a cool phrase or anything.

The other thing that improves your writing a lot is to object write. So from your free write or even just pick a verb and a noun from wherever the dictionary opens and write anything putting all your seven senses in it. Taste, smell, visual, hearing, touch, kinetic movement and internal sensations.

Take the word "Runaway Train" and write using a paragraph using all your senses about the runaway train and maybe even how does your life feel like a runaway train. Maybe your life is out of control and there's an impending threat.

If you think you have to write a song everyday, it's overwhelming and intimating, so you don't. You just have to write anything and even bad songs are fine.

Last edited by Belladonna; 03/06/18 01:48 PM.