start with some free form writing. pick a topic and sit down and write for 20 minutes. use paper and pencil and a timer and NOT a computer so you're not distracted by this forum or Facebook or whatever!

just write. don't edit...you'll do that later. if you edit as you go you'll squash your creativity. write anything and everything about your topic that comes to mind. repeat every day for a few days. now you'll have a few pages of interesting ideas to work into your song.

my next step is to pick up the guitar and work out a chord progression I like. I'll start humming along with it and pretty soon I've got one or two melody lines. then I try and fit some of my prose into the line.

rinse and repeat until you have a whole song!

another tip is, verse 1-the past, verse 2-the present and verse 3-the future.

oh and check out some of the resources available like this site, http://www.robinfrederick.com/ . I also bought her book which is fantastic.

Another cool resource I use is MasterWriter (http://www.masterwriter.com/creative_writer/index.html) It has tons of tools like rhyming dictionary, phrases, thesaurus, word families and a lot more. I use it all the time to help craft my lines.

Last edited by JohnJohnJohn; 10/05/12 12:23 AM.