Songwriting Tips Thread (lyrics, effect, solo, quote, artist)

[sleepy jack]

http://www.musicbanter.com/song-writing/22117-need.html

[Ornette]

I like how he tries to justify all the heh's. IT'S CAUSE PEOPLE LAUGH WHEN THEY TALK OMG THIS IS HIGH BROW ART YOU GUYS JUST DON'T GET IT

[sleepy jack]

He also admitted to finding incest pleasing.

[Frances]

Your point, little brother?

[sleepy jack]

Hes very lame.

[Frances]

I was making an incest joke stoooooooopid!

[sleepy jack]

I'm so slow sometimes D=

[guitardude]

Thanks for the tips im definantly going to use them!!!!!!!!!

[Voice_of_the_Soul12,13,01]

6. Originality

First of all, you wanna avoid cliche lines, and to be honest just nu-metal lyrics for the most part to see cliche lines. Linkin Park, KoRn, Slipknot and all that. Like, "walls are closing in", "im falling" and pretty much any metaphors where you use the word 'darkness' are cheesy and cliche. Being cliche can work, but most of the time it just doesn't.

If you wanna be original, don't describe the way someone else would describe a certain emotion. Write about how you feel about a certain thing, like how would you describe being sad or being dumped or something? Not how Green Day would describe it.

This is the problem I have. How do you know what words or phrases are cliche? I mean, you've given a few examples, but how do you determine what's cliche and what's not in order to avoid writing them?

Originally Posted by Voice_of_the_Soul12,13,01

This is the problem I have. How do you know what words or phrases are cliche? I mean, you've given a few examples, but how do you determine what's cliche and what's not in order to avoid writing them?

Sorry I never got back to you in your thread about this. As previously mentioned, unless used very carefully, phrases about "darkness", "shadows" or other "evil" concepts are incredibly cliche. In general, many destructive themes, such as flames, fire, and the like can also appeared cliched. What I would do is think about the basic ideas and feelings those concepts represent, and instead of using that word which is cliched, think of another one that represents similar feelings or concepts.

Thesauruses can work wonders if you're stuck on words.

Hope this helps.