THE writer's block again -.-
 

I've been having this writer's block for a very long time and I've finally come up with an idea, ask for advise here!

Lyrics are in general about love, but as a guy who really only have had 1 relationship with a gal (been together for 3 years still going) this perticular topic didn't quite nurture my inspiration sufficiently.

Any suggestions on what to do? What do you usually write about and what gives you inspiration write?

Something political maybe
Some social problem?

Any advise would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks in advance, KOgnitiva

Sometimes it's fun to be someone else. Be a serial killer or a depressed teacher. Or write one about your gal ruining your songwriting opportunities could be funny. Yeah I guess the challenge is that you can't really create emotion, which is necessary to start a song.

think about something interesting you'd like to see, taste, or smell. you know, anything. If The Who could right a song like "Pinball Wizard", I'm sure you can right about something. Maybe a really obese guy bungee-jumping. that would be interesting. Will the rope hold him ? Will he be all jiggly ? maybe he'll wet himself. Or how bout like if someone played a dirty trick and all the guns in the world would all of a sudden only shoot bubbles instead of bullets ? I think it's better to think of a line that "sounds good" and build a song around that. u don't really have to think about what you're going to write about like a term paper or something. just put words together that sound good and it's ok if it winds up meaning something but it doesn't have to.

love is a stronge emotion it is behind most songs. anger and fear are also powerful and can fuel a powerful lyric. for me it is catpuring these feelings and channeling them and relating them to situationd or ideas that mean something to yourself. words can be spoken or sung and just make a noise but its the feelings we have about what those words represent to us that give it the power. the soul of the song.

I have a friend who has a similar problem. What his therapists have told him to do is just write about simple stuff that you don't really need to think about to describe (what your car looks like, what your room looks like, ect.) then slowly ease back into the
tougher stuff (love, hate, betrayal, relationships, pain, all the fun emo jazz).

I never checked with him if that actually worked, so this advice might be pointless and a waste of mine and your time, but it sounds logical.

I'm no expert in writing but there are a couple tricks I use to help jumpstart my brain when the words get stuck.

Try writing backwards. Weird but work from the conclusion of a matter and then build the story.

This is a trick I picked up from U2 but take some words that rhyme together closely along with similar meanings like "deception, deflection, reflection" and work thoughts out of that. (but don't use those...i already used it in a song!) lol

Watch other people on the subway, street, etc. and try to capture their moods, feelings, emotions, etc. It can open your mind to new ideas and viewpoints to help freshen up your thinking.

I dunno if you play an instrument but just play simple chords and melodies and sing nonsense until the words start to fall into place. I do that all the time which causes my girlfriend to think I'm absolutely nuts but it's funny how words start to fit where you would have never put them.

Hope it helps!

If there's a certain tonality you're going for, listen to songs that fit that. Listen to different songs and see what you can pull.

However, don't plagiarize. Write from a different view, take the story a different turn, and so on.

Feeding off of the Orthodontist's ideas, another I use and didn't mention before is to listen to songs that are similar to where you wanna go and "continue" some songs. It sounds weird but instead of letting the song end, imagine a key change, style change, etc. and move into what you're looking for. You can easily plagiarize off it but there are times when it can move you into something fresh and different...Weird, I know...

Does that include advancing the story as well?

If you wanna go that route, I don't see why you couldn't. If you're not copying the words or music of the other song then it's not plagiarism. I see it as more like taking direct inspiration than general inspiration which we all use.