PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Songwriting Dry as dust.

After years of pretty prolific lyric-writing which ended a few years back, I'm just coming up short consistently.

I've come to the conclusion (no matter how temporary) that I really can't write unless I am unhappy. Whether I write to express that mood, or (much more likely) to change it, or just simply to be yearning for happiness, it's that basis of unhappiness which drove my most prolific (and best) lyrics.

I may get mildly annoyed at times, but I'm not unhappy. Don't get me wrong...I don't want to put myself in a self-induced funk just for the sake of puny art, but I can't seem to find a new motivation...at least one that lingers long enough to produce anything I'd want to hear.

Another thing is that a lot of my "starting" lines were drawn from conversation--sometimes ones I was engaged in, and other times from overhearing a snatch or two and stealing it. I don't hear as much English these days (and consequently don't speak it as much). Here, there may be a substitute, but I'll be danged if I know what it is.

Anyway, just venting. Maybe I'll never be as prolific as I had been, and maybe I over-analyze and second guess things to death before anything can come of them.

Any tips, or whippings received with appreciation. Or just join the moan.

Tangmo. You could try joining an informal songwriting group. Something like FAWM or 50/90 always provides me with the motivation to write. Even if you only write one song.

Hi, Tangmo, The human can be such a complicated spirit. I think that the songs that speak to me at that deep connection level are the songs that are born out of the real life emotions of the songwriter. Perhaps a little less stress on yourself to be "productive" and a time to live and re-connect with your emotions may be the key. Regards, from Durban RSA.

It was said you have to be "hungry" to write. There's some truth to that but there's also truth to finding a good co-writer who inspires you and work with them.

I heard more than one writer who said you don't wait for inspiration. You make it happen. You do this by setting down every day and spending time writing. Kinda like learning how to do anything, at first, it's hard and you're going to fall. But keep at it and soon you will be writing naturally and some of it might actually be good.

Now.... where's my pencil and pad of paper?

I thought your title of your post was sooo interesting "Dry as Dust". Hmmmm! has a lot of potential. Write about that. Write about how you can't write unless you're unhappy. It's a conflict and conflicts create tension which is interesting. Not sure what country you are in but here in the USA, we have dust storms in Texas and Arizona, cowboy towns. Put yourself in the movie, standing out on the range with sagebrush, horse beside you. Dry as the gulch, no rain for months. The whole praire is begging for rain and there's none. You're like that right now, begging for inspiration, creativity, good lines and there are none. Feel the emotion!! Is this all there is? Am I finished as a songwriter, person? Rode hard, hung up dry? The struggle of life in the desert, can it survive, can love survive? Do you just give up and accept your fate or press on for another day? Can life or love change? Don't think about writing a song in it's structure or rhyming, just "free write" as if you were telling a story. Use lots of action verbs and nouns. Lemons to lemonade. Can't we all relate to those times in life, when we feel hung up dry? Is this it? All we've got?

What did other songwriters write about this? "Dust in the Wind?" Life as just dust in the wind. Does anything we do matter? Are we only dust in the wind? What really does matter?

Deep subject to contemplate? Where can you go with it? Old saying "Bloom Where You're Planted" Right now you're planted in the desert. Some of the most beautiful and rare flowers are planted in the desert. Bloom only once at night every twenty years or so "Silver Sword" in Hawaii. Most beautiful and rare plant in the world. Maybe your song could be the best you've ever done. Just planted in this uninhabitable situation. Life is a play of opposites, good against evil, etc. Maybe our best work is created in adversity, dry times, slow lines, etc.

Great potential in being of an age when you have more to write about. A twenty year old is probably just concerned about meeting the opposite sex and all the glories with that. However, being older gives you a perspective more based in reality. So I would say that the cold hard facts of reality are more of a motivator in songwriting, than a fantasy vision of "prince charming and happily ever after".

Even if you aren't unhappy, reality is the still best place to write from. Maybe not that it will be bought by 20 year olds, green behind the ears with a lot of suffering to live through.

So, happily I don't have to be supported by my music sales, so I want my songs to have a deeper message of quality. I want to write and express deeply intriguing, contemplative songs. I feel I do my creativity justice when I write that way, not just to oil the money making machine.

Wishing you the best my friend.

I find with art a lot of the time the muse strikes hardest what emotions are high. Not always bad emotions, but really good ones too. I am sure that you will find or experience something that will inspire you soon.

Thanks, all. I'm feeling a bit better about things, though I think I'll have to suppress the "feeling better" thing if I still want to at least pretend to be unhappy.

Belladonna, that was a hell of a post. There was a little crack in the dam reading that, and I think I have one in the oven, so to speak and mix metaphors.

Re: <<< Or just join the moan. >>>


Inspiration can be anything from anywhere. Inspiration hides behind motivation. You just have to expose it.



Your post itself is full of lyrical snippets or song titles.

"I'm just coming up short"
" yearning for happiness"
"I may get annoyed at times, but I'm not unhappy."
"Don't get me wrong"


Yesterday I heard a joke about a 'country' song title - The title, " I kissed her on the lips and left her behind for you". As I read through your comment, "just join the moan" stuck with me in the back of my mind. Looking through the comments of the post, I came across a phrase and immediately an idea based on moaning (woe is me )appeared in my head of a humorous take of a hen pecked man's wife always nagging, fussing and carrying on - but she also was off key as she spoke - humorous in similar fashion to the play on words inspired by the joke I heard yesterday.

Honestly, a cartoon appeared in my head of a older, bald man standing in his cluttered music room surrounded by instruments with his wife standing before him clearly nagging - The cartoon caption came from Joanne Coopers comment post in one of her links - The musician is more upset and frustrated about his wife being off key than the nagging so he is phrasing Joanne's "I'll tune your vocals for a fiver ($5) to his wife to fix her pitch-- A catchy song title and inspiration for a humorous nagging/nagged song possibly.


We think by association. One can link any three random words and our brain will instantly create an image in our mind from an association it has to make. That's what it does. You can literally write 3/4 to a full page from nothing more than describing the image you brain created from three random words.


What image does your mind create from: tree, river, dress?


How about: Book, rock, sandals?


I look at lists a lot for song ideas because the brain will associate the different words into images and it's easy to rearrange the words into obvious links that can become song ideas, lyrics or a song title.

That's great to hear! I love that this community can inspire one another.

Hi Charlie,

Wow.... your below words are lyric writing gold!


Never once I have thought of what you've said above. I first read what you wrote early this morning and since then, I've been going over and over your words in my mind. It's incredibly insightful.

One of my approaches to writing lyrics is to think of a noun or concept and then I write around 150 words of sense-based phrases around that noun or concept. By sense-based, I mean I use the words and phrases that involve the senses (taste, touch, hearing, smell, see, body movement, internal body sensations).

Once I have around 150 words, I then pull the phrases and words that I've written out of context and gauge how interesting they are. I also look for sequences of phrases/words that might cause a lyric spark in my mind.

By doing the above, to date, I have always been able to create a first draft of lyrics for one song section. Once I have that section drafted, the rest of the lyrics follow by employing standard development techniques.

I'm going to be trying out your "Three random words" approach. As I said at the start... for me, this is gold!

Thank you so much!

Regards,
Noel

• my latest song: Can You Imagine? (remix)

Charlie and Noel, Good ideas. With me sometimes I feel sort of "Dry as Dust" after a long writing streak, out of creativity. I do sort do just free style writing not really focusing on trying to write a song. I also use "sensory writing" as I think it keeps one practicing imaginary, showing instead of telling, painting word pictures. Haven't tried the 3 word exercise, but it does sound interesting, I'll see what I can come up with. I try to keep "priming the creativity pump" as I think it's like working out, you just have to do it to stay in shape.

Thanks for your kind words Noel. Hopefully you will get some benefit from the idea. Reading lists is another mental prompt I use a lot. Looking at the TV Guide menu on my TV set yielded a song idea from the PBS Network listings when two back to back shows were titled "As time goes by" - "Waiting for God"


It's a killer lyric line I've yet to develop but maybe "one day soon" Oops, there comes another!


Lol, you may recall several years back I wrote a song that forum member Tom Adams graciously recorded - because my lyrics were developed from his list of song titles on his web page. He recorded the song nearly verbatim from my demo and I shared co-write credits with him because there would have been no song without his song list.


Belladonna, it's easier than it looks and becomes quite addictive to search for 3 word patterns in various places out in public areas.

I feel this is standard for most songwriters, or I guess more so artists in general. It's all part of the trials and tribulations. I personally let is be when I feel this way, because when it comes naturally and feels genuine I'm always more happy with the work I've made as opposed to when I try to force it out of me.

Regardless, happy you find some inspiration in this thread and can't wait to hear what you come up with!