How To Start Writing Lyrics

I get it, you want to write a song, but don’t know where to start. Maybe you’re trying to start with lyrics and find yourself staring at a blank page. Maybe you have some music written but you can’t figure out how to actually write the lyrics.

Do you start with the 1st verse? Do you write the chorus? 

Let’s talk about it.

Lyric Writing Doesn’t Have To Start With Lyrics

Sound counterintuitive? Sound crazy? It’s true. If you pressure yourself to write the first line of your lyric, it makes sense that you don’t know what to say.

It’s too much pressure. How can you write your opening line when you aren’t completely sure what the story of your song is yet? You might not fully know what your song is yet.

So don’t try to write your first lyric. Just write. Write your thoughts. Use bullet points. Flesh out some different ideas. Brainstorm.

And, here’s the secret. If you just brainstorm long enough, you’ll start to come up with more lyrical-sounding words. And, eventually, you may stumble upon a great line to open with. 

Even if you don’t, you will have fleshed out your story more. You’ll know more about the theme of your song.

They key here is to write all your thoughts down. Don’t just stare at the ceiling and think. Think and write. 

This will make it much easier to write that dreaded first line. 

Your First Lyric Written Doesn’t Have to Be Your Opening Lyric

Don’t try to force yourself to write the first line of your first verse before you write anything else.

Just because you shouldn’t read the end of the book first doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write the ending first.

You don’t have to write the song in order. You could even write the second verse first!

Pressuring yourself to write the perfect first line is unnecessary and detrimental to your goal.

Your goal is to get one step closer to finishing a great lyric. Sometimes that means writing the last verse before the first. It might mean writing the bridge before the chorus. 

Be Comfortable With Writing Down Crap

Here’s the thing. Be ok with writing badly. Sometimes you need to write down all the crap before you can get to the good stuff. 

Think of it like getting stuff from the attic. Sure, you might have some great stuff in there. But you have to go through a bunch of dusty boxes to get to it. 

Success is almost exclusively due to people working through countless failures. Just ask Edison, you can’t invent the light bulb without being very comfortable with failure.

Failure isn’t crashing your car in the middle of a dessert with little hope of being able to complete your journey, failure is missing a right turn. 

Sure, now you’re 12 minutes from your destination instead of the 10 minutes if you remembered the turn, but you’re still making progress and you’re still on track to make it to your destination.

You have to be comfortable with this. With little exception, all good writing comes from good editing, not from writing something great the first time.