Page 44 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins

To see the draft lyric written from this writable idea, see Chapter 5, Map 1 – Tension/Response. Step 4 - Craft the lyric, refine and rewrite
Now that you have your writable idea complete, the process of crafting your lyric follows very naturally.
In each section, you now have a series of keywords and phrases to use as a springboard or focus for writing each line of your lyric.
While these act as a guide for your lyric, it's important how you process new ideas that will inevitably come to you while crafting each line. Clearly some of these will be useful (supporting the function of the section you are working on). These are the lyric lines to keep.
Some of your lyric ideas may take you in a very different direction. It may be that, while these are great, they can't be part of this song right now. I suggest that you capture everything at this point, but whatever lines you don't use simply list them at the bottom of your lyric sheet to keep until you are finished. Or keep for another song next time!
At this stage I'd use a dummy melody to write with, as this will be helpful in forming the rhythm of your lines, the number of syllables you use and highlight opportunities to vary these in a way that develops the prosody of your lyric with the music.
When I do this I hear the music in as much detail as possible–the time signature (e.g. 4/4 or 6/8), the highs and lows of the melody, space for Intros/Outros and if there are any motifs or other things that relate to the production values. Note that the song almost certainly will never sound like the way you hear in your head, even as a demo. But this is all part of building a coherent song and crafting a lyric that matches the music.
In what order should we craft the lyric? My good friend and brilliant songwriter/publisher/author Dave Clark once said:
"The best way to write a song is back to front."
And he's right. While there is nothing set in stone, many commercial writers tend to craft the lyric in the following order:
1. Chorus (ideally identical each time)
2. Pre-Chorus 1 (if appropriate)
3. Verse 1 (maybe a double Verse)
4. Pre-Chorus 2 (if not the same as Pre-Chorus 1) 5. Verse 2
6. Bridge 7. Outro
While both the freshly drafted lyric and initial melody are still fresh in your mind, you might want to record a "work tape." This, of course, is not on tape at all but is a rough recorded version on your phone or