Page 68 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins

2. See what I mean about keeping the lyric in the present tense and signposting the Timezone in the narrative? "Boy only four"–"many years on"–"here in the mirror." It seemed to work fine and got around any potential tense issues.
3. The structure is also not quite standard–VCVCBVO–with the Outro being an important part of the song. This again demonstrates that you can be flexible in where you place the ideas in your song; just make sure you get there by the end.
Variations on Timezones
Just like with the other Song Maps, there are many ways Timezones can be written. For example:
Timezones can move many years during a song (see the fabulous crafting by Kern and Hammerstein in Ella Fitzgerald's "Anything Goes") to several years (Steven Curtis Chapman's "Cinderella") or even just a few minutes. The important thing is to support the central theme in the Chorus with each scene or Timezone.
One cool technique to unify the song in the Chorus is to relate to both Timezones. For example in Jana Kramer's wonderful "I Got The Boy" the Chorus starts, "I got the first kiss and she'll get the last," which sets up the Chorus wonderfully to land on "I got the boy, she got the man." Another cool technique is to use the lessons from the past to signal a better outcome in the future, to create a compelling payoff for the lyric. In Kelly Clarkson's emotional "Piece by Piece," she reflects on her own father's shortcomings in bringing up his daughter. The last Verse starts, "Piece by piece I fell far from the tree / I will never leave her like you left me." Wonderful crafting.
In Miley Cyrus' "Butterfly Fly Away" the combination of Timezones with a great metaphor works so well in painting pictures of her growing up. The recorded track totally nailed this by her father singing on the track too.
A popular use of Timezones is in modern hymn writing when, in the last Verse or Bridge, a song reflects on Eternity to establish a payoff, something I did in my modern hymn "He Is God" as did Matt Redman in "10,000 Reasons."
Commercial examples of Timezones
Examples of well-known Timezones songs include:
Country
"Without You" by Keith Urban–V1 is right at the start when they first looked/smiled at each other ("the very first day"). The Chorus neatly sums up the idea of the song–despite all the traveling; it would mean nothing without her ("Good as gone without you"). V2 fast-forwards to when they have a baby girl and paints a lovely picture of an extended family ("People that I barely knew / They love me 'cause I'm part of you"). The Bridge takes the idea of the song one step further, stating that without her he'd just be going through the motions of life. Perfect.
Other great examples of Timezones include "Three Wooden Crosses" by Randy Travis, "I Got The Boy" by Jana Kramer, and "Butterfly Fly Away" by Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus.
Pop
"7 Years" by Lukas Graham–an almost unique life story starting at seven years old and proceeding to eleven years old, twenty years old, thirty then sixty years old before returning to seven again. "Piece by Piece" by Kelly Clarkson is another powerful song spoken to her father in a brave, moving and what seems