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Trevor Dimoff

7 Ways To Make Lyric Writing Easier

Write from a Situation: choose a real or imagined situation
as the starting point for the story you want to tell in your
song. Use examples from real life situations that you’ve
observed or from stories, movies or other songs.

Write from a Story: create the story or plot before writing
your song. Spend some time imagining and writing about a
story to build your song around. If you borrow a story from
another author, adapt it to make it your own, before starting
to write the lyrics of your new song.

5. Use Popular Song Structure
7. Draft Your Song
It’s easier to build a song when you understand the funda-
mentals of popular song structure. There are four distinct Some songwriters can sometimes write a brilliant song in
sections in a popular song, each with its own role: one go. Most of the time songwriting takes writing and
rewriting, then more rewriting. It’s normal to edit a song to
Chorus, the sing-along part of the song, put the title here improve it through multiple drafts.

Verse, where the story of the song belongs Don’t skip steps… you can start with a title or subject,
brainstorm ideas, create a sketch and develop your story
Pre-Chorus, connects the verse to the chorus, optional and ideas into a first draft. Instead of trying for perfection,
just finish the first draft. Then upgrade the draft to strength-
Bridge, a change in tone and music, often includes a differ- en your lyrics by improving the flow of the words, adding
ent perspective on the song topic, provides relief from the more descriptive imagery and improving the rhymes.
regular patterns in the rest of the song.
For more details about writing lyrics for each of the song When you’re trying to find the perfect lyric, it’s easy to block
sections in a popular song: How To Write A Finished Song yourself and waste time trying to find the best choices. Start
Lyric (Write Away, June 2019, p8). by making the best choice at that moment... then find better
alternatives as you move from a first to later drafts. Profes-
6. Plan Your Song sional songwriters often write several drafts before they are
satisfied with a song.
A fabulous lyric writing time saver is to decide what you
want to say before you get deep into the songwriting pro- Make Lyric Writing Easier... Summary:
cess. I call this concept Song Sketching, other songwriters
also call it a Song Plot or a Song Outline. With a title in Build a lyric writing process that works for you. Instead of
mind, I’ll brainstorm ideas for 5-10 minutes. Then decide diving in and immediately writing lyrics, spend a little time
how to create a story and what to say in each song section. planning and brainstorming ideas. Having a clear idea of
Here is an example from one of my songs: your song and the story you want to tell focuses your crea-
tivity and avoids problems later in the lyric writing process.
Emoji Girl - trying to create a relationship with someone
who is more interested in technology and social media than Seven Ways To Make It Easier To Write And Finish Your
personal communication... Lyrics:
Verse 1: Meeting her, there are warning signs I didn’t notice 1. Start with a title
2.Write ideas randomly before trying to assemble them into
Verse 2: Finding the relationship shallow lyrics
3. Save the rhyming until you’ve organized your initial ideas
Pre-Chorus: She’s distracted by her phone 4. Writing prompts are a legitimate way to inspire your lyric
writing
Chorus: “Loving an Emoji Girl” 5. Understand and use popular song structure to write a
finished song lyric
Bridge: How do I end the relationship and break up with 6. Plan your song early in the songwriting process
her? 7. Write a draft then improve it

Emoji Girl, hear the song and compare the final lyrics with Trevor Dimoff is a songwriter and songwriting teacher,
the song sketch. specializing in transforming musicians into songwriters at
epicsongwriting.com.

www.writeawaymag.co.uk 07