Page 105 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins

Writing an impossible title
I promised earlier that I'll show you how to write an impossible title. In reality, once you've got to grips with Song Maps, you will find it easy to write literally ANY title–everything on the spectrum of writability, from impossible, totally un-writable titles to totally writable always-going-to-work titles.
At the beginning of my teaching classes (which are sometimes called "Lyric Strategies–How to write ANY title") I ask my students for six titles–three highly writable titles and three impossible titles. At the end of the class, we apply Song Maps to each one of them. And it's a lot of fun finding places all of these titles can go, especially the impossible ones.
Here's an impossible title my wife thought up: "Ironing Forever."
It's difficult to see how that title could result in a song that could catapult a writer into the Music Hall of Fame. But that's exactly the point, it's a difficult title to write and let's see where it can go.
So, just as an exercise, here's how I'd turn that impossible title into a writable idea by applying Tension/Response to it.
Writable idea: "Ironing Forever"
Verse 1 – How the tension is sensed
Piles of freshly-washed, wrinkled clothes on the floor
Treading on my best shirt on the way to the bathroom
How I hate that after all the washing there's still more work to do I've no energy to get out the ironing board
And I'm so slow I'll be...
Chorus – The response
Ironing forever
Ironing forever
I have better things to do with my life, than Ironing forever
Verse 2 – How the solution is sensed
I'd like to twitch my nose and it all be gone
I'd love to upload it to www.upwork.com and get it back done
Or hire a housekeeper to sort it out (and all the other things waiting for her) But in the end it's easier to
Just take it to my Mum, who's been...
Chorus – The response
Ironing forever
Ironing forever
I have better things to do with my life, than Ironing forever