Page 32 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins

Why is the flow of ideas important?
The movement of ideas is critical to songwriting. Indeed, to any writing. What you already know changes the way you process new information. Therefore, the order in which the listener hears things can dramatically change the emotional impact of a lyric.
Take this example:
The other evening I was on the 15:34 train from London Victoria to Brighton when I saw three preteen brothers behaving very badly. Two of them were shouting and writing their names on the table, and the other was sitting with his feet on the chair, wiping mud off his shoes onto the seat. The carriage was half empty; their father was slumped in his seat on the other side of the carriage, hiding his eyes, looking like he was trying to get to sleep.
As I watched the situation gradually deteriorate, I was compelled to approach the man and ask him, as politely as I could, to get his children under control. After I had made my request he turned his head, and with bloodshot eyes, he explained, "Oh, I'm sorry, we are just on the way home from the hospital, their mother passed away this morning, and they are just letting off steam, I'll sort them out."
He sorted them out. And I felt so sorry for even mentioning it. So in summary, the ideas were:
1. I saw the boys behaving badly
2. I saw the father was not dealing with it 3. I asked him to deal with it
4. The father explained the reason
5. I felt sorry for them all
If it were in a different order, I'd still have felt bad for the family, but the impact would somehow have been different. For example:
1. I got talking to the father, who explained what had just happened 2. I felt sorry for them all
3. I saw the boys behaving badly
4. I saw the father was not dealing with it
5. But I totally understood
This listing and ordering of ideas are what we do with Song Maps. It is particularly potent for lyric writing because we have the opportunity to paint different sections in different colors (dark and light), which has the impact of maximizing the emotional impact of what we are trying to say.