Page 39 - Song Maps - A New System to Write Your Best Lyrics - Simon Hawkins
P. 39
Also, look at the Civil Wars' "Poison and Wine." These are inspiring titles, even before hearing the song and there are many places titles like these can go. And it's wonderful to hear them crafted into such beautiful lyrics.
Other possible sources include:
Unfinished lyrics
Key words in other songs
iTunes
Films
Books
TV shows
Radio chat shows
Devotions
Conversations (yours or other people's!) Journaling
Whenever I am considering a title, I tend to think about how writable it is. The aim of Song Mapping is to help us develop one or a few words of a title into a complete story. This is by breaking it down into a set of ideas that move the listener from point A to point B. The more it can be developed, the more writable it is.
If we were to plot titles on a scale of how writable they are, and assume they are evenly distributed across that scale between totally un-writable and totally writable, you should be able to save yourself a lot of time by writing only the top 60% of titles by selecting types 1 through 3, or everything from neutral through DNA titles and "Always going to work" titles.
The Spectrum of Writability