I Have Writers Block What Can I Do
Entry posted by snabbu
1,541 views
Writers block.
The title I have writers block is untrue I never have writers block. If you are suffering from writers block either one of three things is the case.
(1) You lack the requisite imagination or intellect to write songs. The solution is to do something else.
(2) You are aware of what you should be doing technically but you can't really be bothered doing it. The solution is to stop reading now, your wasting your time, bone idleness has no place in song writing. It certainly has no place in this blog.
(3) You are blissfully unaware of the technical solution and having writers block is giving you a severe case of the irrits, you are not allergic to work, you have a modicum of self discipline and persistence.
While I refer light heartily to work ethic, if you are not prepared to work you are wasting your time. That is the truth.
Now for the rest of you of course if your 19 years old and can SMS faster than an auctioneer can speak you can use your iPhone. If like me the buttons are too small and it takes you two minutes to type in "Ok see you at the end of the blog" Do the following.
Go to the stationers and buy a small note book small enough to be carried everywhere. Buy a pen.
Write on the cover "your name's" hook book.
This now goes everywhere you go. You should no more think of leaving home without it, than forgetting to put on your underpants. Unless you are some kind of deviate and that's OK too. We are not here to judge, other than laziness and lack of application.
Now you are prepared, you are ready to work.
The title of your notebook is a little misleading in that what you are going to write in here is not only hooks but song ideas.
To do this you need to get out of the house and interact with other people.
Song writing is about communication. Therefore to create song ideas you need to involve yourself in communication. Merely sitting at home and jotting down thoughts that pop into your empty head will produce song ideas that in the end will produce songs of empty angst that no one gives a toss about. You need to write about what's important to people. It is your job to say in a lyric what they are feeling, but are unable to express lyrically themselves. You are their troubadour. It is not your function to be sitting in your ivory tower dispensing pearls of wisdom as you see it.
Listen to what people are saying, what are they talking about, what turns of phrase are being used. Can you make a song out of that? Jot things down. Ideas, turns of phrase, hooks. Ask questions. If you are telling a story in your lyric you will need to provide your audience with answers to certain questions. They are what who where when and why? So why not get the answers from your research subject? Write it down.
If you feel like a bit of a spy that's OK it's in a good cause. Because you will never have writers block again. When you need to write something just work your way through the book, developing your song ideas.
Like all work there is vacation time the good news is the vacation time associated with keeping a hook book is very generous.
I can assure you that a couple of weeks of serious effort in keeping the book will provide you with enough material to last for months. This does not mean you can stop carrying the book. But it does mean you are "on call" The book is in your pocket, you are not actively hunting song ideas, however if something juicy pops up you will of course jot it down.
Give yourself a buffer, whatever your comfortable with. For example if you get down to ten undeveloped ideas in your book it's time to go hunting again in earnest.
What will be achieved by all this?
Firstly you will never have writers block again.
Secondly you will not be wasting your time writing songs that no one is interested in, and no one could give a toss about. Your songs will have a genuine reason to exists. A raison d'être (google it, it's french) why? Because they are written about what real people are talking about, in a real persons voice. They will be communication, it is as simple as that.
Cheers
Gary
-
2
4 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now