when you write Lyrics ?

[lanac]

When you are writing lyrics for a song... Do they come naturally to you, or do you have to force them sometimes ??

Do you write a song to finish when you sit down, or does it take you a few times to get it right ???

While you are writing do you already have a melody in your head, or does that come later ??

Just something I wondered about from others ...


Lana www.mp3.com/thecrowleys

[Krystof01]

Can't force myself to write lyrics; if I do their shit. I usually write alone, I have to get the bulk of what I'm saying down in one go then I can add or praisy them later. I have no formula and wait for them to come. It usually works in cycles, I write for a few months quite intensly then don't write anything for another few months-spend more time on recording, playing guitar etc. I except that's the way it works; the first few times I had writers block in a big way I was really scared but then I worked out that it does in fact work in cycles for me.

Once I have written lyrics I don't usually alter them and make them something there not intended to be. Don't intend ever to write but always prepared with notepad or dictaphone.

[lanac]

that is pretty much how it is for me as well ..

usually they come to me at the oddest times ..like when I am driving ...

but out os fear I may lose them, I stop and write them down ...


for me .. I dont get a melody until I start writing them ...

and another kind of weird thing for me is after I have my lyrics and melody finished .. I can sit and hear the finished song .. like all instruments and everything ...

do you do that too ??

Lana

[Henri Devill]

Its the same for me as it is for you...I have a hard time trying to force lyrics.I get mine in the car alot also.Lately its been lyrics before music...I'm in constant edit LOL.I think that alot of writers see/hear the finished song.I've got to get one of those dam "micro" recorders!!


Don

[Gidge]

They usually come naturally to an extent.....I usually get 1/2 to 3/4 of the lyrics in about 10 minutes or less....then when I get stuck I put it away....Ill come back to it later, play the song a few times thru and see if something comes of it...if not I put it down again...like the others, my forced lyrics suck...Im sometimes completed lyrics a year after I started the darn song.....I usually get melodies as I write lyrics.....

[Krystof01]

So it looks like there is a formula afterall, so I'll probably stop writing now; I don't do formulas.

[Emeric]

I usually have a good chord structure (subjective) in mind before I write lyrics. I usually work on the lyrics at the same time as banging out the verses/bridges etc. Lyrics are tough for me, most of it ends up very meaningless. The odd time I'll hit something that is still meaningless, but, could mean something to someone else.

Suffice to say, I hate writing lyrics.

Krystof01, I gave up on those dictaphones.. . (j/k)

[someone else]

most of my best songwriting happens when I give my mind free reign to just relax, and drift.........

Sometimes this is when I am playing my guitar, sometimes it's just as I am drifting off to sleep( which led to keeping a pencil, and pad close to the bed), sometimes when I am driving home late at night..... I think when I drive, it's the rythm of the road that gets my mind working..... But each of these times, I am allowing the feeling of the moment just happen, and try to find words to describe the feel of that moment....

Sometimes, it works really well, others it becomes a struggle, when this happens, I just stop for a second, and go in a different direction... that usually works....

A real good example of the spur of the moment song, is one that I wrote for my daughter, and is still how I feel about what children represent to their parents.....

Here are the words, which with very minor revisions came at almost the same rate as they are read......very fast.....so had to write them down right away......

the song is called 'Childs Eyes'

I long to see your face again,

it keeps comin back in my dreams...

I close my eyes, and there we are when,

I could carry you on my shoulders..

now that you've grown older,

I can see myself when I look into your eyes


There are many more verses, but you get the idea........ It is a feeling of parenthood that looks at the chance to grow up all over again thru a childs viewpoint, and what the world looks like from a childs perspective, the wonder of it all..... etc etc.. I just kinda got carried away with the idea......

Hope this sheds a little bit of lite on a different view...

Upstate

[lanac]

So it looks like there is a formula afterall, so I'll probably stop writing now; I don't do formulas.


I don't really think there is a formula at all .... I think we all come to our creative flows in many different ways ...


for some of us lyrics are work, for others they just flow ...

What I do think is the awesome part about all of this, is the fac that we can write ...

creativity is a gift ... not everyone is given this gift ... I dont know about the rest of you, but, I am very thankful for my gift ..



and I agree with you upstate, I have to have a clear mind to really work on lyrics or melody, if I have things muddling around up there, I dont get anywhere . ..
So walking away and coming back is , I think, the best answer !!

Thanks again Yall !! Lana/ www.mp3.com/thecrowleys

[Krystof01]

What I meant by formula was with regard to the fact that we all seem to write in the same way/frame of mind to a degree it seems.

I'm only joking; I couldn't stop writing if I wanted; afterall I didn't descide to write in the first place.