How do you put your thoughts into lyrics?

[Manslick]

I am having a hard time writing lyrics. I have a crap tone of ideas and i do not know how to put them in song form. Any advice?

I know, you want song form.
Hit song - toe sucking fans.
Or poets who play.
Big song.
Big.
Catchy - funny - bright -
Current.
"Colloquial?" , She said in the slow, low sun set and you nodded yes.
How could you not?
When her brown eyes, so earnest.
Looked you up.
I saw you agree in soliloquy.
Well, me too - damn - I mean
Who wouldn't?
Me not.
I may catch my breath?

Boy, this girl is swimmy.
And they call me Jimmy.
Breast stroke.
Do some c0ke like all the other broke folk on the campus
anyone got a clean lamp?

Got to work at it everyday.
Heed your own word old man!

 

[Manslick]

thoughts into lyrics.​

green bean.
a girl I seen
looked toward me
again

green bean
the girl I seen
is gone

so I seen a green bean girl
I said it to my mother
mother looked at me and said
"I know, - my little boy"

but mother..
"slow your roll my little boy
you not even a teen"
I wriggled

I danced
I flew a kite
I sweated hard
I sat with the fan in my face

hoping to come clean.

 

[Irwin abrigo]

My answer is don't think just write, yes write about anything that comes into your thoughts than read it back after you may have written a page or so, next edit it.
That's it.

 

[jtees4]

Truthful answer....I have no clue. I just shove 'em where ever they sound ok to me and then wing it from there. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Manslick]

Count me in.

I type words, scratch words with a pencil or say words to my sweet wife.

For what is pop music without words?

 

[Michaelbp567]

I’d like to chime in here and say that most of the lyrics I’ve ever come up with have come off the tip of my tongue the moment I began singing. I don’t believe in crafting lyrics but I do believe in speaking life over your music. Fortunately and unfortunately your song is a reflection of your current state, whether you live in the past present or future just speak and see what is inside of you.

Practically speaking, record yourself then start speaking/singing. Sing a melody first and worry about the lyrics later. Listen to that recording again and try to decipher words. Find the ones that work then step back and look at what you’ve come up with.

I don’t believe lyrics have to make a whole lot of sense. Half completed sentences/thoughts/feelings or emotions are acceptable because I believe sometime in the future you’ll sing those words again and feel something because you did not overthink them

 

[grimtraveller]

I don’t believe in crafting lyrics

I find this an interesting thought. It seems another way of saying that basically, all lyrics should be autobiographical or self-referential.
But I could have grasped the wrong end of the stick. What exactly do you mean ? What do you see as being unacceptable about crafting lyrics ?

Fortunately and unfortunately your song is a reflection of your current state

That's paradoxical because it may not. You might write a really joyous lyric even though you feel like shit. Or a bouncy, lively piece of music when you're one thought away from slitting your wrists.

I don’t believe lyrics have to make a whole lot of sense

I agree with that. I think they have to make grammatical sense, but not any other kind of sense.

 

[Paul8311]

I am having a hard time writing lyrics. I have a crap tone of ideas and i do not know how to put them in song form. Any advice?

Songwriting class I took many years ago mentioned to look at song lyrics as poetry. We focused on writing Haikus, for example, as well as understanding synonyms and words that rhyme. Also focus on syllable count for each line to stay in beat with your tempo along with beat signature. What I find I have to do is find synonyms for words I want to use just to make the phrasing of my lyrics match the beat and other lines of my lyrics.

 

[jimistone]

The beatles used throwaway lyrics most of the time. They got the chord progression, the melody, and the hook of the song together and mainly just hummed the melody until they would come up with a line the really liked. After that the used throwaway lyrics (words that fit the cadence of how they wanted the lyric to flow...but don't mean anything at all) to get lyrics going. Then as they got more lyrical ideas they replaced the throwaway lyrics with lyrics that had meaning.
The line in "hey Jude": "The movement you need is on your shoulder" was a throw away lyric that Paul had trouble replacing. John told him "you're not replacing that, it's the best line in the whole f***ing song"
That 3 part beatles special has some great songwriting footage.
Paul creating "Get Back" from scratch. George offering "something in the way she moves". He was humming much of it. On the bridge he didn't have "you're asking me will our love grow" but he already had "I don't know...I don't know" so he was using the throw a way line "sister Flow has missed the show...I don't know I don't know."
And he had "attracts me like a pomegranate" in place of "attracts me like no other lover" lol.
That footage is amazing to watch!
I think that's one thing that made the beatles songs flow so good is them getting the melody, chord progression, and arrangement together while filling in with throwaway lyrics before sweating over just the right lyric.
In my case, getting stumped on a lyric sometimes has killed the creation of the whole song.
Throw a way lyrics help to keep the process going and completely develope the tune...THEN....fine tuning the lyric can be focused on in the final stages.