How do you tell what to keep and what to toss from a lyrics perspective?

[Julia238]

This is an issue that I've run into. I have a five-subject notebook that I keep a lot of lyrics and lyric ideas in.

The first several pages of this notebook have various parts of songs. Generally one or two lines. Maybe something that might work as a title, or occasionally something that might be a verse or a chorus.

The problem is, I'm stuck with most of them. I don't necessarily want to throw them out, but I don't know how good they are, or if they could be turned into something good.

As an example, something I wrote down that I think would not only make a good title, but also a good "hook" is "The Same As It Never Was".

The basic premise of the song is that the singer still doesn't have the woman he wanted. So I would have to have things like, "i'm still not holding you..." and finish it off with "so it's the same as it never was"...

But I don't know if it's GOOD or not. I guess I wouldn't really know until I actually wrote something under that premise.

So how can you tell if a line, few lines, verse, or chorus are worth keeping (and revising) or tossing?

All lines in a song have the potential of being great. It might not work or fit into the first song your writing, but it can be the inspiration of another song. So I suggest to never toss out any lines.

However, to know if the line is a great fit for the song your writing walk away from writing music for a few hours and see if you catch yourself repeating a verse of your song.

Good Luck and all the best.

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[TheSynthDev]

You could keep the lyrics that are most promising and work on them to see if they can be turned into a complete song. You could also keep the lyrics that have the best potential title or hook and try to come up with a full song around those lyrics. If you are not sure if a lyric is any good, try writing a full song around it and see how it turns out. If it is not good, then you can always discard it.

--
Jason Hook. I enjoy remixing old songs using Audacity together with UnMixIt for vocal removal or isolation

 

[grimtraveller]

That was the living definition of 'generic' !

 

[markmann]

The problem is, I'll sit there and look at the lines, and nothing comes to mind to write. That's the problem I'm having.

Have you considered a writing partner? Maybe if someone could fill in some blanks it would help to inspire you to come up with more.

 

[dogooder]

99 out of a 100 lyrics that I write, after reading them are just too corny and get tossed. I never use cliches and I try to write in proper English.

 

[dogooder]

I always write the music first then fit lyrics that fit the mood of instrumental.