What Inspires you to write?

[TerraMortim]

Dumb question, but I think some of the responses might be interesting to read.

For myself, I'm inspired a lot by world events, anger, and nature (none of those human animals running around)

 

[mikeh]

I don't find that any specific things inspire me (as an example - I never wrote anything about 9/11, etc.) I simply try to imagine some charactor and let that character determine where the story line will go.

I'm inspired simply to be the best writer I can be, to write something everyday - and then sort the good from the bad. I subscribe to the theory that if a writer is disiplined to write, the writer does not have to wait for inspiration (or for the muse). If a writer can reach that level of disipline, when the muse does hit, the writer is better equipped to take what is offered and build from it. I suspect that if some of the great writers of past generations waited for inspiration to hit - we would not have the "Great American Songbook or many of the songs from Tin Pan Alley or the Brill Building.

The only thing I choose not to write about is a traditional love song (it seems like too easy a target and has been done to death). I will write about lost love, broken hearts (and even a guy who is planning to kill himself because his woman left him) - but I try never to use the actual word "love" in any of my songs. Many of my charactors are from the darker side of life (a hooker, a drunken cowboy, a guy spending a night in lock-up with an old indian, etc.) who see the world from a different perspective than most "average people".

 

[up-fiddler]

I'm inspired simply to be the best writer I can be, to write something everyday - and then sort the good from the bad. I subscribe to the theory that if a writer is disiplined to write, the writer does not have to wait for inspiration (or for the muse). If a writer can reach that level of disipline, when the muse does hit, the writer is better equipped to take what is offered and build from it. I suspect that if some of the great writers of past generations waited for inspiration to hit - we would not have the "Great American Songbook or many of the songs from Tin Pan Alley or the Brill Building.

I think that Mikeh has the correct approach here. I write daily but many times I find the end product is drivel lacking inspiration. The act of writing helps to keep me moving forward though. I also am able to use past writings as a starting point when I am flat and some of my best work has come from revisiting prior false starts. I think it is important to write your way through the slow periods and be everready when inspiration finally beats down your door.

 

[Dogman]

Sounds...when I start messing around, or hear another tune I like, the sounds sometimes trigger me to just start doing something. Words, or an alternate riff, or rhythm pattern....

 

[pikingrin]

Sounds...when I start messing around, or hear another tune I like, the sounds sometimes trigger me to just start doing something. Words, or an alternate riff, or rhythm pattern....

That's a rather large influence in my writing too. When I hear even a guitar tone that I like, it triggers something in my brain... It usually starts as a guitar riff, then it builds to something a little larger. But, lyrically speaking, the words (when I add them) tend to be about something that is a little less than traumatic. Right now, for instance, I'm writing about my girlfriend becoming pregnant, her wanting to have an abor$$$n and me wanting to keep the child. As long as there is a substantial amount of emotion behind it, particularily mine because I write for myself, then it tends to work out decently.

 

[prestomation]

my exgirlfriend.



errr......inspirations for me usually start with how I'm feeling and what I'm experiencing. Most of my songs mean something very personal to me.

and some are just about random crap I don't even remember

 

[vadoom]

I just start humming something and it develops from there... or dies...

 

[dementedchord]

for me everything is instrumental... i dont do lyrics at all... never really understood why but there it is... but i have original melodies going in my head 24/7.... i dont write out all of them... i just cull the good ones... most are about my fellings about a situation or a particular character (usually that i know).... back when i lived in nashvegas they used to say a good song is written but a great song is rewritten... so i do some polishing over time with some.... but it seems my personal favs come out as one long booger....

 

[Tim Walker]

I'm tryin' to impress the ladies!

 

[up-fiddler]

I'm tryin' to impress the ladies!

Does it work? I may have to try harder........

 

[Oancient1]

Pot inspires me .... but then I am usually too stoned to finish anything.

 

[up-fiddler]

Pot inspires me ....

Cast iron or stainless with copper bottom?

 

[TerraMortim]

I'm tryin' to impress the ladies!

something tells me your the best songwriter...like..ever.


hahahaha

 

[Whatmysay]

Words I read or hear

I always have loads of riffs, progression lying around in my brain, but it is not until I get that lyrical hook that it all comes together. The words often jell the music sections together. The hook then usually sets the whole tone for the piece – be it naturalistic or more impressionistic style lyric, serious or ironic, narrative or motage.

 

[true-eurt]

For myself....I sometimes wonder, if it is not so much the words(or story) that are inspired by the events all around, as is the emotion, that goes into words(story)...whatever they may be.