writers block, and my stuff sucks

[spooks-need-pa]

I constantly find myself not able to write, then something bad happens and i can haha.

But anyway i write this shit out, and then i laugh at myself and end up throwing it away. Does anyone else do this? I just feel like its pointless, and then if i think its good maybe a week will go by and then i'll throw another song away.

Godamnit im so frustrated. My band needs some songs...

 

[spooks-need-pa]

and even on these forums... this stuff looks close to what i write sometimes. It doesnt look like any lyrics that ive ever heard on the radio. It looks more like a song without a band and some pro singer. Or.... i dont know. I guess it depends what you are writing for.

But, still everything here hardly looks like any song on any cd i own... and i own ALOT of cd's.

maybe im afraid to put down lyrics about my OWN life on a page... or something. But then where do i get inspiration?

 

[spooks-need-pa]

styrofoam plates

there's a saltwater film on the jar of your ashes: i threw them to sea but a gust blew them backwards and the sting in my eyes
that you then inflicted was par for the course just as when you were living.

it's no stretch to say you were not quite a father but a donor of seeds to a poor single mother that would raise us alone, we'd never see the money that went down your throat
through the hole in your belly.

thirteen years old in the suburbs of denver
standing in line for Thanksgiving dinner at the catholic chuch. the servers wore crosses
to shield from the sufferance plauging the others. styrofoam plates, cafateria tables charity reeks of cheap wine and pity
and i'm thinking of you. i do every year
when we count all our blessings
and wonder what we're doing here.

you're a disgrace to the concept of family
the priest won't divulge that fact in his homily and i'll stand up and scream
if the mourning remain quiet, you can deck out a lie in a suit but i won't buy it.
i won't join in the procession that's speaking their peace. using five dollar words while praising his integrity. and just cause he's gone it doesn't change the fact: he was a bastard in life thus a bastard in death.

NOW THAT IS FUCKING QUALITY! and its called styrofoam plates... too bad i didnt write it... thats deathcab for cutie. wtf its called styrofoam plates. AHhh

 

[Gidge]

what genre of music does your band play?....

 

[spooks-need-pa]

bass, drums, 2 guitars. I dont think we are sure what kind of music we play. but generaly... rock... but i meen we could play all types of rock.

Lately my guitarist has been listening to loads of nirvana...
i listen to too much shit to name. ben folds five, deathcab, steely dan, shilo pa (hawain regae) the police... black sabbath, white zombie. Techno... see what i listen to doesnt make sense
My bassist listens to what i listen too
and my other guitarist i guess would be... what i think is emo because hes got like built to spill and pedro the lion and stuff like that but he listens to all types of rock.

I figured out why i really dont like most of the stuff i see here and what i write.. its like cliched reality. Its annoying. Its like you can predict he next line of the song.

EDIT: and i cant forget to mention all the radiohead i listened to last night. but i meen why did i mention that cuz theres so much other stuff i listened to. but i guess i like radiohead alot.

 

[spooks-need-pa]

I cant believe i forgot to mention weezer. Because if i HAD to choose a favorite band... even though thats impossible i would choose them. But of course there are some specifications. Anything before the green album. And i havent heard much of maladroit bug i dont dig those albums as much.

 

[spooks-need-pa]

theres a rattle, mimmicking the bassline
As i strive to think
life cant be cliched like this
someone would apear in the frantic search
and share what im wondering

the words fill my head
unorganized
mangled once they leave
once again unsatisfactory

someone would apear in the frantic search
to share what im wondering

you know when the sound fills the rooms
echoeing off the walls
and all you can hear
is nothing?
but everything at the same time

im not processing it but the message gets across

someone would apear in the frantic search
to share what im wondering

woohooo what do you guys think

 

[mrbigputts]

Pull yourself together man!! SLAP! SLAP! SMACK!
Your loosing it! You cant let these people see you like this...

Ok thats better. Now... Relax.... Take a long drag off of whatever it is that your smoking........there....u feel better now dont you.

Ok....rant away!

 

[LobsterSan]

so then, i assume you approach your songs lyrics first, melody and instrument parts second?

often i try to just free-form it, play a few chords and sing nonsense along with it. sometimes the nonsense isn't actually so non-sensical. whenever i try to sit down and write lyrics i am the same way as you -- i trash it the next couple of hours. but getting some sort of creative juices flowing first and then singing along with it some how releases a certain creative process in the word portion of my brain.

 

[jef knight]

lyrics and inspiration

Been there. By the time I reached 25 I'd acumulated over 5,000 lyrics.
Other people seemed to like them but I hated them all. It wasn't until
a professional lyricist read and critiqued my stuff that I finally "got it"
about the whole process.
First, you gotta be honest. That doesn't mean truthful. Lyrics can be
fiction. But they can't be metaphoric facades behind which you hide.
You gotta reach down deep and without complaining or whining or
getting cynical, be honest with yourself about the meaning of what
you're writting about. The problem with a lot of begining lyricists is
that they arn't sure what it is that they are trying to say. Maybe
they have a "feeling" or a concept like "my life sucks" or "I wish I had
a girlfriend" but then they never get to their inner truth, only
vague, clever sounding word riffs. Facades.

Here's one from one of my album "Desending Into". It's a fave at my shows.

This is about a girl from NYC who was adopted and, feeling unloved,
turns to heroin.

Within and Without
© 1997 jef knight (socan)

"They left her on the doorstep
of the unforgiving city
with no mother to embrace her
when the dogs of life would chase her,
And her lovers seemed so distant,
like the yachts on the horizon
sailing out to meet the sunrise,
as the sea pours from her eyes.

(chorus goes here)

She remembered all the times
when all her love was held inside her,
like a river frozen over
on which remorse has skated over.
And her emptiness discovered,
there was more to life than lovers,
And the warmth that she'd been seeking,
from the pin prick now was leaking:
a pale horse gonna pull her chariot tonight."

etc....


So you see, you've got to find the truth that is "hiding" within
each story you want to write about. And if you're going to use
metaphor try to make it relative to the issue.

I hope this helps you out.

j

 

[Doug H]

I really, really, REALLY suck at writing lyrics, like, I mean bad. I had one song I used to do with a band where I had a couple of good lines, I hated the rest so much I'd make up new shit on stage.

I need to pretty much start over and not look back. It's a grim reality but I think it's true.

I think I've written two songs in my life I can remotely begin to live with. Ones really vielent about a cowboy riding off to kill some people who are going to burn his girlfriend because they think shes a witch, the other is ultra chesse (actually they both are ultra cheese). One thing they had in common is that I could feel them.

 

[postalblue]

i hate writing lyrics. i'm not half bad at it, but i do hate it.
i'd rather sit there, and write a dozen more songs, then write a line of words.
i try to keep things as open as possible, so that anything i sing may have a different meaning to the next person. i'm not always succesful with that though. it may simply turn out vague. but it works when it works.
the thing about writing lyrics is you must be always honing your skills. you should be ready to articulate what you want when that great idea comes.

 

[Dani Pace]

Someone once gave me some free advice, now I'm passing that advice along......"Write songs that other people can relate too as much as you do." After all is said and done nobody will buy it if it dosen't say it better than they could, get my drift?

 

[scottboyher]

I constantly find myself not able to write, then something bad happens and i can haha.

But anyway i write this shit out, and then i laugh at myself and end up throwing it away. Does anyone else do this? I just feel like its pointless, and then if i think its good maybe a week will go by and then i'll throw another song away.

Godamnit im so frustrated. My band needs some songs...

You need to decide who you are writing for?

Do you want to write a top 40 song?
Do you write for your own enjoyment?
Are you writing to make some sort of statement?


Maybe it isn't as bad as you think, you may be comparing what you write to the wrong things.. Never throw anything away...

 

[Layla Nahar]

I constantly find myself not able to write, then something bad happens and i can haha.

But anyway i write this shit out, and then i laugh at myself and end up throwing it away. Does anyone else do this? I just feel like its pointless, and then if i think its good maybe a week will go by and then i'll throw another song away.

Godamnit im so frustrated. My band needs some songs...

Spooks -

Were you channeling me when you wrote this???
stop it!!

 

[tanlith]

Heh!

I got a slightly different problem... similar but maybe backwards to yours??

I got about 50+ unfinished works... I like most of em... my friends LOVE em all and wanna see me finish even 1... problem is this

I write from the heart... whatever I'm feeling at that moment. Once that feeling goes away so do the words... thus; I can't finish the song.

Is there a version of ADD that's emotion based instead of mental based??? If so I probably got it

- Tanlith -

 

[Layla Nahar]

I write from the heart... whatever I'm feeling at that moment. Once that feeling goes away so do the words... thus; I can't finish the song.

You gotta find a way to get beyond that. I'm working on that these days.

 

[tanlith]

You gotta find a way to get beyond that. I'm working on that these days.

Any tips on how?

- Tanlith -

 

[Layla Nahar]

Any tips on how?

- Tanlith -

Try writing form based verse - from lymerics to sonnets
on any subject - pick stuff at random. The point would
be not the quality of the work, but its completion.
Thats one idea ...

 

[Tucci]

Relax

My tip is to stop thinking so much and to not take your writing so seriously. Then you'll start writing some decent tunes. A lot of folks, myself included, try so hard to write a song that is really meaningful and will change the world overnight. Don't do that. Just write little stories. That's all a song is. If you want to write a sad song write about how you accidentally ran over your dog last night, the dog you loved so dearly. Just tell the story as it really was. Funny songs are good too. They flow a lot better cause all you're trying to do is write something fun. If you write some funny songs you'll also get better at writing non-funny stuff. It's also fine to have some comic relief in a serious song.
- Also, don't decide if a song sucks until some other folks have heard it. My band has a song about cows that people love. It's not high art but it's a fun song and it provides contrast to other songs we have that aren't so goofy.
So that's my advice. Don't try so hard to write something good. Just write stories.

Best,

Tucci
http://www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, harmony, humor.