Writting exorcizes...

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ethos

ethos

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What are some writting exorcizes you use?

I heard of a cool one the other day and plan to use it, but i'm looking for others to try.

The one i heard of the other day...

Watch a movie that makes you think, and has an emotional impact on you.
After the movie, write a song that would fit on the soundtrack for the movie.
It dosnt have to involve the charecters or anything, just something that carries the same feeling as the movie you just watched.

anyway, add on. I plan to write a lot over the winter, so i want some methods to keep me going when i get stuck.
 
I don't really have any to share that I can think of, but I like the one you shared with us. I will have to try that one day.
 
Fall in and out of love with as many women as you can get your hands on
 
Try opening a book to a random page and making a song out of the first phrase you see. That' show George Harrison wrote While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
 
Monkey Allen said:
Fall in and out of love with as many women as you can get your hands on
Click to expand...

Then do stupid crap so they dump you, rinse and repeat.
 
Sing other people's songs but change the words. Play around with different rhymes and melodies. If you come up with anything you really like, write it down before you forget.
 
dcb001 said:
Whenever I do an exorcism, I tend to go by the book.
Click to expand...

i was wondering what you were on about.......and then it hit me :D
 
One I only thought of last night... it's not as such an exercise but a method...

I had a couple of idea for a songs which have been floating around my head for ages..

Write them down from top to bottom, try to keep a form (ie 4 lines per verse), and apply the message in a chorus.. next day/week, go back to them (I'm going to look at these on the way home from work today).

Work out which lines/comments are strong, work on them, try and find a hook and work on that.

Re-write and try and fit in the same story.

As for inspiration, I've been looking/reading for so long on this.. I've come down to this.. it's everywhere, the comments above are great. The last song I wrote, the opening lines to my last song are:

When it's cold and windy outside,
and your not hear.
All I can hear...
Is the refrigerator running in the kitchen,
and the sound of my heart beating,
and the loeliness of you in my mind
(c) Daniel Porter 2005

Came from sitting in my back room at home whilst my wife was out.. no TV on, the only difference was the refrigerator was actually the laptop I was writing the song on, but the refrigerator fitted better.

What I'm saying is... look around you, you can find something to write about from almost anything.. think about the song 'If I had a Hammer"

Good Luck,

Daniel
 
Nalencer said:
Try opening a book to a random page and making a song out of the first phrase you see. That' show George Harrison wrote While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Click to expand...

And how Paul McCartney wrote 'Golden Slumbers'; and how John Lennon (from a newspaper) wrote parts of 'A Day In The Life' (can you tell I'm a Beatle's fan - if not, look at my signature).

GVDV
 
Having just written my first song in about 8 years - used to write tonnes, but got in a rut - this subject is fresh in my mind.

About 8 years ago, I wrote a couple of songs with my (then girlfriend's) 8 year-old daughter. Now, apart from the fact that her mind was young, supple, eager and more agile than mine (I was in my mid-30s) this was the method we used:

I suggested that we turn on the channel that lists all the T.V. programs that will be on for the next hour. We did that, wrote down titles at random, and constructed a story out of them to a conventional 12 bar blues. (Of course, I thought of this because of the Beatles methods that I was familiar with, which I described above).

I don't think that - for me, at least - the difficulty is in generating ideas for songs; rather, I find it difficult to complete them, and that's apparently another piece of advice from John to George, viz., once you've started a song, try to complete it there and then.

Another problem I also have is that I find that I've said everything I want to say in a verse - so then I make it a chorus, which leaves me with only about a third of the song complete.

Cutting up newspaper articles and throwing the pieces in the air is another one. There are millions of ideas, really; think of opposites to lines that you've already written. Think of unusual ways of describing things - e.g., the silence was deafening......

If someone could comment on how they generate melodies, that would help me immensley as I get trapped with that one.

Thanks,

That's all for now.

GVDV.
 
Having just written my first song in about 8 years - used to write tonnes, but got in a rut - this subject is fresh in my mind.

About 8 years ago, I wrote a couple of songs with my (then girlfriend's) 8 year-old daughter. Now, apart from the fact that her mind was young, supple, eager and more agile than mine (I was in my mid-30s) this was the method we used:

I suggested that we turn on the channel that lists all the T.V. programs that will be on for the next hour. We did that, wrote down titles at random, and constructed a story out of them to a conventional 12 bar blues. (Of course, I thought of this because of the Beatles methods that I was familiar with, which I described above).

I don't think that - for me, at least - the difficulty is in generating ideas for songs; rather, I find it difficult to complete them, and that's apparently another piece of advice from John to George, viz., once you've started a song, try to complete it there and then.

Another problem I also have is that I find that I've said everything I want to say in a verse - so then I make it a chorus, which leaves me with only about a third of the song complete.

Cutting up newspaper articles and throwing the pieces in the air is another one. There are millions of ideas, really; think of opposites to lines that you've already written. Think of unusual ways of describing things - e.g., the silence was deafening......

If someone could comment on how they generate melodies, that would help me immensley as I get trapped with that one.

Thanks,

That's all for now.

GVDV.
 
Start out as if you are conversing with someone, then allow it to flow into a melody. Well, it does work sometimes! :D
 
Chorus seems to be my Forte' much more than verse. Or perhaps it is the other way around.
 
dcb001 said:
Whenever I do an exorcism, I tend to go by the book.
Click to expand...

heh, i noticed that after i posted this.

Thanks for all the replies. I will be trying some of those.
 
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