So how do we come up with
good imagery for songs?
There are some wonderful
techniques that we writers
can make daily habits in order to
generate a lot of sensory material.
And these techniques can also train us
to really not experience writer's block
everywhere again and to be able to come
up with good, original weighty song
material on demand, whether
you feel inspired or not.
One of the bottom foundational exercises
is to do daily sensory writing.
You might have heard this called
object writing or destination
writing, but really what it is focusing
in on your senses as your write.
Our senses our taste,
touch, sight, sound,
smell, and then adding in movement
and awareness of good verbs.
So the process would go like this.
You might find a quiet place either
in the morning, or afternoon,
or the night--
whenever you feel like you can
have some space for yourself.
And you also might try doing this
not by writing or typing necessarily,
but maybe it's talking into
your phone, whatever way you
feel that you're able to relax,
and let your ideas flow would
be how I might suggest going about it.
So when you sit down to do
this writing, the basic idea
is to stay focused on your senses.
You might have done some
meditation or mindfulness training.
When we do this, there's this process
of allowing thoughts to surface
and having a non-judging attitude.
The same is true when
we do sensory writing.
Treat what rises to the surface
regarding taste, touch, sight, sound,
smell, and movement, as
simply thoughts, simply ideas.
They're not useful or
useless, good or bad,
because they're out
of context of a lyric.
They have no purpose, except just that's
what's happening for you at the moment.
We're writing in paragraph
form too or maybe a list.
We're not trying two complete sentences,
certainly not trying to suddenly
be good spellers, or good at grammar.
We're just letting the thoughts rise.
The way to begin could be to choose an
object, like a coffee cup, or glasses,
or running water, and then you begin to
sensory right focused on that object.
But another way to approach this
would be to try choosing a where,
a sense of where something is happening.
Because I find in many songs the
sense of where it's happening
is where the first verse begins.
And so sometimes, it's easier to
see how that particular paragraph
of sensory writing can lead directly
into a song if choose was a where.
So for example, a location or
where could be at the airport
or in the lobby waiting at the
gate perhaps of the airport,
waiting for my flight at my
gate two hours before the flight
leaves at the airport.
The more specific I'm getting, perhaps,
the more ideas that are coming to me.
We can also do this
with a sense of when.
When we choose a time frame, it
can bring ideas to the surface.
So for example, 2:00 AM, OK.
2:00 AM in an alley in New York City.
That gets a little more specific now.
That might be a different
song than 2:00 AM leaving
a nightclub, 2:00 AM in a laundromat.
When you attach a time to a location,
it's easier to come up with ideas,
ideas surface, and then you
begin doing your sensory writing.
What do you taste?
What do you smell?
What do you see?
What do you hear?
What is moving around you?
And when telling language, that
sort of journaling, ranting,
and raving our thoughts and feelings,
start to seep into the writing,
like it typically does when we're just
simply writing lyrics, or journaling,
don't judge it.
Don't be a critic yet.
It's not time to criticize.
It's just time to brainstorm.
So you pat that little idea on the head.
You say, thanks for arriving, and
then you move back to sensory detail.
Doing this kind of writing for five
minutes, maybe 10 minutes a day,
is a beautiful way to
engage your senses,
become skilled at writing any time
of day or night, and any idea,
and it generates a lot of material.
If you do this for a month and you
look back over the amount of material
that you've amassed, you
will find lots of songs
begun within those sensory writing.
We don't have to stop there
with our writing just using
sensory writing, or
destination writing, or object
writing as simply a brainstorming tool.
We can actually use the
material that we come up
with in those paragraphs or lists
of sensory writing as song lyrics.
This process is going to allow
you to come up with song lyrics
anytime, anywhere, and have lots
of material hanging around to use.
And so when you then decide
to sit down and write a song,
or collaborate and need material
to bring to a collaboration,
or even write with another artist
who has their ideas of what they want
to say, this process is going
to give you tons of material
so you always feel prepared.
And again, you do not need to
worry about writer's block,
because there are so many ideas that
you already have waiting to be formed.
