5 Ways to Stop Writing Cryptic Lyrics
It wasn’t until I tried to write lyrics myself that I began to appreciate their nuances. I was one of those listeners for whom melody was king, quickly followed by a great track and perhaps a lyrical hook or two. If the music took me there emotionally, I didn’t really care what the lyric was saying. I was perfectly happy singing along with Kurt Cobain, “Here we are now, in containers.” The tune itself still satisfied me.
It’s true that some songs simply don’t rest on the lyric alone, and we can feel the song experience deeply without ever really understanding the story. But with other songs, lyrics are core to the experience. If I have to preface my song with a short story for the listener just to make it mean something, then perhaps the listener shouldn’t have to sit through my song at all—just saying.
As a songwriter who has struggled with lyric writing and come out the other side, I’ve recognized a few reasons why my cryptic lyrics happened, and what I did to change them. I’d like to share those thoughts and tools here, in the hopes it helps you capture more of your intent when writing lyrics:
Flip The Verses: Make Verse Two Verse One. Imagine sitting down with a friend for coffee, the conversation pleasant at first but becoming more and more transparent and real as you drain your mugs. It’s the same with songs, except that we don’t have an hour. We have roughly three minutes, and often must engage the listener within the first twenty seconds. The first verse of a song often beats around the bush a little, using more introductory language that is broad and summarizing in nature, rather than detailed or specific. So flipping the verses and putting verse two in place of verse one lets our song get to the point rather than standing around pointlessly talking about the weather.
Write A Line. Then Elaborate. Cryptic lyrics graze over the surface of many big ideas. This works well for choruses, but it doesn’t work for verses. Instead, try writing a line and elaborating on that same idea for the line to follow. This can be particularly important when we write metaphorically. Use the next line to explain the metaphor, deepening the meaning instead of whisking the listener away and onto a different thought. Two-line groups of a single idea are common, as are groups of three lines in sections of six lines total. Slowing down the rate we move through ideas lets the listener really take in our point, and helps to distinctly characterize each section of the song by the point it’s trying to make.
Use Metaphor Sparingly. Metaphor can make for beautiful imagery, but it can also make for unusual collisions between unrelated words. Instead of deepening an emotion, it can leave the listener at a distance, struggling to make sense of our word paintings. When using metaphor, be careful to stay within the same color scheme throughout the song. To do this, consider the overall mood, tone, or emotion the song carries, and choose a metaphor that reflects that same spirit. If your song carries a tone of empathy or grace, for example, choose images that also carry those characteristics. If the song carries a tone of bitterness or anger, choose images consistent with those moods. It’s when our word choices pick from various emotions that our songs often become confusing and lose their footing with the listener.
Be More Direct. Sometimes cryptic lyrics are a sign we need to buck up and get more bold and direct. Ask yourself how you would answer the question “What inspired this song?” In your own words, explain what the song is really about and record yourself talking or loosely write down the answer on paper. Now, check to see whether any of that language is actually in your song. If it’s not, consider what’s keeping you from saying what you mean.
Consider The Listener’s Perspective. As the writer, we might forget that our audience has no notion of what we’re going to sing before we sing it. They don’t know the story, the backstory, or the back-back story. Because we know all the shadowed corners of our ideas, we sometimes overlook simple information the listener needs early on to make sense of the song idea. Bottom line is, we often feel we’re being too direct when the listener feels we’re giving them precisely the information they need to put two-and-two together.
If you’re looking to expand your songwriting tool kit check out one of my upcoming songwriting retreats.
Stay creative,
Andrea Stolpe
