Basics of Lyric Writing
As a lover of lyric-laden tunes, I have roamed years in the weeds of unfinished songs. Getting each line to carry its weight, while also being understood, while also agreeing with and supporting the musical moment is hard. Really hard.
So when I’m tangled in lyric writing, I like to go back to the basics. What are the basics? Some simple and foundational tools that can be great reminders, or full-blown tour guides, through the writing process. Here’s my list of basic tools I use to counteract the jungle of possibilities:
Use Repetition. Repetition creates consistency, and guides our content, too. In this Lyle Lovett song, repetition in the verse helps create a laundry list and focus the content. Instead of a variety of thoughts and information, we get several examples of ‘who’ that support a single point leading right into the chorus:
Who keeps on trusting you when you’ve been cheating
and spending your nights on the town?
And who keeps on saying that he still wants you
when you’re through running around?
And who keeps on loving you when you’ve been lying
saying things ain’t what they seem?
God does, but I don’t
God will, but I won’t
And that’s the difference between God and me
“God Will”
Lyle Lovett
Use Simple Forms. If your lyrics tend to wander, try writing a quick 4 or 6-line verse moving directly into a chorus. If it feels impossible to do, take your cues from Tom Petty, a master at getting right to the point:
Tonight we ride, right or wrong
Tonight we sail on a radio song
Rescue me, should I go down
If I stay too long in trouble town
Oh, yeah
You wreck me, baby
yeah, you break me in two
but you move me, honey
yes, you do
“You Wreck Me”
Tom Petty, Mike Campbell
Write Conversationally. Writing this way means that the lyric reads like complete thoughts instead of fragments. It involves adding in prepositions and conjunctions and pronouns where necessary, and only where necessary, so the listener doesn’t have to decode what we’re saying. Here’s an example of a song lyric by Jeffrey Martin called “The Middle,” with a conversational flow:
I take my chances on the frozen lakes
I don’t go to church on Sundays
I traded my water for whiskey
But I know my God and he knows me
Don’t go running your mouth at me
about the light and the dark
and nothing in between
I see a right and a wrong and a line in the middle
don’t forget about the middle
“The Middle”
Jeffrey Martin
Play with Point of View. Sometimes we get it right the first time, but it’s always worth trying out different pronouns for the ones we got just to see if the experience of the song strengthens. It’s obvious when some titles only sing one way, but don’t take it for granted. The pronoun choice, as we see here in “When You Love Someone” is the way the writers achieve such intimacy and heartbreak. Go ahead, try flipping out the ‘you’ for ‘he’ or ‘she’ or ‘I’, and you’ll feel the message become weak and cluttered. The same can be true for our own lyrics, and swapping out pronouns gives us the insight we need to get a bead on the way the song wants to be written.
When you love someone, you’ll do anything
You’ll do all the crazy things that you can’t explain
You’ll shoot the moon, put out the sun
When you love someone
You’ll deny the truth, believe a lie
there’ll be times when you believe that you can really fly
But your lonely nights have just begun
when you love someone
“When You Love Someone”
Bryan Adams, Gretchen Peters, Michael Kamen
Shorten or delete lines that sound cheesy, and loosen rhymes that try too hard to be perfect. This one is a mouthful, but it’s a good rule of thumb. Take a look at this lyric from Lizzy McAlpine, thrusting us into the youthful drama we love to get lost in:
Pull the plug in September
I don’t want to die in June
I’d like to start planning my funeral
I’ve got work to do
“Doomsday”
Lizzy McAlpine
That fourth line is shorter than the rest, and the rhyme is a near-rhyme with ‘June’ from line two. Shortening the line lets the rhyme come earlier than expected, and produces a jaggedness to the speech and unbalance in the melody that helps accentuate the restless angst of the character. We can also achieve angst and unbalance by doing the opposite and lengthening the line, loading it with an unhinged outpouring of thought like the next verse:
Pull the plug, make it painless
I don’t want a violent end
Don’t say that you’ll always love me
Cause you know
I’d bleed myself dry for you over and over again
‘End’ and ‘again’ create that imperfect rhyme, way later than we expect, throwing off the rhythm and once again showing the character’s unrest.
The next time you feel burdened by lyric writing, keep it simple. It’s often the basics, not the complexity, that make words, and music, memorable.
If you'd like to dive into more lyric writing tools, come join me at one of my songwriting retreats.
Stay Creative,
