The Secret To Writing Lyrics That Mean Something To You (And Your Audience)
Lyric writing can feel overwhelming to a lot of people - it did to me too when I first started! No matter what I did I never felt like I could really say what I was trying to say… Turns out I was too focused on getting my lyrics to rhyme that the storytelling took a backseat.
But over the years of studying and practicing songwriting I have learned how to truly tell a story and say what you really mean. So let’s get started!
Understanding Yourself
Too often we start writing lyrics before we even really know how we feel about the topic we’re writing about. At first it can feel like it’s just flowing out of you, but at some point you’re getting stuck and then you don’t know what else to say. It is much easier to get the story out in a meaningful and authentic way when you fully understand all your thoughts and feelings. And sure, sometimes we write about being confused - but you still need to figure out all your thoughts and feelings around being confused to really tell the full story.
So before you start writing any lyrics I recommend that you do topic writing for 10 minutes (or longer if you have more to get out!). Topic writing is almost like journaling - but it’s around the topic of your song specifically. You just put pen to paper and start writing down anything and everything that comes to mind. Don’t judge or censor yourself. This is your time to be brutally honest with yourself and let everything out. Doing this will help you better understand yourself, your thoughts and your feelings and it will make it much easier to then get those thoughts and feelings into your lyrics.
It’s In The Details
Many writers are scared that if they are writing about too many details that no one will be able to relate to their songs. It’s actually quite the opposite. The more detailed you are, the more relatable your songs become - even if not every single detail is the same in their lives at it is in your song! It’s still more relatable than generic lyrics.
There’s this term that I learned from my good friend and fellow songwriting coach Friedemann Findeisen from Holistic Songwriting Academy - Kopfkino - which translates to “head cinema”. You need to be detailed in your songwriting so that your audience can see the story play out in their heads - almost like a movie! If the details are missing and the lyrics are too generic, they can’t do that.
Want To Sound More Poetic?
While sounding clever or poetic shouldn’t be the main objective in lyric writing - the storytelling should be - it’s always fun to write lyrics that feel clever. While there are a bunch of things you can do to make your lyrics sound more clever, here are my two favorite ways to achieve that:
Relative Words: find words related to your topic and add as many of those words to your song. Ex Burn: fire, flame, match, lighter, hot, scorched, ashes, etc…
Object Writing: This can help you find other ways to describe the same thing. This is a skill that needs a bit of practice as you are basically building up your vocabulary, but thanks to tools like ChatGPT you can now find great descriptor words pretty quickly!
If you have not yet gotten our Songwriting Framework PDF Guide, I highly recommend that you do, as it breaks down lyric writing more. It’s currently on sale for just $7 (usually $27) and you can get it here: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/the-songwriting-framework-pdf
Edit Your Songs
Don’t expect your first draft to be amazing. I always encourage my students to just get the first draft out and then go back and edit later. In this editing process is where you’ll find more different ways and words of saying the same thing, making your lyrics sound more poetic and clever.
🎧 Check out the full conversation around lyric writing I had with coach Juliana from our team here:
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