While there are many, many ways to write lyrics for a song, a popular method is the “3 steps method”, as described in Six Steps to Songwriting Success by Jason Blume. Many songwriters have employed it, knowingly or unknowingly, over decades, and the first step is to come up with an evocative song title.
I like to have a long list of song titles to inspire me whenever I sit down to write a new song, and I build my list every day (or almost everyday). This may sound like hard work but this is quite easily achieved.
While in a public place (on a bus, in a cafe etc), set aside ten minutes to come up with ten song titles. Don’t allow yourself to do anything else, don’t read that book, listen to your MP3 player, text your girlfriend/boyfriend, eat that chocolate bar you’ve fancied eating all day, until you have done this.
To make sure you get your inspiration from various sources, it might be useful to concentrate on a specific source for each session, and rotate the sources throughtout the week.
I usually break down the sources in 5 categories, but you may add more of course:
- what you hear - conversations around you
- what you see - people interacting, shop signs etc
- what you remember - what are the words you remember from your previous day? Any interesting story someone told you? Any unusual anecdote?
- what you daydream about - just let your mind wander into a world of its own
- what you read - browse through a newspaper or magazine in search of great song titles.
I use a pocket size notebook, which I carry with me everywhere, and once in a while, I transfer all my song titles ideas into my songwriting notebook, which stays at home with me.
The next time you sit down to write a song and you have no inspiration for the lyrics, you will appreciate a full list of titles
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