“Very often, ideas come to me when I’m falling asleep—when the busy mind gets out of the way, and the intuitive, imaginative mind gets a shot at the steering wheel”
—David Crosby
Most songwriters have experienced the frustration of sitting down to write a new song, only to find that nothing comes, or what you do manage to write just isn’t good enough.
There can be many reasons for this. Your mind may be on something else or maybe you’re worried about something. Often, though, it’s simply because you haven’t prepared yourself properly for your writing session.
Experienced songwriters know that the creative process involves four key stages: (1) preparation; (2) incubation (where an idea takes shape in your subconscious, like a programme running in the background on your computer); (3) inspiration (where an idea floats up from your subconscious and you seem to pluck it out of the air); and (4) realization (where the idea becomes a reality as you turn it into the first draft of a new song).
Preparation is the foundation stone of the entire creative process. But being ‘prepared’ to write a song doesn’t just mean keeping your instrument, laptop, digital recorder and rhyming dictionary ready in your writing room just in case.
In songwriting, ‘creative preparation’ is a state of mind. It means being observant and keeping your mind constantly open for new ideas through your experiences, thoughts, feelings and observations. It means keeping your songwriter’s antenna switched on to the world around you at all times.
An idea for a title or a lyric line can come from overhearing a conversation on a train or in a café … or an event that you witness … or while you’re waiting at a traffic light. Similarly, a headline in a newspaper, on a website, or on a poster might spark an idea for a song.
I remember sitting in a bar with one of my songwriters, Steve Thompson, and we were discussing how to generate new ideas for songs. We spotted a vintage 1930’s travel poster on the wall with the headline: Paris By Air. A few weeks later Steve had written a song called ‘Paris By Air’ which went on to be a hit for a leading British rock band!
One of the hardest things about songwriting is having to start with a blank page. But it is often easier to find inspiration if you have already laid the creative foundations by having a list of ‘ready-made’ ideas you can dip into—with many of the ideas based on your real-life experiences and observations.
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