THE 5 BEST SONGWRITING

EXERCISES FOR

WRITING GREAT
LYRICS
BY KEPPIE COUTTS
 INSPIRATION
NOT REQUIRED
These exercises are my all-time Top 5 Exercises for generating lyric ideas,
whether I’ve got a song idea going already or not.

These exercises don’t require inspiration. They mostly require 10-minutes and
a pen.

Just like anything in life, you can get better at writing great lyrics with
practice. I hope these exercises give you something to practice with.

Go tinker. I can't wait to see what you make.

 #1
SENSE WRITING
Sense Writing is a timed, 10-minute prose-writing exercise that I learned
from Pat Pattison, and is beloved by a cavalry of incredible songwriters,
including Gillian Welch, John Mayer, and Liz Longley.

Here’s How it Works

Step 1

Find a random prompt. At the beginning, using an ‘object’ prompt is best

(something tangible you can see/feel/hold/touch). You can find random
prompts on any day in these spots:

120 Sense Writing Prompts

Random Concrete Noun Generator
Objectwriting.com

You can also collect prompts yourself, by simply coming up with a long list
of objects (ie things) that you can draw on whenever you sit down to write.
The key here—at the beginning of your Sense Writing journey—is randomness.
The prompt must be something unexpected.

Step 2

Set a timer for 10 minutes, and write continuously. Don’t edit yourself or
censor your writing. You’ve got to let the rusty water run to get to the clear
stuff. This exercise isn’t lyric writing per se; it’s exploration. It’s a walk in the
woods. Don’t worry about how good your shoes look. Look around and see
what’s on the path instead, without judgment.
A few important notes:

Do not try to write lyrics in this phase. No rhyming. No rhythmic meter. It

will slow you, and put handcuffs on your ability to truly explore what
arises.
Don’t write for longer than 10 minutes. It’s really easy (and common at
the beginning) to get into ‘flow’ around minute 8, to hear the timer go
off, and to think, “Oh I’m in it now; I’ll just keep going”. Don’t. You won’t
get stronger unless you keep that 10-minute wall to push against. What
you will find, if you stick to 10 minutes, is that you get faster at hitting
flow.

You will also find the exercise more sustainable over the long term. If you let
it spiral out to 20 minutes, it becomes a ‘20-minute exercise,’ which is
infinitely harder to convince yourself to do on a regular basis than a 10-
minute exercise!

Step 3

Stay sense-bound. This is the most crucial part of Sense Writing—this is

what we’re really here for.

The most important limitation on this type of writing is that you are
deliberately trying to use all of your senses to paint a vivid picture of
whatever scene, situation, event, or memory arises. Sometimes your writing
will start out as a series of fleeting associations with the prompt—this is you
pushing the jenga pieces of your mind, until you find one that moves a little
more easily, then going deeper into that one.

When you find one that moves, your aim to is be descriptive with all of the
senses:

SIGHT SOUND SMELL TASTE TOUCH

Make sure you move around the senses, touching on all of them through your
writing.
A few tips:

Try starting a few Sense Writes in the week with a sense other than sight
or sound. Those are our dominant senses, and starting with the other
senses pushes our mind and memories into different places.
Turn the dial up on the level of detail you go into. Instead of ‘the kitchen
smelled like dinner cooking’, keep going. Fill it with the specifics: “the
kitchen smelled of dinner cooking: rosemary, thyme, and a pinch of
chilli.”
There are two other ‘senses’ that we can tap into as well: the ‘inside
body’ sense (which is the physical sensations happening inside our
body), and the ‘movement’ sense (where describe the way people and
objects move in space). For more detail on these senses, check out this
video.

Sense Writing works best if you do it every day for at least 2 weeks (and
then, at least 3 times a week for…ever :) ).

Examples of Sense Writing

Here’s one I did recently, with notations on the different senses:

Prompt: WHISTLE

I was 8 years old - beach holiday in the australian summer - sleeping with
sand in my toes, crusting in my hair, and behind ears (touch). The salt of the
sea, warm and moist in the air (touch and smell). The evening buzzing and
alive with the rhythmic pulse of cicadas, together creating a screeching
high pitched whistle that filled the air…(sound)
That afternoon, I learned to wolf whistle. Two fingers of each hand shoved
into my mouth (visual, touch, inside body) - the tongue has to be curled back
like Elvis’ hair (visual), then blow. At first, spit dribbling down my chin, and
hot air just wheezing out (touch, sound). And then a short sharp sound. My
heart racing, thumping against the cage of my ribs (inside body) - some kind
of possibility opening up. I could taste the seaweed of the beach on my
fingers and the spit glossing my lips (taste), as the sound sharpened, until
finally shooting out as the loudest most ear rattling sound - a wolf whistle!
(sound)
The sheer power of being 8 years old and able to create that sound! The
sound waves hurtling past my lips and crashing through glass, sweeping out
onto the street (movement) and joining those damn cicadas…as the indigo
twilight started to wash its ink over the day, turning the street gray, the
blanket of the sky sweeping closed (visual), but the sound of those cicadas
still droning into the salty night…(sound)

How to Use Sense Writing to Write Lyrics

#1: Keep the best lines for later.

Mine your writing for gold nuggets—lines, phrases, or even words that are
interesting and evocative. Put them into a list:

sleeping with sand in my toes

The salt of the sea
The evening buzzing and alive
curled back like Elvis’ hair
thumping against the cage of my ribs
hurtling past my lips and crashing through glass
sweeping out onto the street
indigo twilight
wash its ink over the day
turning the street gray
blanket of the sky

Here’s the secret: I can use any of these lines in any song I like. It doesn’t
have to be a song about learning to wolf whistle. Or even a song about
childhood (though I like that idea…more on that in a moment). But there are
some lovely descriptions here of a summer evening that I could use for any
song at all.

In fact, sometimes keeping this list of lines in a doc without the prompt, then
leaving them alone for a few weeks can help detach the lines from their
original context, and allows me to use them for absolutely anything. What I
find is that a few weeks later, I might read a line like ‘sweeping out onto the
street’ and it will attach to an idea that I have been wanting to write
about…so I might get something like:
 In fading moments of indigo twilight
We are wrapped in the blanket of the sky
And spilling out onto the street
You are I are a bottle of wine

#2: Writing to find out what we are writing about.

One of the primary benefits of Sense Writing is that our subconscious comes
out to play. We can’t help it. Our brains are meaning-makers. The most
seemingly random prompt almost always associates with a memory, scene,
or situation that has an emotional imprint on us—and this is the stuff of song.

In my example above, the line that really stands out to me is: “The sheer
power of being 8 years old and able to create that sound!” To me this is a
short story about finding a voice as a young kid, which is also a story about
feeling powerless. About needing voice. About needing to make a sound
loud enough to be heard. There’s something in there worth exploring.

#3: Use it to write a section idea.

I use Sense Writing when I have a song on the go, and specifically when I
know what I want a section of lyric to be about (or how I want it to function
in the song), but I don’t actually have lyrics for it yet.

Let me give you an example. I was working on an album project for Penguin
Random House audio, writing an album of songs about motherhood. With
the particular song I was working on at the time, I knew what I wanted the
song to be about: the early stages of being mostly confined at home with a
tiny infant.

I also had a title—Cocoon—and a Song Map: an outline of where the song

starts, develops, and how it would finish.

Here’s the outline for Verse 1:

The outside world has never looked so beautiful. But I can’t go out. I’m stuck
inside, wrapped up in this cocoon.

Here is a part of the Sense Write I did based on that idea (the prompt I
gave myself was: “summer day”):
The sky outside so wide and blue, is sparkling, twinkling, glittering, a giant
blue ocean whose tide is pulling on us, like a sapphire in the crown of
cosmic gods
But the sky and the sun can both go away because we’re not going outside
today, we don't need to go outside today…

Here is the lyric to Verse 1:

The sky outside’s a sapphire sea

Whose tide is pulling me out
But the sun and sky and ocean too
Will all just have to wait

Because I’m not going outside today

I’m happy alone with you
Wrapped up here inside this cocoon

You can hear it set to music here.

#4: Clearing the decks.

The final way I use Sense Writing as a lyric writer is simply as a daily writing
practice. A way to start my day, to put my mind into gear, to power up my
songwriter brain, so that I am more primed to notice: notice details, pay
attention to senses, become aware of how one thing connects to another.
Even if I use nothing from a particular Sense Write in a song’s lyrics, it is
always worth it.

Why Sense Writing?

Sense Writing trains you to turn ideas into imagery, and imagery is the most
powerful way to connect with the minds and hearts of someone else.

As Leonard Cohen said: “We seem to be able to relate to detail. We seem to

have an appetite for it. It seems our days are made of details, and if you
can get the sense of another person’s day in details, your own day of details
is summoned in your mind in some way rather than just a general line like
“the days went by” (from Songwriters on Songwriting, ed. Paul Zollo).
 #2
METAPHOR
COLLISIONS
This exercise is one of my all-time favorites. It is the fastest way to show
yourself that you are capable of coming up with totally original, unique
ideas and ways to express yourself that no one has ever uttered before.

More importantly, this exercise trains your brain to see the world like a
songwriter—to make novel combinations between seemingly unexpected
things; to refract the familiar through a prism of new light.

Let’s get to it.

What is a Metaphor Collision?

Metaphor Collisions is an exercise that takes two small lists of random

nouns; we then make random collisions between a noun from List 1 and a
noun from List 2, and then very quickly spend 2-3 minutes expanding on the
collision, developing the new idea that emerges when we compare one
thing to another (that has never been compared before!).

How it works

Step 1

Create 2 lists of random nouns, each with 5 nouns in it. [Remember, a

noun is a person/place/object/thing. We know it’s a noun because we can
put the words ‘the’, ‘an’, or ‘a’ before it: The ocean. An idea. A collision.]

List 1 can contain any noun at all, concrete or abstract—and works well when
there is a smattering of both!
List 2 should exclusively contain concrete nouns—tangible things or objects
that you could actually hold, touch, smell, see or hear (as distinct from
abstract nouns, which are concepts or ideas. For example: a conversation,
personality, freedom).

Why? Metaphors come alive with imagery, and concrete nouns are the stuff
of imagery. When one side of the metaphor is guaranteed to contain
imagery, your efforts will generate great rewards.

Here’s an example of 2 lists:

List 1: hospital, haircut, conversation, history, cancer

List 2: river, canyon, ferrari, church, violin

This is a brilliant random word generator. It has a concrete noun generator,

as well as a general noun generator (as well as all sorts of other categories
which are extremely fun to play with once you’ve got the hand of the basic
form of Metaphor Collisions).

Step 2

Make a ‘THIS is THAT’ collision, by picking one word from List 1 and one
word from List 2.

For example: “His history was a canyon.”

Note that I’ve added in the pronoun ‘his’, and also picked a tense, ‘was’. This
gives the metaphor a sense of character and story. You can pick your
pronouns, and experiment with tense. The essence here is the metaphor
collision between ‘history’ and ‘canyon.’

Here comes the important bit, where all of the action happens.

You’re now going to spend 2 minutes expanding on the metaphor that you
have just created. Write a sentence or two that explain and describe how
one thing is like the other.

For example: His history was a canyon—As we got closer, I started to get
dizzy at the edge of everything I didn’t know about him.
Tip: remember that a metaphor is when we say ‘x IS y’; a simile is when we
say ‘x is LIKE y’. Metaphor is a much more potent and intense kind of
language. For the moment, stick with metaphor.

Step 3

Continue making random collisions and expanding them for 10

minutes. See how many you can do. Aim for at least 3.

More examples from these lists:

Her haircut was a church; her natural joy became burdened by the weight of
its seriousness.

The conversation was a river; and I was drowning in the undertow of the
private jokes I didn’t understand.

The hospital was a violin; a cacophony of high-pitched sounds, but with a

highly composed orchestration of doctors, nurses, and machines, every
component coming together in the end.

A Few Things to Notice

1. Notice that I am using novel combinations. I am deliberately avoiding

any combinations that I have heard before. It’s possible you might get
the word ‘love’ in List 1, and the word ‘flame’ in List 2…for the moment,
avoid those tropes.
2. Notice how I am using words and phrases in the sentences that relate
back to the original metaphor image. With ‘river’, I am very
deliberately using the words ‘drowning’ and ‘undertow’. With ‘violin’, we
have ‘cacophony’, ‘high-pitched’, and ‘composed orchestration’. Using
words related to your metaphor is where a metaphor really comes to
life.
3. Notice that I am not mixing metaphors. When I am expanding the
metaphor collision using language related to the metaphor image, I am
deliberately avoiding dipping into other metaphors. Mixing metaphor
tends to feel chaotic, and ultimately dilutes the power of a single,
strong, well-developed metaphor.
4. Notice in the sentences that I am always coming back to the ‘target
idea’—what the sentence is really about. When I say ‘the conversation was a
river’, this sentence is really about the conversation. That’s the target idea.
The ‘river’ is my metaphor, which is to say, it’s the color that I am using to
paint the sentence, but ultimately the most important idea is to describe the
‘conversation’. With the last example, I have deliberately referenced
‘doctors, nurses, and machines’ to make sure that the target idea is never
lost inside the metaphor.

If I had instead written something like:

The hospital was a violin; a cacophony of high-pitched sounds, but with a

highly composed orchestration of melodies and rhythms, every component
coming together in the end…

…we would lose sight of what the target idea is. We get so tangled up in
the metaphor that it starts to sound like we are simply describing a musical
performance, not a hospital. Metaphor collisions (and metaphor is general)
works best when we apply the metaphor language back to specific
elements of the target idea.

How to Use Metaphor Collisions in Your Lyrics

1. You will find, very quickly, that you come up with ideas and expressions
that translate very quickly into lines of lyric. Just like with Sense Writing,
you can collect the gems in a separate document, and use them later.
You don’t need to take the whole collision, either. Often I like to jettison
the actual ‘x is y’ statement, and just keep parts of the expansion;
‘drowning in the undertow of the private jokes’; ‘burdened by the weight
of seriousness.’
2. This is a brilliant brain training exercise, that attunes your perception to
see and develop novel combinations in unexpected ways. Even when
the individual collisions don’t yield specific lyric ideas, sometimes the
most ridiculous ones are the ones that have strengthened this ability the
most! ‘The burrito was an aeroplane’. Figuring out the connection
creates incredibly strong neural pathways!
3. Once you have practiced Metaphor Collisions with truly random inputs,
you can also start to lightly curate your lists, to direct the results to more
emotion-based ideas.
The random word generator also has an ‘emotion’ filter. If you fill List 1
entirely with emotions, then you get something like this:

List 1:
sorrow, remorse, disappointment, love, anticipation

List 2 (random concrete):

sweater, bulb, desktop, flower, hair

Love is a sweater.
Sorrow is a bulb.
Disappointment is a flower.

It truly makes the mind hum with possibility.

Many thanks to my teacher, friend, and mentor Pat Pattison for introducing
me to this exercise.
 #3
TWISTING
CLICHES
Clichés are everywhere.

They are encoded into the way we think and express ourselves in such a
pervasive way that we simply don’t notice they’re there. Yet there they are,
when you’re feeling "under the weather," or if someone "paints you a
picture" of dinner last night; when you’re just "killing time," or perhaps
instead "time flies"…all cliches.

Cliches are useful. They come preloaded with meaning. The problem is that
they are dull.

So how can we use clichés in a way that exploits their pre-loaded meaning,
but rescues them from their mediocrity?

Strategy 1: Replacing
Find a cliche with an image inside it, or a word that is easily replaced.
Make sure that the rest of the sentence still sounds like the original
cliche.

The aural fireworks happen because of the element of surprise—something

familiar with something new inside of it.

For example: We fight like…rust and rain.

What else do we fight like (the key here is: anything unrelated to cats and
dogs…)?
Maybe we fight like:
tree roots and concrete
secrets and loose lips
a toupee and a sudden breeze

Any of these is not only more interesting, but the very fact of subverting the
expected image shines an even brighter light on your alternative
combination.

Song Example

I wanna drive you…wild, wild, wild

From ‘Wild’, by John Legend.

Strategy 2: Extending

Take the image that is being used in the cliché, keep the image, but
elaborate on it using words and images that are related to that image.

For example: I was drowning as the conversation flowed

The cliché of "flowing conversation" is extended by adding in more water

imagery, which is the base image that gave us the cliché in the first place.
Another example: Hungry enough to eat our words

You can see that by elaborating on the image contained within the cliché,
the image itself comes back to life. We now re-see the image as it was
originally intended.

Song Example

Taylor Swift and Liz Rose did a beautiful job of this in Taylor's song, "All Too
Well:"

It was a masterpiece til you tore it all up

Strategy 3: Inverting

Turn a negative into a positive; or

State the opposite of the known cliche

For example: The grass is never greener

Song Example

Time won’t fly

From ‘All Too Well,’ Taylor Swift and Liz Rose.

Strategy 4: Swapping

Strategy 4 relies on the cliché using two images, or using verbs that can
also easily become nouns, and vice versa.

For example, let’s take: There’s no time like the present

And turn it into: There’s no present like time

You can see that this twist relies on the word "present" having two distinct
meanings, which work in both contexts. The best way to find these is to
brainstorm or research as many clichéd expressions as you can, and testing
out whether an inversion will yield anything juicy like this.

One more. Let’s take: Storm in a teacup

And make it: A teacup in a storm

Even though the meanings of the specific images don’t change, the
inversion creates a new image with a fresh connotation.

Strategy 5: Contrasting

Add to the cliché by using a contrasting image (even by combining two

clichés into a novel combination).

For example: I’ll make short work of being long gone

The key here is finding clichés that contain one main image, then using the
opposite or contrasting image to recast the original. When we talk about
opposites or contrasts, we can think about things like: future/past;
day/night; fire/water; best/worst.

Songwriters in the past have used this technique to generate snappy titles:

"The Night We Called It a Day" (Thomas Adair and Matt Dennis)

"The Last Thing I Needed Was the First Thing This Morning" (Gary P. Nunn and
Donna Farar, recorded by Willie Nelson)
"Full Moon and Empty Arms" (Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman, recorded by
Frank Sinatra)

This strategy runs the risk of getting cheesy pretty quickly, so approaching it
with sensitivity and nuance is required to prevent the cheese from
overwhelming the platter.

Strategy 6: Verb object

Change the object of the active verb

This relies on clichés that have an important verb as part of their
construction.

For example, we can take: Play the devil’s advocate

And make it: Play the piano like the devil’s advocate

Or: Break the ice

Becomes: Break him like ice

And Taylor on the subject: Break me like a promise (from "All Too Well").

You don't need to avoid cliches.

They are too valuable, too pre-loaded with meaning to abandon altogether.
Instead, we can take advantage of the meaning they carry with them by
twisting them into new shapes and colors. In fact, by altering them ever so
slightly, we not only end up bringing the dead back to life, but the element
of surprise acts like a switch on the ears of your listeners.

The images you choose will be bathed in the special light of surprise.
 #4
METAPHOR
SENSE WRITING
Metaphor Sense Writing is a combination of Exercise #1 (Sense Writing) and
#2 (Metaphor Collisions).

It’s a way to take a novel combination of ideas—the sun is a bride; aging is a

church (for example)—and expand the connection between the two ideas,
filling it with rich language that furrows into the rabbit hole of the metaphor.

Here’s how it works

Step 1

Find an interesting metaphor! (Use Exercise #2 for this).

Metaphor works best when it is a novel combination of ideas.

When we make a metaphor, we are using one image as a lens through

which we are seeing and describing some other thing. The lens is the
metaphor: it’s the colors we are using to paint the picture. But the picture
itself is what we are actually describing.

If I say, “the sky is a mouth, spitting rain and screaming thunder,” my lens is
‘mouth’. That’s the color palette I’m using to describe the sky. The sky is my
target idea.

Metaphor is all about showing something familiar in an unfamiliar way. Its

magic sparkle is all in its power to surprise (and delight) a listener.

So when starting with a metaphor, aim for something novel rather than
something we’ve heard before.
Step 2

Build a word palette for your metaphor image.

Spend 5 minutes creating a list of words and phrases that are closely
related to the metaphor image. Aim for a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and phrases.

For example, let’s say my metaphor is: “her temper is a hurricane”.

Hurricane is a metaphor image.

Here’s my word palette:

Thunder, Lightning, Crash, Swell, Tide, Tidal wave, Flood, Electricity, Surge,
Strike, Crack, Crash, Rain, Hale, Clouds, Dark, Grey, Cold, Humid, Air is thick,
Eye of the storm

You can use a few extra resources to help you build a rich palette:

1. Use an online Idiom Dictionary. Use a few different search terms around
your metaphor.

For ‘hurricane’, I would also search: ‘rain’, ‘storm’, and ‘weather’.

2. Use the ‘related words’ filter on rhymezone.com.

Sometimes the list can have a few random things in there, but often will
throw up lots of useful language related to your search.

3. Get yourself a hard copy of the Roget’s International Thesaurus. The

internet has not yet replicated the awesomeness of this resource, and it is
by far the best thing for this job. For a deeper dive into this resource and
how to use it for this job, check out this YouTube video from our channel.

The aim here is to give yourself lots to choose from, and especially to give
yourself options beyond the first and most obvious words associated with
your metaphor.
Step 3

Spend 10 minutes Sense Writing using your metaphor as the prompt.

Write in full sentences (prose). Dip into your word palette, using those words
and phrases by applying them to what you are actually describing.

Here’s an excerpt from mine:

The clouds of her mind gathered, darkening in her eyes. Her words were
lightning, striking out at the nearest touch point - her voice swelled and
spilled, and you hardened like ice. You could sense her humid thoughts,
invisible but making everything heavy under them. For days afterwards, her
dark mood rumbled on the horizon of your life…

How to use Metaphor Sense Writing in your Lyrics

Strategy #1: Write a Metaphor song

‘Metaphor songs’ are a ‘type’ of song that is entirely based on a strong,

central metaphor. The lyrics to these songs almost always express the
central metaphor in the Chorus or refrain, and use language related to the
central metaphor throughout the rest of the lyric to express and explore the
different dimensions of the idea and emotion.

Let’s take a look at one here. I have highlighted all the language in the lyrics
that is drawn out of the strong, singular metaphor at the center of the song,
‘Love is Rocket Science’.
Rocket Science
By Lori McKenna

They say it ain't complicated

Any fool can understand
Until the fuse is lit and
It blows up in your hand

It all looks good on paper

Step by step, you follow the plan
In the sky watch the desperate vapor
'Til it blows up in your hand
 Love is rocket science
What comes up it must come down
In burning pieces on the ground
We watch it fall
Maybe love is rocket science after all

Other song examples

Here’s a few other well-known songs that use the same technique:

Slow Cooker, John Legend

Mirrorball, by Taylor Swift
Belief, by John Mayer
Locked Out of Heaven, by Bruno Mars
Bad Habit, by Liz Longley

Strategy #2: Extract the stand-out lines

In spending a little longer on developing a metaphor idea through Metaphor

Sense Writing, sometimes you will write a sentence that never would have
happened if you weren’t following that trail of crumbs through the forest.

I found myself writing this the other day, while exploring the metaphor, ‘the
teacher was a map’:

…she showed me that although the curriculum was the main highway we
were traveling, that the best learning I would do would be on the side
roads of experience outside the classroom.

Would I write a song about a teacher? Maybe yes (there are some
absolutely gorgeous songs about teachers), but also, this line alone stood
out to me:

“On the side roads of experience”

That line alone was worth the 10 minutes it took to get there, and it’s
important to note: I never would have gotten there if I wasn’t exploring the
metaphor.
Now that I have the line, I can leave behind the initial metaphor. I’m not
contractually obliged to use it at all. It’s often the discoveries along the way
when we are Metaphor Sense Writing that are the treasures to keep.

Strategy #3: Twist an idiom

Here’s a slightly different approach to this exercise. Instead of using a novel

combination of ideas, actively seek out a familiar combination, but use
Metaphor Sense Writing to add something new and original to it, that turns
the familiar into something worth seeing again.

Let’s take something like:

“eat your words”

There’s a metaphor here that has to do with eating/food.

In spending 10 minutes creating an ‘eating’ word palette, and exploring the
metaphor, I wrote:

“Hungry enough to eat our words”

I suggest using an idiom dictionary, either an online version, or even better, a

physical version (I use this one), to explore idioms based on a metaphor
image. Spend 10 minutes on it, and see what new trails of thought you end
up with. It’ll be worth it, I promise.

Here are a few to get you going:

Handed on a silver platter (word palette: food/serving/restaurant)

In the line of fire (word palette: fire/war)
Live like a king (word palette: king/castle)
Go off the deep end (word palette: pool/swimming)
 #5
CHORUS
PROMPTS
What a Chorus is Not

I have some important news about a Chorus—news that took me way too
long to properly understand:

The Chorus of a song is not just the bit where the lyrics repeat!

If I had realized this a little sooner in my songwriting career, it would have

saved me 10 years of learning the hard way.

One other thing that the Chorus is NOT:

The Chorus of a song is not just a summary of the main idea.

Thinking of it as the ‘summary’ idea is likely to lead you to write in

generalities, or lead you to an idea that is the ‘average’ point of your story,
emotion, or image.

So What IS a Chorus?

The Chorus of a song is: the RESPONSE to the problem (or conflict, or
tension) explored in the verses.

The Chorus houses the peak emotion, the central idea, or core message.

‘Peak emotion’ is critically different from ‘summary idea’. One stands at the
top of the mountain; the other is halfway down.
So What Kinds of Responses are There?

The chorus is what most needs to be said.

The chorus may be the question that most needs to be answered.
The chorus may be the realization or insight that has been learned.
The chorus may be the decision that has been made, or the action that
will be taken.
Most importantly, the chorus is not just ‘another idea’, or even a
‘summary idea’, but it is a response to the problem exposed and
developed in the verses.

Chorus Writing Prompts

Below are a series of writing prompts, designed to drill straight to the core
idea, central idea, or peak emotion of a song idea.

Think of these prompts as jenga pieces; you need to push on each one to
see which ones move. They won’t all move; but we need to push anyway.

How to use the prompts

The prompts are most effective when you have a song idea on the go;
maybe you’ve written a verse or 2, or just some lyric sketches, but you have
in your mind a sense of what this song is about, perhaps even a clear scene,
situation, or moment in your mind, but no chorus lyrics.

Spend 2 minutes on each prompt. Even if it feels like it isn’t moving

much, stick with it for 2 minutes.

1. So I realized…
2. So I decided…
3. So I’m going to…
4. That’s why I always say…
5. What I really need to tell you is…
6. I’m scared that…
7. What I really want to happen is…
8. What I most want to know is (phrased as a question)...
9. You make me feel…
10. If I am a ________ then you are a ________ (use metaphor).
Song Examples

Check out these songs, and see if you can identify which prompt the Chorus
of the song most closely aligns with.

1. Royals, Lorde
2. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, John Mayer
3. Chandelier, Sia
4. See the World, Gomez
5. Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
6. Will You Love me Tomorrow? Carole King and Gerry Goffin
7. The Bird and the Rifle, Lori McKenna

A Few Tips

Use for the Verses too: A lot of the writing you do for these prompts
can make great lyrics and ideas for the verses too! You are not
contractually obliged to use them exclusively in your Chorus. What you
will often find, however, is that some of them drive to the emotion heart
of your song idea, and are touching that core element that is essential
to the Chorus.
Look for a Title: as you are exploring the Chorus writing prompts, keep
a little searchlight on in your mind that is always looking for a title. It
may not happen, but simply turning that light on will help you identify it if
it arises as you are writing. This is a useful lens to use when reading over
what you have written at the end of 20 minutes.
Writing the Chorus first: Lots of songwriters will write the Chorus of a
song first, before writing any of the Verses at all. This is a fun and
effective way to write. You can try it out here too, by using your writing
to the prompts, plus a strong song title, to craft your chorus, and then
expand the Verse lyrics out of the Chorus idea.
Repetition is fine: Don’t worry if you find that you are repeating
yourself in several of the prompts. Each prompt is a slightly different
angle or lens to explore your song’s central idea through. Remember the
jenga! Push each one, and see how it moves.
That's it, friends.

I hope this serves you as an ongoing resource for your songwriting. I

hope it helps to spark your creativity.

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courses.

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here.

Our YouTube Channel, How to Write Songs, can be found here.

Happy writing,
Keppie
Copyright © 2023 by Keppie Coutts

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