How to write lyrics?

[Ivy]

I've never attempted to write lyrics before and it is a form I'm interested in trying. I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. Any information would be appreciated Thanks so much. Ivy

[Hannah]

Ivy

There's no easy answer to how to write lyrics. Even when I was at college, there was no class on the subject, although they had a guest lecturer once!  Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the lecture although I was interested. As a single mum, I had to get home for my son. It's a complex process and even though I write lyrics, I don't know that my method will help. I play a couple of instruments but mainly the guitar and I find when I write a song, I do both the music and the lyrics at the same time. I haven't developed a method, it just works that way for me.

It's a good idea, especially to start with, to have a tune in mind. It doesn't matter if it's a well known tune, in fact that's probably better, and change the words. Often you'll find that, as you develop your own lyrics, the tune will change as well and become your own. If you develop your own melody, that's all the better.

There are similarities to writing poems but it is really a different process; for one thing, the rhythms are quite different, and are presented in a different way. It's fun to play around with and have a go.

As in poetry, it's a good idea to focus on something that really interests you and see where it goes. One thing is to avoid straining to make a rhyme work or putting in too many words to suit the melody - words can be stretched over several (or even more) notes.

Your aim is to tell a story and perhaps one of the easiest starting ways is to focus on the basic writing idea of beginning, middle, end. The story can be one of emotion though, as is the case with most top hit songs.
Just as reading is a vital tool for writers, listening to songs, especially the lyrics, is a vital tool for song writers. We often listen to a song and hear it as a complete thing: the music, the words, the emotion. But, for seeing what the lyricist did, focus just on the words and see how they fit to the music and how they create the emotion. It's a form of deconstruction, even though it's not that basic either, because a song is an ensemble of elements. People do write songs though without writing the music, and people write the melodies of songs without writing the lyrics; so it can definitely be done.

Perhaps one thing you can do, is tap your foot to the words even if you don't have a specific melody. There will need to be a consistency in rhythm even if the words don't exactly fit: remember, the words can be truncated or stretched to fit the notes, plus you can add 'oh oh oh' etc. 

If I think of anything else, I'll post it here. Let me know how you go; and enjoy yourself! 

Hannah