Stuck. It’s every songwriter’s nightmare.
You’ve stumbled upon a fresh, highly original, and seemingly never-before-written hook that you know will change the world and your entire financial future, but you’re stuck. You’ve “hit the wall” somewhere in your writing and can’t get the song finished.
No matter what you try, those last two lines of the chorus just don’t want to pop out into your head or you’ve fallen into the “2nd Verse Curse” and can’t get that elusive second verse started, much less el finito.
What’s worse, the more you obsess about finishing it the more elusive the lines or melodies become, growing their own tiny elfin feet and running away from you as fast as they can, scampering hither and yon and just daring you to chase them. It’s like the song itself is taunting you from your laptop or it’s the first thing you see when you look at your phone and the voice memo is literally yelling back at you, “Finish me! Finish MEEEEEEEE!!!”
What to do?
Is it time for therapy? Self-hypnosis? A walk around the park or…? Well, maybe those things will help if you need them and a good walk around any park is usually a great thing for body and soul. But what if you’re really, really, REALLY stuck? Truth is, 99% done ain’t done. No one’s going to get excited about the song you’re only almost finished with, right?
The answer to that might not be as clear cut as you think.
If you’re a solo singer-songwriter, then you’re kind of on your own and I’ve got some specific help for you at the end of the article. But, if you’re not so worried about being the only writer on the song, a partially written song isn’t so bad if you can connect with co-writers to help finish it out and maybe even improve it over all. In fact, that’s pretty much the trend in Nashville even for established songwriters, even when the song starts with co-writers.
For example, I was in a session the other day in which my co-writer and I came up with a brilliant idea complete with hook and almost an entire chorus. She’s not a performer or worship leader, so the song’s not for her ministry. I am a worship leader/artist, but I’m not recording anytime soon. We both believe the song is “bigger” than either of us, so we’re asking her publishing company to approach a producer or artist on our behalf to see if they can get anyone interested in finishing it with us or taking our idea to write their own version and credit us. It happens.
But, if you’re the singer-songwriter or you don’t have these kinds of connections and opportunities, whaddya do? How do you finish this crazy song if you’re totally stuck?
Getting Unstuck – With help from your friends
Here are a few things that have worked for me in the past. Maybe they’ll benefit you now.
#1 – Give it a rest
Just like our minds and bodies, songs can get a little tired. Sometimes they need to be told to go take a nap on the couch like you’re three-year old or left alone for awhile to sit under a tree with a good book. When you keep pounding and pounding it, it can get a little resentful, beat up, and bruised and needs to be given a little respite from the action to recover. It’s kind of like overworking your hair or the hamburger meat. Sometimes letting it rest makes all the difference. Getting away from the song for a day or a week or a month can help you re-approach it with fresh thoughts and insights. Maybe you’re really the one who needs a nap.
#2 – Journal around the idea
Often songwriters don’t know what they’re really saying in a song, even one with a great hook. Besides, a great hook can be written from many perspectives. Give a room full of fifty songwriters the same hook and you’ll get fifty different versions back in their finished songs. So, if you’re feeling a bit stuck, take a bit of time however short or long to journal around the idea. What’s the real meat of the hook? What’s the core message in it? What’s it really trying to say? How do you feel about it? Journaling has a way of clarifying the thought process and thus bringing you back to it with more fodder, more grist from which to build. And the mere act of writing loosens the mind and causes you to slow down and freely think instead of just wrestling with the frustration of being stuck.
#3 – Resource yourself
I think this is the primary problem with most songwriters. They’ve fallen into the notion that they should be able to just sit down and start writing with no preparation, no resourcing of creativity or ideas to draw from. We wouldn’t try to cook dinner without going to the store first, so why do we sit down to write without prepping? Doesn’t anyone watch Rachael Ray anymore? She would never start cooking without prepping her ingredients and neither should you. Think about it like one of our coaches, Rob, does as pre-writing.
I often tell songwriters they should spend 80% of their time developing their ideas and 20% writing the actual songs, but that seems like a hard sell to some writers. Wish I could convince them, though, because preparation and resourcing makes all the difference in the final product. Reading great literature, watching great movies, hanging out with great people who say great things often are all very important for you to do. There’s no glory in sitting down and creating something ex nihilo (out of nothing). Only God does that.
Getting Yourself Unstuck
#1 – Dummy Lyrics
There are a couple of other things you can try to get unstuck, as well, like just putting “dummy lyrics” in as placeholders in order to finish the melody out the way you want. A lot of pop songwriters do that and it seems to work for them. Since we’re mostly Gospel focused writers the message seems to be the most important and therefore the lyrics take preeminence, usually, so I don’t mess around with dummy lyrics unless I must. But hey – do what you gotta do.
#2 – Find Inspiration
Another thing I’ll do is research other songs around the same idea or topic to see if I can draw from others’ inspiration without lifting anything directly, but learning how they approached it. Sometimes just listening to music of any kind inspires me and I’m back in the saddle again.
No one wants to be stuck
Especially if you have a great idea going. Nothing creates momentum like momentum and 99% done ain’t done. Get your mojo going in the right direction again with these tips and get those songs finished!
This is great stuff, thank you. I would love to work with cowriters soon, but I have been solo for a long time and can vouch for two things on this list. The first that I’ve done for years is to take a break from songs. In fact, I think my better work has been set on a shelf and come back to much later (months, even years) and reworked. It’s the only way when you’re by yourself to “cowrite” with yourself. Let the song surprise you later and hear it anew as if you’re hearing someone else’s new song. Short term though, I also like to take walks. Getting quiet and listening while walking outside helps me to hear the song being played rather than sitting with a guitar or piano and noodling. The second which I’ve only started this year is journaling. It’s really a spiritual journal and not a musical one – daily writing down scriptures, thoughts and any experiences of God. This is not only personally meaningful but has started to serve as a guide and inspiration for writing songs. On a side note, there’s a great scene in the movie I Can Only Imagine where the writer of that song draws from his journal. 🙂
Thanks again for sharing your advice and experience!
You’re welcome Evan – – great to meet you today!
Good advice! I am fortunate enough to play a guitar so most of my “partial songs” I play over and over, usually “plugging-in” what John referred to as “dummy lyrics”. I try to keep it close to the main idea. Sometimes this will break me out of “stall mode”, or at least give me an idea on what doesn’t work. I’ve even found this method to be helpful when I think I’m finished with a song. I’ll “test drive” the song many times over, critically listening to each phrase. I have caught myself using the same word several times, when changing the phrasing and not allowing the same word to re-appear in several verses, would provide a fresh “word” or “set of words” that would keep the song more interesting.
Great! I was in a co-write recently and none of us were catching that we’d used the same word in two sections…… caught it in the REWRITE! Keep up the effort!