If you're a songwriter, at one point throughout your career, you will probably hit a wall with ideas. It may be a hard reality, because you once had hundreds of ideas, maybe even thousands flowing through your mind, but now, here you are, bit by the writer's block bug.
Luckily for yourself, we have you covered with three exercises.
1 - Listen to Your Favorite Songs and Take Inspiration From Them
If you’re not sure what to write about, or inspiration is just not hitting you the way it normally does, there is no problem in taking your favorite songs and writing them in a way to fit your style.
There is an old expression that “good artists borrow” whereas “great artists steal.” By no means does this mean copying a song, because in no way, share or form is that moral or legal. You can however take existing songs (or components of them), and tweak them, to make them in your own style. Or even try a new style. Try something completely different than what you normally do. You may never record this song, but by experimenting and allowing your creative juices to flow, you will not only overcome writers block, but also may just write something amazing.
To challenge yourself even more, keep components of the song you took inspiration from, such as the beat, or song structure. Or even take inspiration from the lyrics from one song and the beat from another and try to put them together in your unique way.
2 - Write a Song You Know You Will Never Use
Sounds crazy and maybe like a waste of time, we know, but the truth is that writer's block is usually brought about as a result of being in your own head too much. The problem might not be not having an idea, but rather not have a way to accurately portray that idea. As a result, you continue to brainstorm in your head, but never get anything down on paper.
As soon as you get something down on paper, you have a starting point, and that’s what writing a song you may never use allows. Rather than striving for perfection, it allows you to get something down. By getting a starting point, you now have something tangible that you may be able to evolve, or at the very least, you may find a chord progression you like, or a melody, or a hook, etc.
Get out of your own head and just create, with no pressure of it needing to be a song in the end.
3 - Write a Song About Songwriters Block
A song can literally be about anything, or in this case, nothing. Write about your journey with not knowing what to write about. How does it feel? Are you frustrated? What would you like to feel? Is there a topic you would like to write about, but not sure what to say? Write it all down, and the rest will come.
You can make it narrow by mentioning you have writers block (which will 100% connect with other songwriters) or more broad and instead of saying writers block, use it as an analogy for something else.
The point is, writers block is something. It is a feeling. It is an idea. You can use that to your advantage.
We hope these exercises helped you overcome your writer's block. Let us know what exercises you would like next!