DISCLAIMER: I am not an amazing lyricist, so take this with a grain of salt. And again, parts of this dips into the realm of unteachable but I hope that by sharing my story it can help inspire you. There are a few very practical things here that I think that can help any kind of artist. This is me trying my best to help you discover the best in you.

My journey to writing lyrics

In Feb 2014 if you would have asked me, "Can you write lyrics?". I would have said emphatically, "NO!". Not like, "No, I won't", but like "There is no possible way I could do it ever in my life". Might as well be asking me to change the weather. I even resigned to myself that I would just do improv on covers and so kept practicing that. I thought my words would just come out to cheesy and crappy. I did attempt a few songs in Highschool on guitar, but they are horrible and will go into the deep archives where when things go in and they never come out. My aunt though kept just nudging me, "You know, I really think it is in there somewhere." And, overtime it just sort of percolated and my defenses went down. 

Then one day on my way driving home from work I was humming the melody to "Close" and had the thought, "Wait, I think I have lyrics to a chorus to this in my head... right now..." I went home and pounded out the song. Very simple lyrics, but I had done it! I broke through and did something I thought I could never do. But, that was only the beginning. That night I stayed up all night and wrote three more. It was like something unlocked in my brain and words just started coming out. I'll talk a little bit more about my writing process when I get to the composing phase of writing below.

The two phases of writing

You can only write about things your have experienced and so in essence you are writing all the time. That is, if you are paying attention. Everything collects into one whole, You, and then you share who you are through your art. I divide lyric writing into two parts. There is a Gathering Phase and a Composing Phase.

Gathering Phase: It is all about experiance

I said it before, but I but I believe it is important so I will say it again. You can only write about things you have experienced, so it is your quest as an artist to experience as many things as you can. And, this isn't a class where you get credit for just showing up. You have to be present, engaged, and perceptive during these experiences. Otherwise, you are just wasting an opportunity to become more then you were before. There is also the matter of recording these somehow so you can access them later. Your memory may be a lot better than mine (Mine is particularly bad) but it is nothing compared to a paper and pencil. Phones work too because you can snap pictures and make notes. They also don't have to necessarily be "amazing" experiences either. The miracle of a man's life is the sum of his mundane as well as momentous moments. It is all about perspective. What is normal to you may be inspiring to another. Just experience it. Let it become a part of you so you can then share that part to help make others whole.

You can also experience something through the experience of someone else. For example reading a well written book. Just because you weren't there for the Holocaust doesn't mean reading Night by Elie Wiesel can't make you cry and deepen your compassion for others. After all you want people to experience something through the art you create. Learn from the example of others who have done it.

You can sum up this process in a revolving pattern like this:

• Experience
• Perceive
• Record
• Reflect

I love trying new things and am pretty much willing to do anything. Forget YOLO (You only live once) more like DEALO (Do everything at least once). I thought it might be helpful and maybe even a little entertaining to illustrate my triage process when it comes to trying new things with an info-graphic.

My inspirations

I keep track of my lyrics, song inspirations, and quotes of mine and others on my Instagram under various Hashtags. Here is a compilation. 

So the next time you are walking down the street, or watching a movie I hope you can do it less passive. Don't let things happen to you. Make what happens to you become a part of who you are. Record that somehow and then prepare for the next phase of writing, the Composing Phase.

The Composing Phase

This again is something really hard to teach. I hope that by showing you my process it may help you find your own process. You don't need to do it this way. You just need to find your way.

Go over what you have recorded

So, I have this bank of experiences I have been gathering. I have it stored in a way I can access it easily. Now what? I sit down and compose. This process is more deliberate than the first phase. You commit to trying to express something you have gathered and you dedicate time to it. There are many directions you can come from to write a song. These are a few I have found, but I am always open to finding more. Message me ones that have worked for you and I might add them to the list.

• Start with an idea you want to get across. For example, when the plane landed in Taipei I noticed everyone stood up even though we were in the back of the aircraft. We aren't going to leave any faster by changing our seating position. Also, in lines people seem to feel the closer they are to the person in front of them the sooner they will get to their destination. False. We could all be standing three feet apart and you would move through the line just as fast. So, I had the idea of writing a song about hurrying up to wait. Then I would sit down on the piano and play till something fits, or listen to my bank of improv (See on my How to Improvise Page) until I found one that fit. Then I would start writing.
• Start with a melody or chord progression. A good example of this is 16-bit world. I really felt like the melody could go along with an old school video game, so I wrote and ode to my favorite Super Nintendo games I used to play.
• Start with a phrase or poem. At this point the song may not have a fleshed out theme but you thought of some words that are catchy, rhymes well, or has a deep meaning to you. You start with this to come up with the point you want to express and then you find music to go along with it, but not necessarily in that order. It could go melody first, or you could write more lyrics, or come up with a grander vision for what the song will be. Here are two examples. The first I wrote late at night on my phone while writing my first album, and the second I wrote while in a taxi on my way home in Taipei. Maybe they'll end up as songs some day who knows.

• When does a boat become a ship
  When does a storm become a hurricane
  When does a boy become a man
  When does who you've been become who you've became

• Somewhere in the world the sun is shining somewhere it is night
• Somewhere in the world people lay down their arms, others don't go down without a fight
• For some it floods
  For some it droughts
  Some just need love
  Some just need to get out
  What's your perspective?

Those are just a few directions but I am sure there are many more and some may work better for you then others. If you have one that works for you message me and I'll add it above. The only way to see how you write is to just keep writing. Just keep writing.

My style of writing

You need to find out what works best for you, but my style is to write them out pretty much as is. I wrote my whole first album in six days and it took me about 45 minutes to get the lyrics and accompaniment written. I also don't really re-write. I write with a pen and I only scratched out a few lines over the whole album. And, I re-ordered a verse or two. Sometimes I used the thesauruses and rhyming dictionaries. 

My second album I wrote even faster and I would like to think my lyrical ability improved as well. I had the melodies already picked out. I decided I was going to do an album based off of my favorite electronic songs without words and write words and record them on the piano. So, I just needed to come up with lyrics. On the plane ride from Salt Lake CIty to Taipei Taiwan (15 hour flight) I wrote 18 songs. I lost one of them in transit, but I'll be recording the rest. I also tried to take a nap, ate my meals, talked for a long time to the guy next to me, and only wrote while I was in flight. Also, I had no internet to look up anything. I hope I can keep it up, I hope I can keep writing, and I hope I can share a little bit of me with you.

Best to your writing endeavors. I hope I helped some, if not I hope it was at least entertaining. 

Cheers,
Tinman