Songwriting is poetry that society is still willing to pay money to hear. Poets who write poetry are tolerated, but not supported. If they try hard enough, someone will publish their poem in a magazine or book, although to be published in a book nowadays, the poet usually has to pay the publisher. The publisher will make his money by selling the book of collected poems back to the poets, generally the only ones who will pay to read poetry but only if it is their own. Although there are some genuine publications for serious poetry, only in songwriting is the competition still fierce, and the rewards large.

But remember a songwriter is a poet and poetry is still an art. Poetry deserves a lot of thought and the best words that are in you. Artists look at the world and summarize or re-interpret it for everybody else. To do this well, you must often bend the rules, both of grammar and of the world. So don't feel constrained by your words but try to set them free so that someone else can experience something new or learn more about themselves. There is lots of advice on how to write a good song and how to construct it and what kind of things are selling but I suggest another approach.

Writers talk about the muse, as a spirit that brings the ideas and words to them and it really does seem to work that way, especially when your muse has left and you haven't got a single idea in your head. You can't force her (always female) to come to you but you can do some things that help. Get comfortable in a quiet place where you won't be bothered for some time and you have everything at hand so you won't need to get up. Then start playing with some old ideas or put down a few new ones and see what happens. I have had songs almost leap out of me, done in 45 minutes. Others I have had to winch out from some lower part of my consciousness, taking weeks and sometimes months to get anything worth singing. Try to do this several times a week so it becomes part of a routine. Start with the music and see if words come or take an idea and see if some words fit.

It really helps to carry around a small notebook, shirt pocket size, to write down anything that hits you during the day. A notebook is better than a small tape recorder because you can visually scan it in moments and it takes forever to listen to everything on a tape. Most of the stuff you put down won't work, but you never know. You may see something that you know is a song because the world is full of people trying to make a life, going through the same things you are. There is inspiration everywhere, including the food court at the mall. Get a cup of coffee and watch the other people and listen to what they talk about. Try not to be too obvious about it. One of my best songs came while I was driving into town and I remembered a particularly bad date in high school. I almost drove off the road while I was hitting myself in the head, but the line I was using to assuage my guilt over that date became a song. The song was later named official class song at my 20th high school reunion and that honor was actually better than having someone record it. Everyone wishes they did high school better.

Writing is a creative act and creativity has been studied extensively. They have found that creativity really does come from somewhere else, not from the conscious level of your mind. The man who discovered the molecular structure of the DNA molecule saw the form in a dream. When he woke up he knew the dream held the answer but he couldn't remember enough of it. He spent a very frustrating day trying to recall what he had seen but that night he dreamed it again and this time he woke up and drew the double helix form the dream showed him. So put a notebook and a couple of pens beside your bed. Make it a big notebook this time. If you are like me you write really messy when you force yourself out sleep. You need to tell yourself before you sleep to remember your dreams. If you haven't done this kind of thing before it may take a few weeks of practice. I have found if you tell yourself a hundred times to wake up for each dream just before you drift off, (I count on my fingers!) it is enough of a push to get conscious after each dream. Then you can decide if there is anything in the dream worth keeping and whether to write any of it down. Dreams are all symbolic of what your life is, so everything in the dream is some aspect of you acting out. This also helpful to remember if you have nightmares. When you dream you are very close to being conscious, so when you start watching your dreams you are more aware that you are dreaming while you sleep. Pushing up to awareness that little extra bit ends the bad dream.

Creativity is also a giving. The truth is that unless you are already famous, nobody is really very interested in your life or how you are making your way in it. If they tell you they are they are just being polite. People are mainly only interested in their own lives and look for anything that will help them. The best songs are those that help people see and define their own hopes and dreams. This is why love songs are always in demand. Everyone wants love. Also everybody feels guilt over something, sometimes something as small as a single bad date in high school. Everyone wants to be told they are all right, that they are lovable, that they are trying, and that it will all work out somehow. And all of this is going on all around you all the time and all you have to do is write it down in a creative way that will cause people who hear to say, "Yes - that's me."

© 2000 Jon Huntress
jhuntres@tenagra.com