Category: writing
Creative Practice
Generating Ideas for Lyrics
Habits of Success
Lyric Writing
Melody Writing
writing
A Songwriter’s Main Struggle and How to Fix It
22 December 2024
Every songwriter has 2 main struggles: Struggle #1: To consistently make work you are proud of. Struggle #2:…
Creative Practice
Generating Ideas for Lyrics
Lyric Writing
My writing
Song Starters
Uncategorized
writing
Top 5 Exercises for Coming Up With Great Song Lyric Ideas—#1: Sense Writing.
7 December 2022
In this series, I’ll go through my all-time Top 5 Exercises for generating lyric ideas, whether I’ve got…
Uncategorized
writing
My 6 Favourite Books of 2021
2 January 2022
Top 3 Fiction A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik I snuck this one in in the last week of…
Uncategorized
Wisdom from Songwriters
writing
George Saunders, Janis Ian, and Paul Simon—Where Meaning Comes From in Story
12 December 2021
In a recent newsletter by one of my favourite writers, George Saunders, he writes of one of his…
Language
writing
Drunk in the day – and other tips on writing well
26 October 2021
Writes William Zinsser in, “On Writing Well”: …you have to strip your writing down before you can build…
Creative Practice
Generating Ideas for Lyrics
Uncategorized
Wisdom from Songwriters
writing
The Best Method for Writing a Good Song
11 August 2021
From a recent interview with John Mayer: “Whenever I want to write a big song, I can’t. And…
Uncategorized
writing
Why write it as a song?
28 June 2021
It’s a question I ask of myself all the time. Why write this idea as a song, and…
Generating Ideas for Lyrics
Song Starters
Uncategorized
writing
120 Sense Writing Prompts
17 June 2021
If you’re already familiar with Sense Writing (aka Object Writing), feel free to skip ahead to the prompts…
Metaphor
Song Starters
Wisdom from Songwriters
writing
Songwriters on songwriting
21 December 2020
I’ve been baffled lately that there aren’t more songwriters in the world who write about writing. Luckily, there…
Generating Ideas for Lyrics
Psychology of Creativity
Songs I Love
Uncategorized
Wisdom from Songwriters
writing
Steal Like a Songwriter
16 September 2019
The most effective way I write songs is to immerse myself in songwriters. I like to remind myself…
Metaphor
writing
Metaphor in songwriting is alive and well, thanks.
1 September 2019
Many years ago, while living in LA, I heard a Big Shot Industry Dude (cue Beethoven’s 5th…) say:…
Language
Uncategorized
writing
Writing Tips from George Orwell
22 November 2016
One of the most incisive essays I have ever read on the art of writing is the short…