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[Tehz]

During these past few months I've been making a good effort to finally piece together some things I've written on guitar into complete songs, and thus far I've been able to do so with relative ease. However, once I get past instrumentation, writing the words to go along has proven to be a challenge. Occasional writer's block aside, writing usually comes to me pretty easily in most formats, with songwriting appearing to be the lone exception; I really just find it difficult to write anything down without it seeming cliché or contrived to me. A lot of the time I feel like it's just me lacking faith in my own ability and just believing that what I wrote sounds like something any fourteen year-old with a music Myspace could come up with, but at the same time I can't be sure.

Every once in a while I think of something that I'm pretty happy with, but a lot of the time what ends up happening is I'll read it again at another point and change my mind. Sometimes I strike gold and an idea or two manages to make it past the embryonic stage, but that's a dishearteningly rare occasion. I know I'm still relatively new at this and it will probably take some time before better ideas start to flow, but it's still something of a downer when most of my writings end up getting tossed.

I'm not necessarily looking for advice, but I'd be happy to accept any. I'm sort of just searching for people in a similar boat; is it really that difficult to write good lyrics or am I just being a big baby about it?

[The Duke]

I was the same way for a long time, and I'm certainly not completely past that stage yet.

I found that it helps a lot to get a friend you can test them out on, who will give you their honest opinion.  Try out every song you write on them, regardless of whether or not you think it's good.  

It's worked pretty well for me so far.

[Be My Head]

Have you tried writing the lyrics before you write the melody?

[Tehz]

Sometimes if I feel the need to write my ideas down I will without a particular melody in mind. I'm pretty sure that's a mistake most of the time.

[imapiratearg]

I have a hard time writing lyrics a lot.  I try to come up with lyrics when writing the melody.

[Ballard]

OP I am pretty much exactly where you are. Exactly.

And it upsets me because although I am a very decent guitarist and have been playing for a fairly long amount of time, I have never completed a song.

[scarred]

I am horrible I repeat horrible at this whole "lyrics" kit n kaboodle that you speak of. Which is sad, because some of the melodies I've concocted would sound great under some vocals.

[Spluff]

Take the AC/DC route and write about rockin' out

or maybe write about a classic novel (you should write a song about The Time Machine), that seems to be all the rage these days

[Tom]

Yes Time Travel and Alchemy are where it's at.

[Ballard]

I am horrible I repeat horrible at this whole "lyrics" kit n kaboodle that you speak of. Which is sad, because some of the melodies I've concocted would sound great under some vocals.

Yeah see this. I can play guitar and hum/da na na melodies along to my playing all day. But lyrics bloo bloo blah.

[Thrillho]

I find that the better way to write lyrics is to write the whole thing front to back and THEN tweak it. At least then the core ideas are there. If you waste too much time farting about on a few of the first lines then you'll end up losing your inspiration.

As far as struggling to write lyrics, lately I've been finding it really hard because I'm too happy, basically. I mostly only miserable stuff, and so now that I'm in a happy relationship I'm just writing hardly anything.

[pinkpiche]

Would you really want it to be easy?

[Johnny C]

I find that the better way to write lyrics is to write the whole thing front to back and THEN tweak it.

All writing is a process of revision. The hardest part is getting the whole thing written down, and when it comes out cliché you can always just change it.

[Bastardous Bassist]

or maybe write about a classic novel (you should write a song about The Time Machine), that seems to be all the rage these days

Again!?  Goddamnit, people.  It wasn't awesome when Maiden did it...  Oh, wait.  It totally was.  Continue doing this.

I don't write lyrics, but that's mainly because I don't listen to lyrics.  I am an instrumentalist through and through.  I don't think in terms of words.  I think in terms of chord progressions, voice leading and counterpoint (really basic counterpoint; it was the only theory class that I didn't do so well in).

However, I have seen lyrics get written before, and I agree that the way to do it is to write the whole thing, no matter how bad you think it is.  If it's truly terrible, then you can do it again and nothing it ever a total waste.  When forcing yourself to just write, sometimes an awesome phrase or even just a word occurs to you.  You can take four or five drafts and lift stuff from each of them, and you might end up with the awesomest song ever.

Also, when writing music, I always find that the hardest part is starting out, but once you get the entire thing down, you can write a beginning that fits the awesome rest of the piece you've written.  Who ever said that the beginning had to be the first thing you wrote?

[The Duke]

When forcing yourself to just write, sometimes an awesome phrase or even just a word occurs to you. 
Also, when writing music, I always find that the hardest part is starting out, but once you get the entire thing down, you can write a beginning that fits the awesome rest of the piece you've written.  Who ever said that the beginning had to be the first thing you wrote?

Truth.  This is actually how I wrote my first song.

[Thrillho]

I find that the better way to write lyrics is to write the whole thing front to back and THEN tweak it.

All writing is a process of revision. The hardest part is getting the whole thing written down, and when it comes out cliché you can always just change it.

Precisely. Keeping your original thought to the end of the lyric and then altering the whole thing as you see fit rather than sweating so much over the opening line. I've been doing this a lot with the few songs I've been writing lately, and it works a lot better. Also makes for a much more lucid lyric when all's said and done.