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Question for songwriters/lyricists

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boneykingofnowhere:
So my friend and I recently started a band and are in the process of writing music. We've managed to come up with decent music, but we seem to be struggling a bit in terms of writing lyrics. I havent talked to my friend much about it, but im fairly sure he's in the same spot.
I can sit down and come up with something, but when I read it the next day I usually decide that they're god-awful and scrap them.
Where do you start when you write lyrics? Are there any tricks/techniques you use? Am I just being self-conscious or is it just something that some people can do and some people not so much?

pinkpiche:
You start by reading or listening to lyrics. Then do it again. And again. Then write something. Then repeat the former. Very quickly you start developing a taste for certain lyrical qualities say, I think these lines "the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland / but his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless" are pretty damn awesome. The tricks/techniques must be your own. No one can help you, you have to help yourself. There are certain things I can tell you, but in the end you have to do it by yourself. It's tough and you will face failure, but then again failure isn't so bad.
Of course some people are gifted with a disposition for these things, but all writers have started out as amateurs.

I sought help as you do now for a while, and I still do sometimes - in wise people, what they've said and done. But nothing comes out of that, except temporary relief of doubt.

Patrick:

--- Quote from: Jeans on 07 Feb 2010, 14:35 ---I find that it gets much easier to write things that I think are good enough to let stand if I let the text decides what mood I'm in, rather than the other way around. If I am moping and melancholic and I write a text of any kind, inevitably I will hate it to bits when I'm not feeling the same way later on. If I am relatively cheery and I write something that is intended to be melancholic, I'll be in a much better position to judge whether it's good or not - it gives me some distance to judge.

--- End quote ---

A million times, this. It doesn't negate your ability to write something emotionally charged or engaging if you're not being drowned in the emotion that you're trying to express. It helps to express it more clearly if you're not clouded by the weight of the emotion you're feeling. The validity of your expression won't go away just because you're not feeling hurt at the exact second you write the song. I had to learn this the hard way :\

Scarychips:
Try to avoid self-doubting too. Keep everything you write and then, filter down. It's not because one line bothers you in a song you wrote that you should scrap it all.

michaelicious:
Keep a small notebook with you and when you hear a combination of words that you like, write it down!

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