“3 Unexpected Songwriting Tips (for beginners)”

Finish more songs, even when they’re bad

Many beginner songwriters start with a burst of inspiration that fizzles out after a verse or chorus, and it’s tempting to stop when not every line feels right. Finishing is a skill, a muscle you build with practice just like learning chords. If you end a year with twenty song starts and only one or two finished songs, you’ve practised starting rather than songwriting. And the more songs you finish, the better your best ones are likely to be.

Be specific rather than general

Wanting to connect with people is a lovely instinct, but universal doesn’t mean general. Specific details create believability, believability creates authenticity, and authenticity is what helps people connect. Songwriters like Bruno Major, Lizzy McAlpine and Phoebe Bridgers stand out because their lyrics paint such detailed pictures of their lives. Two practices help here. One is “homework for life”, from Matthew Dicks’s book Storyworthy: at the end of each day, ask which moment you’d tell as a story. It shows there is song-worthy material in everyday life. The other is sense writing, a short freewriting practice using only the senses, which helps a listener feel they are inside the experience.

You don’t need more ideas, you need fewer decisions

Every idea is a good idea. What matters is what you do with it. Songs often stall because there are too many options and a fear of choosing the wrong one. Picture a cocktail glass, or really a funnel. At the wide top are all the places a song can start. Further down, you explore what it might be about. At the narrow end, you put a squeeze on the song by making decisions: the song form, a song map of what each section does, and the title or hook. None of these choices is permanent. They create momentum, and moving forward is often what makes the next step clear.