Writer’s Block – It’s Unpredictable, Frustrating, but Fixable
Let’s talk about an ugly 500 lb. gorilla that can keep you tossing and turning all night.
If you’ve watched Bull Durham or Tin Cup you get the idea. It happens to Golfers, and Baseball Players. This syndrome works very much the same way for songwriters; what has always come naturally to you suddenly stops working for no apparent reason.
The good news is that, if you are lucky, your ability will reappear entirely on it’s own in similar fashion.
All songwriters go through peaks and valleys.
During my most prolific period I actually wrote three songs in one glorious day.
(These already-recorded songs will be released in late spring of 2025).
I’ve also gone through a 10-year drought where everything I attempted to write felt forced.
Those misfires eventually found themselves relegated to the circular file, which sits beside my desk.
If this occurs you must simply give your personal muse a gentle nudge.
I almost always write songs in this order: Lyrics, melody, and then arrangement.
This way not only seems the most comfortable to me, I also feel it makes the most sense. I’ve studied the artists whom I loved most and found that they all had this habit in common.
One advantage of writing in this order is that, with the lyrics free to go where they will, one often composes more coherently (with words no longer subservient to a restrictive melody or meter).
Invariably you also discover that your melody receives interesting ‘suggestions’ from unorthodoxly phrased stanzas.
The one time that I didn’t follow this routine however, led me to an amazing discovery.
Tapping Your Subconscious
I had been noodling on the guitar and came up with chord progression and melody.
I loved it but there were no words. This sparked subsequent attempts and fails.
Fate came to my rescue in the form of a book written by my song-writing idol Jimmy Webb.
Jimmy was discussing this very topic, and his advice resonated.
He suggested an experiment wherein the writer hums (or sings nonsense words) into a small tape recorder (it was the 1980s) and then plays the recording back just barely above inaudible.
His theory was that your subconscious will try to fill in the words that your ears can’t make out.
I am willing to swear on a stack of Bibles that I wrote the lyrics for ‘So About You’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQdjwZ1dnvw in less than 10 minutes.
In fact, I was scribbling as fast as I could to keep up as the words came to me – straight from my subconscious.
Two funny things about this experience:
1) The words bore no relevance to any personal experience. No one had ever left me; while taking all our shared furniture and friends. This had also never occurred to any close friends or family.
2) Approximately 10 years later every word of this song came 100% true.
(Cue Twilight Zone Theme)
Make of that what you will.
Singer/Songwriter/Producer from Brantford, Ontario, Canada