A well-written song flows well and brings out a writer's creativity. For any songwriter to achieve success, they must nurture their creativity. Nurturing does not mean changing your songwriting style but rather, how you bring out your songwriting prowess. The following are ten ways to remain creative and relevant as a songwriter.
Write First, Think Later
Songs and other forms of creative writing pieces are put together in two stages, creation and editing. When you get a good song idea/inspiration, put it down on paper without filtering or thinking twice. Once you're done, start editing. Use your creativity and songwriting tools at your disposal to remove the bad parts and improve the remaining parts.
Write Everyday
To nurture your creativity, never miss a day of writing. Spare a few minutes to write what comes to mind. If you are busy, you can record a voice memo on your phone to keep your mind open and flowing. This trick strengthens your writing skills and gets you on the right creativity track.
Remain Confident And Trust Yourself
A songwriter is a visionary and artistic creator. Thus, you must be confident with your work even when people do not see it potential. For your songs to be embraced by others, you must believe in your songwriting abilities and remain confident in yourself. Lack of confidence translates to poorly aligned and written songs.
Embrace Random Inspiration
Random inspirations give the best ideas and ultimately, songwriting creativity. Musical inspiration strikes at the most unexpected times. Thus, you must always be prepared to record your inspirations and keep them organized before turning them into well-structured songs.
Keep A Journal
Maintaining a journal sounds conventional, but it is a good planning strategy that allows you to be spontaneous. Use your journal to record your random inspirations. Just write what comes to mind whether it seems senseless or trivial. The aim is to generate material and nurture your impromptu writing habits.
Let It Rest
When practicing free-writing, do not review your work immediately. Let it rest and after a while, go through your words as if a third party wrote them. The waiting period allows you to edit and add words you think could make the song sound even better. Free-writing reminds you that you are more creative than you think while editing after a while reminds you that there is always room for improvement.
Keep It Simple
Most novice songwriters get caught up in thinking that they must write masterpieces. Simple is easy to understand, and every musician loves simple because of the few verses, choruses, and chords. If simple feels good, embrace it.
Pool Resources
Songwriting partners make the process more rewarding, offer mutual inspiration and help in faster idea development. Even if you like working alone, it is advisable to collaborate with other songwriters or musicians once in a while to get inspired, learn how they generate ideas and turn them into hit songs.
Write About Your Passion
The best songs of all time reflect a person’s experience and passion. Thus, write about what you understand, relate with and is of great importance to you. The emotions from your personal experience and passion shine through your songs.
Ask For Feedback
Your work may seem perfect, but it is good to seek a second opinion. Find your mentor or favorite songwriters and ask for feedback. Learn from their criticism and strive to understand what they would have done differently.
Songwriting is not for everybody. However, if you have the passion and lack the skills, all you have to do is nurture your creativity as highlighted above. Creativity and relevance rule the songwriting industry!
Your Turn to Sound Off!
What do you do to stay creative?
Let us know in the comment section below!
