Can't write. Can't put together a lyric that doesn't sound like it was written by Danielle Steele. "Oh baby my heart is broken." "I've lost what I've found." "My dog died and I had to bury him with my pickup truck".
Ok, so maybe it's not that bad, however, when you are trying to write lyrics and they just don't want to come it is a painful experience. I think it is kind of like when you know you have to sneeze but your body won't respond and the itch drives you so crazy you want to stick a garden rake up your nostril to get it to stop. Wanting to write meaningful lyrics, or poetry even, is like that. There are lots of reasons why I am having trouble. But here are the top three.
1. I listen to too much Hawksley Workman. When you listen to a lyrical genius, it makes all your stuff pale in comparison. I mean "Hang-on paper shoes, where do you think it's going now that it is starting to rain?" how am I supposed to top that? I keep looking at songwriting as a competition, one that I'm woefully unprepared for. I don't practice enough, particularly the lyrical side of things. It is one thing I need to work on to grow as an artist. But really I need to stop thinking of songwriting as a competition. I feel that I need to be as good as the artists I admire, because even some of them struggle to make it in the real world as a musician. So I worry that if I'm not as "good", then I won't ever be able to make it by myself, even though music is wholly subjective and there are plenty of fans for everyone.
2. I focus too much on rhyming. I don't intend to do it, but whenever I write one line, I almost always have it rhyme with something later on in the verse, this usually leads to the cheesy/stupid lines that occupy most of my time before being transformed into something better. For example, when I think of "sitting there under the tree" the next line that automagically comes to me is "waiting around to have a pee". See stupid and childish. I suppose it could be "hoping you and your friend and I could make three", or "staring at the sun with a fistful of glee". You get the picture? I've been getting better at my rhyming dependency, but it is bloody hard, and even harder when you're blocked.
3. Pressure. I don't know why, but my best stuff comes to me when I'm not even thinking about it. I just pick up the guitar, or sit at the piano and it comes to me without really thinking about it. Frequently I can write a whole song in a half-hour. But when I have the time, like I did today to actually sit and work some good songs out, my brain shits the bed and decides now's the time to watch Mission Impossible III for the third or fourth time (my god that movie sucked). It's not even like I have a real deadline or anything. On Wednesday I'm playing at an open Mic in Hampstead, but other than that I have almost a month before I really need to have a tight 30min set together, so there's no need to feel this pressure, but like that sneeze that won't come out, I've been smooshing my nose up and trying to spit out something resembling a song today and it isn't working.
Hey readers, what do you do when you want to do something, write a story, paint a picture, go to the gym, but your brain/body just doesn't respond? Do you have any tricks to kick start it into gear? If so, I'd be so happy to hear them.
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