How much do you expand an idea before you start writing?
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@alfapenguin Feb 2022
When I've had more time, I sometimes do a bit of planning to help give the song some shape before I start writing the lines and looking at details. Typically a few bullet points or a paragraph to open up my mind. I've found though that this approach hasn't served me well this month - the ones I "planned" have come out (IMO) worse than some of the easy spontaneous ones.
How many of you do something similar? Do you dive right into writing and see where it goes or do you have a plan in mind for where the song is going to go? -
@carleybaer Feb 2022
During FAWM, I'm very much Alice chasing the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. I feel like I know what's gonna happen and then things get weird.
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@scottlake Feb 2022
I try to follow Pat Pattison’s 3 boxes suggestion. Present idea 1. It should be a small enough idea that it can fit into the scope of a 2nd idea. Then hit the listener with a a 3rd idea that covers the previous two. It also works in reverse. I will work with those 3 ideas and frame out some rhymes and then start my lines. You just don’t want to blow your big idea or line right out of the gate.
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@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
I dive in and explore. Sometimes the rhymes I find help shape the song as much as the original idea. But for me, the greatness of FAWM is being able to play, to experiment, to follow that stray thought at least for a little bit, and see where it might lead.
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@jayjay Feb 2022
I usually do a written storyboard when I get stuck. It sometimes helps work through the problem and makes sure the thread properly runs through the lyrics.
Other songs just spill out and I mentally storyboard as it happens. -
@the3queens Feb 2022
I expand as I go.
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@andygetch Feb 2022
I am more of a pantser than a planner and honestly I do better with quick bursts of creativity than I do with a longer arc of planning. It does help me to have a general theme(s) or list of ideas. In the past I have tried using the first third of the month for free-writing to generate ideas. Although, if a strong semi-fully formed idea falls in my lap I run with it. The second third of the month for putting ideas together, then the last third for finishing up and recording.
However for me the above method works better in a more solitary challenge like National Solo Album Month in November where I literally do everything my self and listening and commenting happens in December. I tried the planning method in FAWM 2021 and it did not work for me as I felt like I was missing out on all of the songwriting games, skirmishes, and collaborations. -
@mhorning Feb 2022
My technique is write it down before you forget it.
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@karlsburg25 Feb 2022
Literllay with FAWM as i suppose generally, i just go for it. More often than not ill have the musical ideas first. and sometimes they are fully formed, other times not. I'll work on the music first so it sounds complete melody and chords wise, then i jump on board with thelyrics. The song i did yestgerday though i knew what the theme of the song was giong to be so that directed the music in a certain direction. THis happens quite a lot. But lyrics wise i rarely have much planning involved. FAWM its defo more going with the flow and seeing what pops ouT
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@coolparadiso Feb 2022
You name a way , i use it ! Sometimes i plan it in detail, sometimes i just use a stream of consciousness and just about anything in between. I do write everyday in sone way or another! I am forever researching ideas to kick things off! My resource book is a veritable treasure trove of concepts, ideas, prompts, 1 liners, metaphors, similies, quotes rhyming lines etc.
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@nadine Feb 2022
I don't plan. Sometimes my subconsciousness comes up with a whole arrangement I just have to write down. If not I start somewhere and see where it may take me. Once I'm done with the structure, I dive deep into the details.
Some years ago I tried some techniques like word clouds, mind maps, rhyme schemes but they didn't work for me. -
@timfatchen Feb 2022
Lyric: if its a narrative, then I do sketch bullet points. Or in the case of the Hubris Angel, summarised my sailing log for that trip. If it's not narrative, then it sort of gets written, often out of logical or mood sequence. Then reshuffled. Music with lyric: the lyric drives the music. Music only? I start with an idea, but unless it's a very short bit of music, it all takes off outside my conscious control into a totally different direction.
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@wobbiewobbit Feb 2022
i find working in One Note helps. i have a box for brainstorming, a box for more solid rhymes and phrases then a box where the song is more structured and put in order, i find it helps shape it as it goes along. and it varies loads in general, some things are more word based, some more concept
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@dragondreams Feb 2022
I don't do lyrics, so for me it's music only.
I hack out the basic idea on whatever instrument is to hand. Then I gradually flesh out the basic idea, both horizontally and vertically. By which I mean I'll add layers of harmony and accompaniment (vertical), and develop the idea's length (horizontal) as I go.
I'll reach a length I'm happy with, then go back and keep adding more and more layers until it gets silly.
The next stage is to go back through the whole thing with fresh ears and start junking all the stuff I added in the previous run through. ;-) -
@mjv Feb 2022
I usually like to have a loose plan for the lyrics but not too thought out, I feel like it helps me to improvise in the moment but still have things to keep a thread running through but other times I write in common meter to keep it flexible in common time songs
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@tunecat Feb 2022
There’s writing and writing . Writing music - or writing words? With writing music I may go through stages - like a song I recorded last year I think I did two or three takes as a vocal and piano before actually pinning down some of the Elle Ent’s. Interesting that affected the arrangement , and above all the nuance of the vocal line and the exact phrasing of a melody. That was like a layer of work taking the song back through another process not if ‘refinement’ but playing around with it in a free way to let some ideas settle or be tried out before fixed.
On the other hand with lyrics usually - never.
If it’s a free flowing song I’ll let it free flow: ( but I too did that course mentioned snd am a bit conscious about pacing) if on the other hand it’s an exploration I might occasionally jot some notes. I’m no master of this though- my lyrics seem mostly to reflect how well adjusted I am at the time - in the sense of fully inhabiting or not this human jacket. Last year fresh from a death in the family they came streaming out fully formed abs full of depth this year I’m still tapping ideas in hoping to get back tgat fluency, fluidity and above all depth of perspective. But part of it is just practice - I’m a great believer in you learn what you do. What I’ve been working on- but I took a break- was being someone who could generate lyrics in the moment . I tried freestyling into video during the summer ( that’s preparation) I haven’t even listened back to these. And this FAWM almost by accident I actually dicunebyed myself writing ‘in real time’ - in a manner that I often do which is to create a groove first have it okay in the background and ti allow that to inspire and pace me.
What comes up then is often free firm - more spoken word but I don’t really distinguish any more between different types of writing. If you’re interested there’s several of these on my FAWM site.