Endless Night v3.0

I’d like to say there was a surefire method for how I write lyrics, but even if there was, I’d risk ruining the reason lyrics come to me most of the time. Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason that I have ever been able to pin down that lyrics come into my brain. I started becoming aware of them at around 5th grade, and by 7th grade, I was a “poet.” And by that, I mean I was writing down my “feelings” and sometime they “rhymed.” Which a year later turned into “songs.” Now I have been doing it regularly for over 10 years, and I still have no idea what I’m doing or even why. However, I have developed some methods which seem to work for me to organize and refine the madness.

For starters, I always always always always always have a sharpie (double ended) and a Moleskine notebook. I have tried many combinations of kinds of paper and pens, and this is the one I have settled on. Sharpies, because they are not affected by water, and moleskines because they are the perfect size, durable, look great when beaten up, and have a nice pocket that holds little things like receipts and such. If I keep these on me, when inspiration strikes, I jot it down.

The other main way that I write is after starting a topic or getting a few lines, I do a ton of reading both online and offline. Wikipedia has proved to be a wonderful resource in this respect. I also use my phone, an AT&T 8525 to record quick song ideas and melodies, and then rather than rely on saving them on my phone or memory card, I quickly email them to a Gmail account for safe keeping. Then I download them later and add them to my archive. I’ll go over recording the song ideas in another post, there is even more madness there.

THEN, (usually after many months or years) I comes a time when I try to organize the madness of little verses and such. This involves a big table, many notebooks spread around, and a fresh notebook with bigger pages (usually a regular school wire bound 1 subject), in which i procede to comp verses of like ideas, or even more simply, getting all the good stuff out of them into one place. I usually only do this step if I actually need to nail down a final lyric for a song. Otherwise, I just write.

At this point, i have a selection of “good” stuff. If i’m working on a record, I will have already started song lyric ideas in other places, so this newly compiled “good” stuff notebook becomes the filler of gaps in my writing. This process has served me very well over the years, but can also create a good/bad situation: I end up writing a LOT more, leaving me with even more things to organize. As a writer, I haven’t found this to be a problem as much as a blessing. Although I will say it makes things take longer most of the time.

This is the point where things go to the computer. Lately, I have been using the program called Write Room (http://hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom) which offers a free version. This is the most basic possible word processor, overtaking your entire screen and making it look like a 1970’s computer, complete with green text. I find this to be a BEAUTIFUL thing, as it allows me to write without thinking about anything else. I have recently downloaded Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html) which i haven’t really got into yet, but looks incredibly promising. It will allow me to take my entire process which I’ve described above and place it into a fully digital experience, allowing me to combine my research, comping, and drafts into one clean, centralized place. Its mainly designed for writing novels, but its really designed to be a creative writers tool.

Going through those processes will usually get me about 99% there. But that elusive 1%, the hardest lines and words to fill in, I find usually write themselves in time. If you’re in a time crunch, this usually doesn’t work so well, but I have learned over the years to let things take as long as they need to. I find I like the end result for the long haul, as opposed to just writing something that works.

As far as inspiration goes, I have found a few failsafe methods for coaxing the writing bug. The most important, in my opinion, is travel. It doesn’t even mean to exotic locations, it just means getting away from what you do most of the time, being in the places you usually go. Daily life can quickly put you in a rut if you’re not aware of needing to break it up. Even a day trip buzz can last for weeks, so its important to do those things.

Seeking out new music is also very important. A new record can be fodder for a million songs, not because of the musical content, but the way it makes you FEEL. And lastly, substences. Whatever you’re into, from Beer to NyQuil, they all have an effect on your brain and how you process thought. Being a little out of sorts can be great. It can also be HORRIBLE. Knowing your own results will vary is half the fun! Combining those with new and strange places can have great results!

I also find reading (both recreational and otherwise) inspires me greatly. These days, I have usually started about 4 recreational reads, and plenty of technical manuals. I do 80% of this reading while using the bathroom, possibly my only free time.

The final variable in writing is the people around you. Being aware of the people around you and the energy is crucial to being a good writer, because those energies (whether you know it or not) can either fuel or smother your creative fire. If you are aware of this, you can do such things as go somewhere else

Those of you who write, please chime in. I’d love to hear some of your processes.