I’ve spent my career aiming to define what makes some songs effective, and others are not. Certain styles of songwriting rely heavily on the strength of the lyric, and understanding why some lyrics connect while others don’t is key to becoming a believable, impactful artist in those styles. But even in songs that aren’t driven by lyric or story, there are markers that allow a lyric to flow and marry seamlessly with the melody and track.
Rather than defining a lyric as “good” or “bad,” we can think in terms of the elements within lyric writing that are in our control, so the result supports the song’s intention as a whole.
The two broadest pillars of lyric writing are content and structure. Within the pillar of content are elements such as imagery, overall concept, pacing of the story, conversational quality, tense, and point of view. Within the pillar of structure are rhythm and flow, phrase length, rhyme scheme, and contrast. All of these smaller elements, and more, work together to create a lyric that, along with the melody, carries the body language of the song.
I’d like to offer a daily process within these two pillars of lyric writing to help access creative flow. Use this process to generate ideas when your well is dry, or to continue momentum on ideas that are already moving at full speed.
Descriptive Writing
Some song lyrics read like stories, while others are snapshots of imagery. When we’re telling a story, there is often a clear “who, when, and where,” resulting in something grounded and concrete. This kind of lyric writing is often associated with country music styles, where the character singing is similarly grounded and specific. Other lyric styles, however, are more abstract—the “who, when, and where” barely visible. In these cases, the lyric functions more like a collage of imagery, relying on metaphor and symbolic language.
As writers, we get to control how literal or figurative our lyric feels. This choice is almost always a response to the musical sound, which urges us to feel who the character is before we ever hear a word.
In just 10 minutes a day, we can generate meaningful lyric content without starting with a single idea. The process involves descriptive writing, sometimes called “object writing,” where we choose a keyword or phrase and use our senses of taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, and movement to spark ideas. The language that results is called sensory language, because it engages our physical experience. Here is an example of some writing I did this morning, sparked by the phrase ‘Coffee meeting:’
I watch her lips move as she talks about nothing, taking a hollow sip of her Starbucks mocha and rushing a swallow before launching into a new complaint about the office. She fidgets with a button on her sweater, her eyes darting left and then right as she drones about her boss, who is 10 years younger than her and unqualified for the job. I tap my finger on the napkin and watch a woman ordering at the counter while the whir of the espresso grinder hums a white-noise backdrop to the coffee date I wish I hadn’t agreed to. Then again, I am the one they always call just to listen. Don’t they know I’d like someone to talk to, too?
Here, the sounds and sights paint a picture of a moment in which the narrator is bored, annoyed, and even disappointed. All we need to do to begin this kind of writing is choose a keyword or key phrase—such as “paint,” “generic,” or “picnic in June.” The starting point is merely a place to begin. From there, simply write without stopping for several minutes, always returning to the senses for content ideas.
The power of descriptive writing is that even the smallest lived moment, no matter how ordinary, can carry emotional weight. In songwriting, it’s not what happens that makes a theme or situation song-worthy; it’s the meaning we give to it.
Developing Descriptive Writing
A paragraph of descriptive writing is not yet a lyric—it lacks structure. A next step is to take that paragraph and give it loose form, which we can continue to shape once it’s paired with melody and chords:
I watch her lips move
as she talks about nothing, nothing, nothing
and fidgets with a button on her sweater
I tap my finger on a napkin
and wonder in a white-noise backdrop
why I’m the one they always call to listen?
Now it resembles a lyric. It has six lines and a sense of rhythmic closure, with words like sweater and listen sharing similar rhythm at the end of the section. What it does not yet reveal is meaning. If this were the opening section of a song, I’d need to decide what it’s about. Perhaps the meaning is frustration at being the bearer of others’ problems. Maybe by the end of the song, the narrator decides to do something about it. Maybe the narrator recognizes that she is, in fact, also talking and talking about nothing. Whatever the message, it’s up to me as the writer to suggest it.
When meaning feels unclear, changing the point of view can be incredibly helpful. Notice how the lyric shifts when it moves from me to you:
I watch your lips move
as you talk about nothing, nothing, nothing
and fidget with a button on your sweater
I tap my finger on a napkin
and wonder in a white-noise backdrop
why I’m the one you always call to listen?
Now the song centers on a specific relationship. A small change creates a significant shift in message. Let’s bend the final line even further:
I watch her lips move
we talk about nothing, nothing, nothing
as she fidgets with a button on her sweater
I tap my fingers on the napkin
and wonder in a white-noise backdrop
if I could be the one she’ll always call to listen
Suddenly, the singer is entranced rather than irritated.
Learning to see options within our lyrics takes practice, but even a little daily practice can result in huge gains over time. Start with sensory writing, then stack lines, devoting just 15–20 minutes a day to the process. Setting each day’s work aside and starting fresh the next day helps us stay connected to the current of creativity that’s always flowing somewhere. All we need to do is invite it in.
In Part 3 of this series, I’ll explore some of the elements we can control with regard to melody.
Andrea Stolpe
Andrea Stolpe is an American educator, author, and former staff songwriter. Now based in Basel, she works with musicians worldwide through in-person retreats and the EMC Institute, building cross-cultural networks that help artists thrive in a changing industry. Learn more at andreastolpe.com.
