Writing a love song is a humbling experience; even though you know exactly how you feel it’s hard to put it into words. I’ve recently undertaken a project to write a song for Mrs. Scruff (you should have seen her face when I said that’s what I call her on the Internet) and it’s given me a newfound appreciation for the people who pump out good sets of lyrics one after another.

I want to write something that conveys the impact she’s had on my life and how important our relationship is but half the lyrics I write read like they were written by a 12 year old or a lolcat.

I’ve been trying to put something cohesive together for about two weeks now so I want to ask how others manage to turn their inspiration into a song that invokes emotion. Do you try to tell a story or just sing until you’re done? Do you write down everything that comes to mind on cards and rearrange it until things fit or do you just throw out most of what you come up with until only the best is left?

And a tangentially related question, how do you come up with good metaphors? For example, Snowflake’s “Reflection” is one giant metaphor; I’d love to create something like that but I think my muse is on vacation.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I’ve always felt that songwriting is like a camera with a gigantic telephoto lens. The only way to snap the big picture is to snap a whole pile of small pictures, and then make a collage.

There was a guy on a poetry newsgroup who gave me some advice once that I’ve used ever since, which was don’t say it, show it. I.E. “don’t tell me you’re sad; paint a picture of sadness with your words.”

I really believe that’s the key to getting lyrics that don’t read like a twelve year old. If you’re painting a picture with your words, you’ll find eloquence comes out of necessity if nothing else.

Here’s a great example of a word painting of the kind I’m describing, from SackJo22:

http://ccmixter.org/files/S...

Can it be a story? Sure: who doesn’t love a good storytelling song. If you go that route, keep it intimate, and as with any story follow the narrative to its meaningful conclusion. Storytelling songs work well if you have a bridge where the narrator jumps out of the story and lays out the central theme in plain language.

Go listen to some Panu Moon here on CCMixter, if you want to hear well done storytelling lyrics. :)

The trick with a metaphor, I think, is simply to stick with it. Don’t move from a metaphor about trains in verse 1 to spaceships in verse 2 (unless they’re space trains.) The real power of metaphor comes from consistency in your theme.