Hey, everyone! I'm in a rut- for the past couple of weeks, I've been wanting to record a new vocals song. Unfortunately, lyrics just WILL NOT come to me. I don't know why! I fee like it's a result of my environments, or the fact that I'm no really in any serious struggle.

About a week ago, I finally decided to 'move on' from a major stressor in my life. I had written tons of songs in the months prior about it because I had an actual THING to write about, and I had real-life feelings and experience to communicate. It's strange, because now that that's gone, I am a blank slate.

What can I do?

Ah, the old muse leave you?  Always rough, since when she is with you everything seems emotionally charged and full of "message."  On the other hand, there is plain ole simple technique, the craft of writing, which you should work on w/o inspiration.  Allen Ginsberg once gave our class a rebus, which is a French kid's pictogram of words making a sentance.  Sorta like a crossword puzzle made of pictures.  Of course, the picture words didn't meant nothing in English, and was  a perfect exercise to force one's mind to come up w/ something. 

Work from images, unrelated, and come up w/ a story behind them, is a good substitute.  Take a walk and find visuals, open a magazine (or book for words) and close your eyes and point to place, and things like that can work your poetic muscles even if you don't have something important to say.  Work hard enough on basically unrelated images, words or ideas will "make" a conceptual framework.  Many times it will make a better poem since it can make it easier to avoid cliches.

When they were shooting "Marathon Man" Dustin Hoffman stayed up all night before they were to shoot the dentist scene.  He came in all ragged and Laurence Olivier supposedly said, "Why don't you try acting, my dear boy?"

@

I feel your pain.... This has been a particularly dry spell for me too.... 

Sometimes you just gotta set down and force yourself to write. Write everything and anything that comes to mind no matter how dumb it might seem. It might trigger a brilliant idea. No one has to see those ramblings except you.  

I don't finish everything I start...and I often don't start on every idea either. Those are the things no one will ever hear. But every now and then I get a good idea and it gets worked on, sometimes it comes easily and others it's like pulling teeth..... 

You just gotta keep at it. 

I've heard the old wives tale that you have to be going through some sort of major event in your life, setting alone in your apartment, cold, lonely and hungry to be able to write good songs......  I think that's BS.... Some of the best songwriters who have had previous hits and have money in the bank and are living comfortably and keep writing the hits prove that to be wrong.  It's an acquired skill..... so get writing. 

Jeffery Steel, country mega hit songwriter says write every day and complete at least one song per day. In a year, you might have 2 or 3 good ones. 

I can definitely say I also have lots of trouble doing those things like adding references to my lyrics. Like, I really hate wen what I write is just straight, exactly as it sounds or what-you-see-is-what-you-get kinda deal. But when I TRY to add allusions, they suck.

I wrote this one song called 'Reply' (some may've heard it) that a LOT of people seem to like. That's the ONLY song that isn't 100% word-for-word, being that the whole song is about references to various social media. Additionally, the song came easily- I wrote and recorded the bulk of it in about a day, no problems. Additionally, it was a really simple song.

When it comes to taking random things and comparing them in unlike (or even similar) ways, I just CAN'T DO IT! WHen I write songs that aren't ABOUT anything in particular, they end up being NOTHING at all! I recorded this song called 'Butterflies', and in the end, lyrically, the song meant literally nothing- it has a massive heap of unrecognizably unrelated lyrics that just happened to rhyme.

I don't know if the key is to replicate my upsides, or to try something different every time? I for sure do need to give a schedule a try.

At times when it comes to art, patience is a virtue.    Don't try too hard or it might make it worse ~ 'writers-block'. 

Other times when you're completey lost for words, take lines from your own previously wrtten works.  Sometimes, one good line is all it takes to inspire, to fire up your creativy. 

Make it fun, making music ;) 

Thanks, SC. Another thing that comes to mind is that sometimes I force myself, where FORCIBLY writing the lyrics just isn't fun for me. 

I additionally for myself has seen that just writing STUFF in a flowing form gets the ideas and framework hammered out well.
Today, my friend actually gave me an idea that I'd tack onto something I had sitting for a while. My writing process (so far) has consisted of writing words that makes sense in an overall scheme, completely neglecting rhyming and tempo for the moment, as those thing can be fixed later on.

Seems to work pretty well so far! 

You're too young to be in a rut. Just wait until you're 56ish with a lifetime of experience behind you and you can't come up with any lyrics.
 
I know what you're going through. I now have more unfinished songs than finished songs. That should give me something to do when (if) I retire.
 
Good luck, just keep plugging away.

Ha, that's for sure. Although now I can say i haven't had any experiences to write about xD

But SHE'S HERE! I've got two hits in the works as we speak. I'll def have to try the song-a-day method, in any case.