yorolpal - I like your Nashville writer's exercise. Sounds like a good exercise and fun!

There's a useless thread sitting in the Coffee House...
 
()

You'll have to be a little more specific, Craigb.

lawajava
...
Sometimes the lyrics just flow, and sometimes the well is just dry.
...
Tonight I'm frustrated because the music sounds good for a particular song, but my lyrics for it so far are really awful. ...

It's so weird when I hear this ... I'm a writer, and the one thing I do not have issues with is a lack of imagination or intuition to write something ... but then, I don't subjugate myself to things that cut down your ability to find words ... and a song, is too limited in the way that you are working on.
 
I would prefer, that a lyric/line or two, gave you a whole symphony ... because you would definitly know how you felt about it! ... as opposed to having to invent a feeling that does not exist, that is supposed to make a song fly and live!
 
That's how I think, as a writer.
 
One last thing ... for me, sometimes, it signals a NEW WAY to think and write ... with different feelings ... and again, when you are stuck on a "song", you have closed down a lot of those options, because this little hole is a special square, and no other pegs fit it!
 
LET THE MUSIC TALK TO YOU.
 
STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE WORDS, AND go fill up the bathtub and enjoy a cigar ... even Lord Byron used to say that it did wonders for one's imagination, not to mention gonads! Might help the song, too!

I would imagine even the best of writers and songwriters occasionally hit a roadblock.

It's relatively natural for me normally to make words flow. In this song I'm just determined to make the lyrics especially worthwhile and I'm not yet satisfied.

Still chipping away at it tonight.

"Still chipping away at it..."
 
Reminds me of that old sculptor's saying that making a statue is easy, all you do is chip away the parts of the block that are not part of the statue!  (Yeah, right...)

craigb
There's a useless thread sitting in the Coffee House...
 
()

UbiquitousBubba
You'll have to be a little more specific, Craigb.

Here's a link:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Coffee-House-f31.aspx
 
Pick one!
 

 
 

lawajava
The only thing all this powerful music software can't help with is cranking out meaningful, creative lyrics. Old fashioned elbow grease still applies.

Sometimes the lyrics just flow, and sometimes the well is just dry.

Tonight I'm frustrated because the music sounds good for a particular song, but my lyrics for it so far are really awful.

i'll get the words in shape soon somehow. It's a pain in the rear.

 
While there is no software that will replace your ability to create original lyric...... there is one that may help you out of a spot from time to time. Years ago, I bought MasterWriter2. It is often open and used, while I am writing lyrics. I like it's rhyming word finder/dictionary and it's rhyming phrases lists.
 
As I write, I will come up with a cool line of lyric and then to conform to the rhyming pattern in the song, I will need to rhyme a key word in that new and "totally amazing" line I just wrote...... but the brain goes blank.
 
I can type the key word into Master Writer (MW) and it will list all the direct, indirect, and similar rhymes to that word..... sometimes only a half dozen and sometimes 40 or more pages. All depends on the word. (Even MW has a very short list on the word "Orange"...... been there tried that.)
Looking through the words will very often take my thoughts in different directions and also searching the phrases list will give me something that is useable. Sometimes, word for word, and other times I can use the line or word MW gave me to write the next line in the verse. Each time I have gotten stuck, and used MW for it's words list, I have come away with a good follow up line.
 
Of course it can be argued that a good rhyming dictionary book will do the same..... to which I reply, yeah it will, but MW is so much faster. And when writing lyrics, I don't want to be looking up things in a book.
 
http://www.masterwriter.com/  the price keeps coming down over the years,,,,, Membership in BMI qualified one for a nice discount at one time..... maybe still.

Writing lyrics is one thing, I actually enjoy it and don't have any particular problems writing them...
 
Now, remembering them when on stage, that's a whole different story!! Usually most of my lyrics are replaced with gibberish or:
 
"I don't remember the lyrics, for this part"
 
... in various languages
 
Lyrics are a pain in the ar$e!

lawajava
meaningful, creative lyrics. 

hard to do sometimes. Especially when you're trying to.
 
I pretty much write lyrics for the meter and bounce of the words anymore. With an occasional image thrown in for good measure:)  It seems the more I concentrate and focus on what it is I'm trying to say, the more sterile and stupid my words become.
 
Meaningful to whom? There are lots of great songs where the words 'meaning' is quite obtuse. To me, this can be stronger than the 'meaning' being spelled out, as it leaves it open to interpretation by the listener. Hinting at the topic while bouncing around off of metaphors, ryhmes and phrases.
 
anyway. 2 cents