Songwriting has been a passion of mine ever since I learned music at a young age. I’ve written over a hundred complete songs, and many more incomplete ones. Countless hours of intense focus have given me valuable insights into the songwriting process. One such insight is that those countless hours weren’t necessary for me to write great songs. All of my very best songs were total accidents, which came to me out of thin air. It took me a while to discover that I didn’t have to wait for the accidents to happen. I learned how to harness the ability to write accidental songs deliberately whenever I want. Now, every song I write is one of my best, and I write them all the time. I want to share my satisfaction with you.

There are two main aspects of lyric writing that always apply whether you’re aware of it or not- subject matter and poem. These are separate, yet interdependent elements. When you sit down to start writing a song, one of these two things is always your first consideration, if not both of them at the same time.

Often, a songwriter will think of a promising line of poem, but then can’t put it together with enough equally awesome lyrics to fill an entire song. In other words, it has little or no central subject. The song turns out to be one from which listeners can only remember one clever, often over-repeated, line (probably the chorus) because the rest of it is uninteresting filler. A song finished in this way will leave you feeling like you settled for so much less than what you were aiming for.

The opposite condition happens just as often. A songwriter will think of an intriguing subject, but then can’t think of how to write it into good lyrics. The song turns out to be a good message, but lacking in entertainment quality. These songs get treated like newspaper articles, which people read, retain, and then lay out for their pet to go number two on. You don’t want to simply convey a message, or else you would be writing columns. You want to provoke in others the same deep emotions that inspired you to become a songwriter. You want to write songs that people will listen to over and over again just because it makes them feel good. If it conveys a powerful message to boot, then you’ve truly succeeded, and your song will stand out.

Both mishaps that I just described are examples of unexpected accidents that, if controlled, could have been nurtured into great songs. Doing so is easy once you get a few written. And you can cause the accidents to happen at will, making all that effectiveness not so accidental.

Now, for demonstration sake, lets make a small accident happen. This process works for lyrics whether you already have music or if you don’t. I am an instrumentalist, so most of my lyrics come after the instrumental part is at least partially established. In any case, you’ll be writing lyrics to a melody that you can hear in your mind. So lets choose a tune we both know fro which to write our own lyrics. We’ll go with the song, “Jingle Bells.”

Now, pretend you just came up with this new chord progression and vocal melody (for our purposes, forget every word of “Jingle Bells” and pretend the underlying music is your own original work). This is the state of mind you’ve most likely found yourself in numerous times when beginning the lyric-writing for your original songs. You’re humming the melody to yourself while playing, turning your mind over for the right words. One of two things will happen right here. You’ll find your humming start to take an indistinguishable word-like form, or the feeling of the music you’re playing will remind you of something that makes you feel similar- usually an idea, person, scenario, place, memory, etc. Whichever one happens, the other will happen soon after. I’ve been humming the song in my mind, and what happened first to me is the former. My humming took on word form. This is what happened…

I don’t care

How to wear

…and then it stopped.

This process happens faster and faster the more you use it. If I were writing this song years ago, my humming would have probably taken a less developed form. I might have only distinguished the sound of the two rhyming words, care and wear. That would have sounded like this…

Hmm hmm –are

Hmm hmm –ear

...which is a perfectly good place to start. In fact, anything at all is a good place to start, so don’t worry yet about the song’s big picture- you’ll come to that later. Then you can refine and revise.

What we have so far are two lines of poem that our brain generated all by itself without warning. There is no subject yet, and the lines don’t make much sense. Only two things hold them in place- they rhyme, and they fit into the meter of the melody. It will be ok later to completely change these first two lines, but for now we need to hold on to what we have. The accident has started.

Now we can think a little bit about our subject. The subject is important because it is what the song is about. Some songs are about nothing at all; they just have a good sound to them. But those songs are rarely the ones that last through generations and transcend genre. If you’re reading this, then you probably like lyric-driven songs like I do. Some songs make us bob our heads and allow us to stop thinking; the ones you and I like move us physically and intellectually, and open our eyes to new ways of looking at the world. Why write a song if it isn’t the absolute best song in the world- according to you? So at this point, we can start picturing the final product as having something engaging to say. It can be telling a story, or expressing an opinion about an important issue, or describing a loved object or person, etc. Whatever it is saying, we want it draw our audience in and captivate them. We want them to be interested from beginning to end.

Let’s use what we have generated so far to start forming our subject. We have six words, of which there are two verbs and a noun. The next step in writing is to write the third line and make sure it continues the thought started in the first two. The way we get this going is by reading all the possibilities we find in the already written six words- particularly the verbs and nouns (they always have the most possibilities). When I look at our six words, the word that stands out to me as having the most possibilities is the word “wear.” It is transitive, so it can lead in a million directions. Let me show you:

You can wear an item of clothing, of which there are thousands. Also you can wear an entire outfit, like a uniform, of which there are thousands, and each has a story all its own (if we’re talking about a police uniform, the song could end up being about law enforcement, or police brutality, or simply the story of a humble civil servant. If it’s a milkman uniform, there is a whole new set of possibilities…. you get the idea).

You can wear you feelings on your sleeve (idiomatic expressions like this are wonderful for song lyrics, provided you don’t overuse them). By the same token you can wear any specific emotion on your sleeve, or on your face, or on your tongue. For instance, you can wear your anger on your face. This is a poem, so pretty much anything goes. Invent your own expressions- as long as it is clear what you’re saying. If you can find a fresh way to say something, you’ll add even more punch to your song.

Third, you can wear something or someone out. We could be talking about a rocky relationship we’re in and all the fights are wearing us out. That’s a perfect opening for a subject written more about in hit songs than any other subject- love. We all have strong feelings to express on that subject. Also, you can wear out an object like, say, your old acoustic guitar. It could be a song about playing in a band, which is another popular subject.

You’ve probably concluded that I could go on like that for days. If I listed all the possibilities I see in wear, you wouldn’t want to read this hub due to its incredible length. But do you see how you can generate a subject for your song with just one word that happened accidentally? With all the possibilities you find in just one word, you could write your song about virtually anything under the sun; it’s your choice.

The rest of this process happens the same way that it started; only as we progress, the ideas we generate will gradually get more comprehensive. You understand the essentials now. The rest of the process will be aimed at molding the subject into what we want it to be, instead of letting it mold itself. This is the part of lyric writing that my title, “Lyrics on Accident- on Purpose” refers to the most. Lets continue.

From the word wear, the possibility that feels the best to me is clothing. I decided this, and at the same time, my humming took on more form, now with a greater amount of subject. I came up with…

Polka dots and stripes

…which flows from the first two lines, and fits with the meter. Then I made a revision to the first two lines, molding the lyrics to my preference. The result is…

I don’t care

If you wear

Polka dots and stripes

We now have a complete thought to build from, not to mention more words. Our accident takes full effect at this point, because now we have both poem and subject to draw possibilities from. This is where we make connections between ourselves, (our personalities, passions, opinions, experiences, etc.) and the existing lyrics we’ve written so far. We’re going to let our thinking minds (the part of our minds that understands the thought that our lyrics express) take on thought form, just like before when we let our humming take on word form. Now we can start to say something that is meaningful to us.

My mind immediately completes this thought, but not in lyric form. When I read what we’ve written, I connect it to a personal philosophy of mine, which is to live and let live. I want to say that I don’t care if you do something extravagant and unusual, but don’t look down on me for being boring and ordinary. That’s the first thing my mind jumped to. You can write whatever you want, most likely something better than that. So, how do we put that into lyrics that fit our song’s melody?

First, we look at our criteria. We have fourteen syllables to occupy, and the last word has to vaguely rhyme with “stripes.” Now we will proceed in a trial and error fashion until we get a lyrical phrase that we are totally satisfied with. Below is a display of my mind working to that end…

I don’t care

If you wear

Polka dots and stripes

Just don’t look at what I wear

And tell me I’m not right.

hmmmm…. nope

Just don’t look at my plain clothes

And tell me I’m up tight

…. nope

Just don’t call me boring

‘Cause I don’t like what you like

‘Cause I’m not one of your type

There, I’ll go with that. Now we have…

I don’t care

If you wear

Polka dots and stripes

Just don’t call me boring

‘Cause I’m not one of your type

At this point, you understand the concept, so I won’t take you through the rest of the song step by step. Just so you know, I came up with these lyrics on the spot, as I wrote this hub. They aren’t a product of some fleeting wave of inspiration that happened months ago. I didn’t dig them out of my filing cabinet to use them as an example. They came to me exactly as I described, right out of thin air. And this is nothing; I put minimal thought and effort into them. Imagine what you could do if you really applied yourself.

The absolute best thing about this technique is that it is reliable. If I wanted to, I could write five to ten songs a day this way, and so could you. If you desire to make a living as a musician, being able to provide songs on demand is a sought after skill to have. For me, it brings me much satisfaction to know that I can sit down right now with a blank mind, and in two hours have a complete, appealing, marketable song that I can be proud of.

Here are some pointers for you that will greatly increase your ability to write lyrics with this technique. Get in the habit of always noticing what you are doing. Pay attention to your thoughts at all times, regardless of how insignificant they are. Get to know yourself in this way. Don’t search for strong feelings inside of you; start with the feelings you don’t have to search for, and they will lead you to the real deep stuff. Don’t drench your lyrics with heavy subject material, but deliver the heavy stuff wrapped in light, easy to swallow thoughts. That’s all for now.

If you wish to comment, perhaps you can post your own lyric results to our tune, “Jingle Bells”. I think that would be quite entertaining. I hope I’ve been helpful. Good luck on your future songs.