My three step guide to songwriting

Ok, so the title of this blog is ever so slightly misleading because this isn’t really a how-to guide to songwriting, it’s more of a checklist I use in the songwriting process. And it’s a checklist I’ve developed because limitations in the creative process are very important. Without limitations, you have endless options and that is not helpful for anyone. 

However, the limitations you set for yourself must be carefully considered. For example, I’ve intentionally not put many limitations on my writing when it comes to sound and style. I’ve tried to in the past. I’ve almost tied myself in knots trying to define what my sound is, trying to put myself in some kind of definitive direction so that I can market myself more clearly. But, it’s only ever given me a headache and felt disingenuous. I’ve come to learn and accept that my sound is going to change because I am going to change and as I do, my melody, my lyrics, my message will bend and shift and grow. So I’ve made peace with the fact that if my sound changes, that’s ok because it’s essential to keep writing in a way that’s truthful and reflective of what’s in my heart. 

So, for me the parameters around songwriting are less stylistic, more value based. I have three hard and fast guides for writing. I ask myself this at the end of every write, I ask myself this when I’m deciding what song to release or what tracks to put on an album, I ask myself this when I’m wondering what to write about…

1. Do I believe this song?

2. Do I need this song?

3. Would I fight for this song?

Let me expand on that a bit further

Do I believe this song? It’s amazing how easy it is to write a song that’s packed with all “the right phrases”, filled with scripture and yet, they are truisms for which you have no personal revelation and which if honest, leave you a little cold. I think people want to hear stories that have actually moved and affected you, songs that have cost you something. The more personally connected you are with a truth, the more personal experience you’ve had living it out, the deeper the well you have to dig from when you come to write about it. Conversely, songwriting is sometimes a very beautiful and healing way to chase down a truth that you desire to become real to you. I definitely experienced this when writing Great Redeemer - I spent months in the writing room with that song, chasing down the concept of redemption until it was real to me, until it moved me, until it literally brought me to my knees. When I started to write the song, the idea felt normalised, a little clinical and cliched having grown up in church my whole life and heard the phrase a thousand times. By the end I felt like I’d gone to a new depth of gratitude for what the cross meant personally for my life. As a songwriter in the worship space, it’s a real responsibility to put words in other people’s mouths to articulate their faith with - and that’s why this 1st guide is so important to me. Do I believe in what I’m writing on a gut level?

Do I need this song? This might sound like a very indulgent guide - surely you’re not writing songs for yourself but for others? But for me, needing a song is one of the most precious and sacred places to write from. The writing room should start from a place of vulnerability and it should be deeply personal. We mustn’t remove our humanity from the songwriting process, it needs to be dripping in it! Even if a song moves from a personal story to something universal, writing songs that we genuinely need ourselves is a must! When we sing them, we’ll share something real, we’ll share with people out of our shared recognition of being deeply human, deeply in need of God. So when I ask myself this, it’s not to be introspective, it’s to be honest with real with my own humanity.

Finally, Would I fight for this song? This one is more simple and it goes a little something like this…if someone was to criticise your song and say it was rubbish, they hated it, you should give up etc etc, what would your response be? If it’s anything but, “well, thanks for the feedback but I love this song and I think it’s very important” then you should ask yourself why you’re spending time and effort on it. That may sound harsh, but we have to be courageous enough to fight for our songs! Opinions are plenty and often different, so you have to be driven by a conviction about what you do. I’m not talking here about value judgements of good songs and bad songs, I’m talking about the resilience and self-belief it takes to keep writing. So would you fight for your songs? If the answer is yes, then it really doesn’t matter if no one else would! Keep doing you!

I encourage you to develop your own songwriting guides/values. It has helped me so much in my writing process to green light songs and to know which ones aren’t worth pursuing. Also, I’d love to hear what your core values in songwriting are or what your checklist looks like? Drop a comment below! 

Lucy xx