Go to a place where you like most and sit there with a desk. Just look around for insparation. Thats probibly the quickest way to find inspiration.
Listen to the songs repeatedly and test out different ideas that come into your head. You could also listen to others bands with similar styles to get a good idea of what you like and what you may want to include in a certain song.
You could also write a song and have the rest of the bands members come up with music for it. This might actually be a little easier since you're the only one writing. The others can work together on giving music to your lyrics.
Hey, I know exactly how your feeling. I recently came out of a long dry run of no ideas, but I broke through it. Inspiration comes from unusual places. I'll tell you, I never expected to get a story idea from a Packer game. Sometimes good ideas just sort of pop out of thin air while your walking around, thinking. There are two things you can do, fight your way through it by forcing yourself to write crap until what your writing isn't crap, or to live your life normally and pray to God or whatever deity your believe in (Or pray to nothing if your not that type of person) that you stumble upon something worthy of the music of your band.
i'm a lyricist, among other things, daz, so drop me a line if you want some help or tips or whatever... first of all, i'd think about your band's image and what kind of lyrics best fit it, along with what subjects their kind of music lends itself to best... what age range is your audience base?... what does that age range want to hear?... what does the band do best, that their audiences like most?... hard-edged, explosive stuff?... wah-wah, c/w lost-love plaints?... rap-like, non-melodic repetitive beats?... or what?... the answers to those questions should help you to figure out what to write about... love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
Thanks everyone for your help! I think my writers block is coming to an end, slowly. Scarecrow28. That's exactly what I was doing. Listening to our tracks over and over just kinda made it worse for me, but it used to really help. Right now I'm just listening to other bands, mostly unsigned bands, they seem to inspire me more Just to get a lot of techniques and ideas stored in my noggin, so when i do finally find something to write about i've got some new things to try out. Thirdwind. I do write lyrics without music sometimes too. But I want to use the stuff they've come up with aswell. It's just an overall writers block I'm having with lyrics right now, that's all My guitarist said he thinks I'm setting my standards too high, which is probably true. If I look at many famous band's lyrics sometimes i wonder how they get away with some of the crap they come out with, I think it's the singing rythum that saves them really. so I've gotta bare in mind that I shouldn't be trying to write some amazing peice, just go with the flow ~~~ Chickidy and ParanormalWriter! I've kinda been doing both. Sometimes I just wait it out and carry on with my life and something may randomly pop into my head. And other times i sit down and actually try and come up with something. One or the other will pay off soon enough! Mammamaia! I may just take you up on that offer sometime I'll probably post some of the lyrics I've written for you guys and gals to have a looks over! We've got quite a wide age range of fans ranging from 12 to 50. We're the only band in town that actually appeals to the younger generations too lol, the rest do rock 'n' roll, blues and all that lot! We also play such a wide range of genres and styles too. This is whats giving me writers block, our music is quite diverse and it means writing different styles all the time and it gets me in a mess! BUT! Everything is starting to come back to me now! Thanks everyone you've been really helpful. But if anyone else has got some input I'll gladly take it into account too. Too many cooks won't spoil this broth!
I know my reply is late, but.... I have found some great advice on writers block. If you find you have the block (I hate it, and get it alot for one reason) read over the piece and try to find why you began writing the piece. Find the passion to write the piece. We write for a reason. We are passionate about something and that is why we write about whatever we write about. So go over the piece and find your reason for writing it in the first place. I usually say listen to music, do activities, write words on a page even draw or try poetry, but now I say to find something in the piece you find you have a passion about, and then, you should be able to write again. We write because we love to write, because we are passionate about writing, because we are passionate about a particular topic and want the world to see it from out view. So if you can find the reason for beginning the piece, then you should be able to continue. I can also give a link to a article on this if you would like. Though this advice was originally given to me by a poet (I forget his name now <shame on me he helped me tremendously with my writing> ) from Canada.
That is some brilliant inspirational advice! It sounds like that paragraph belongs in a movie lol. That has actually opened my eyes quite alot. thanks Torana!
I remember reading an article by someone (I've long ago forgotten who) in which he didn't believe there was any such thing as 'writers block'. It's like the guy working on your car in the local garage coming up against 'mechanics block'! Or the guy fitting your new sink getting 'plumbers block'! Instead, they have merely met with an unexpected problem, and need a rethink to find the solution. Aparently the same as with so-called 'writers block', it's a temporary difficulty, requiring a change of tack/different approach/new start/whatever. I've not been involved in this writing malarky long enough to experience the problem yet, so can't say whether I agree or not. Anyone else of the same opinion? Does writers block not exist other than just in name?.... Regards, biddy.
I write lyrics as well. One technique I use is to listen to conversations and try and pick phrases that can work for a theme. for instance, I was listening to the news and heard the phrase "Rock Slide." I turned it into a 80's style rock song.
I think, Biddy, Writers block is just a term used to explain what you've just said. Writers block is just a point people may experience when they cannot come up with solutions or ideas they are happy to apply to their work. Writers block isn't a magical forcefield that prevents any good ideas from coming through. Although it sometimes feels like it sometimes lol.
I don't believe there is any such thing as writer's block, either. There are times when you have something to say, and times when you don't. Creativity isn't the same thing as repairing a car. Any writer needs to have interests beyond writing he/she can turn to when the words aren't flowing.
I was pretty surprised to see myself unwilling to try this. This is something where I might say, "Are you freaking out of your mind?!" I tried imagining it. Maybe I should try it. =D And you guys have a lot of good ideas, I'll try them. Thanks =D
I have that sometimes, I usually take a break from writing and come back to my story like a day later and see if I kan think of something to write
it's like jet lag... if you don't believe it exists, you'll never 'get' it... i don't, and i've never had either one, though i've been writing seriously for a quarter century and flying all over the world for a half century...
Not sure if you still need help but I generally just find a phrase or sentence I like, something that would fit the situation and keep going over it until something new pops into my head. Eventually I end up with something I particularly like. Or you don't, in which case you wasted a lot of time going over something that just won't fit. Its hit or miss I guess for me as for whether writers block exists or not, I say it does quite clearly exist. Even the most creative people are going to hit ruts whether they like it or not, and thats how it goes. To those that haven't felt the dread of writers block I envy you =)
When I last felt in this situation myself what I did was buy a whole load of books on writing. You don't have to buy - you can borrow from the library if funds are tight. I just felt like I was writing without knowing about the Art of writing, and by that I simply mean that if you were going to paint a picture or build a house or fix an engine, you wouldn't tackle it (certainly not with great success) unless you knew what you were doing. I get the idea that a lot of 'writers' don't want to do this. They have various excuses from "I don't want to take away the mystery", "It would rape my muse", "I haven't got time" to "Those books are a waste of money". The good ones are not. Basically it boils down to a fear of smashing the dream by having it pointed out that you don't actually know it all already. Few of us would think we could make a good film just by having watched some good movies: you'd get nowhere without knowing something about the art of film making. And yet many writers think it's enough just to Read Good Books. It aint. You need to read bad ones too, but you actually need to know enough of the art to pinpoint what makes it good or bad. When it comes to writing, a lot of people think it's enough as well to just "write and it will all come together". Maybe once upon a time those kind of writers would be published, but it's a harsh world now and publication is what most of us crave. I find if I hit a block in writing it's because I have a hole in my knowledge about my character(s). So I take the time to write a chunk of back story about the character. If I'm not in the mood to create it's usually because I'm stuck in Left-brained thinking (logical), so this is a good time for plotting and creating timelines. A lot of writers hate plotting for the same reason they presumably hate text books on writing: it takes them out of that delicious state of head fug that Creating brings on. But without a tight plot, your writing is uncontrolled and random. Plotting allows you to exploit your own story to the max. I wish I could say that I'm lecturing on like this because I'm a seasoned and published author. Sadly not. But I do believe in doing the job well and I'll not stop until I'm finished!
Now here's someone with motivation! I wish I could be that determined...I'm still working on that part =D
I'm also a realistic fiction person, I can't stand sci-fic or fantasy. And yes, sometimes it's hard to find something to write. So many realistic fiction books that are written are similar to others or the same. This is how I do it, I think about something fun that happened recently that doesn't happen very often (rare). And I write the story down (in third person). Then I add twists and "play" around with different things I can do with the story. From there- I get creative and start writing more and more. And no- it's not the same thing as writing a diary/journal. What I write doesn't have to become a book or something, it's just plain fun. On second thought, it could become a short story or something. It doesn't work the same way for everyone. But this is how I started writing and its worked. You have a story inside of you. Everyone does! You just have to find it .
I was actually thinking about that. My friend had a birthday party last year and we were outside close to midnight. When most of them started freaking out because they saw the same car pass the house a million times, I thought it would be fun to write that, but make it actually something we should have been worried about. =D
not all sci-fi has to be written in totally unrealistic ways. Yes, I'm writing a sci fi piece but with most of the main events being historical retelling of the vents leading up to the fall of the Weimar Republic in Germany and th rise of the Nazi's.
If I were to write sci-fi or even fantasy, it just wouldn't be an all out sci-fi or fantasy, there would only be a little bit. And I think that would be cool.
I know how you feel. I feel this way quite often, when I'm just itching to write something, but don't know what. Or, even worse, I have what feels like 20 different ideas, and I'm not sure what to work on first. It's really frustrating and I can completely relate.
I almost feel like I have 20 different ideas. But they aren't complete plots or even complete ideas. They're scenes, sometimes. And I can't put any of them together. Or they might be parts of characters, which I sort of have a hard time with. I need to play around with characters and personalities more.
