[ecb730]

Have you ever sat down and before you knew it you had a melody and the 1st verse to a song? I have music and a verse that I like but I'm stuck because I have no idea what the story is that I'm writing. This ever happen to anybody?

[Boydie]

Yup!

In this situation I would suggest using your existing "1st verse" as your new "2nd verse"

This will then give you something to write about

Eg if you introduce some characters in your old 1st verse you can now use the NEW 1st verse to give some background on them - who they are, where they came from etc.

This is a great technique to ensure your listener engages with your song and the characters/scenes you create

When you want to write your chorus I would suggest that you start with an imaginary statement (which won't be included the lyric) along the lines of: "and then..." , "because..." , "so..."

I find this a useful way of approaching a chorus section to ensure it gives a "pay off"

[S.T.C]

Yes , you haven't thought it through....seems to be a common trap we fall in to...you need to look at Murphy's Law..he calls it 2nd verse hell..what do you say now....?

It's sort of what Boydie is getting at, your ist verse is probably your 2nd verse...go back over it and build a story, then you should have more to write about.

[tone]

This happens to me a lot.

And while Boydie and STC offer very useful advice in this thread, that's not how I go about getting over this obstacle.

The only thing I've found that works in this situation is pure hard graft. You need to just empty your mind of everything, dump it all on the page, and take a good look. See if there's anything there you can work with. You may need to do this several times. You may find material for verses 2 & 3, or you may end up writing a completely new lyric (this often happens to me).

Either way, you gotta sit there and write/ play till you battle through it. But if it's really not flowing on a particular day, you also gotta know when to rest :p

[montydog]

Yes, this happens to me all the time and the advice that tone, Boydie and songsthatcry is all good. Don't think of this as a problem though. If you have a verse, melody and chords that you are happy with, this is a good thing and should be cherished. This happened to me around a year ago and I'm still trying to get a satisfactory song out of it so don't give up!

[hardtwistmusic]

I have music and a verse that I like but I'm stuck because I have no idea what the story is that I'm writing. This ever happen to anybody?

I never know the full story to ANY song I'm writing until I'm done.  What the song is "about" is up to the muse in my case. 

If I "take over" and try to force the song to be about something... it's seldom a good lyric. 

I guess my question to YOU would be "what does it hurt to not know?" 

That means the song is open to be about ANYTHING and will be until you DO know where it's going.

Just keep writing.  Sooner or later it'll be about something.   I suspect it will be a more interesting song than anything you could write if you knew the "story" and "ending" when you begin.

[stavcoby]

I have a similar issue with a song ive had for about three years.  I have a great chord sequence for Verse - Mid8 - with a nice hook, but I cant for the life of me, develop a lyric for it?? 

My initial hook line “I just love the things you do", I feel is too vague, the word "things" for a start.

But, I feel trapped by the initial idea and its form, and anything else I try to re-write the melody to, just isn’t right haha drives me mad.

[Boydie]

I would suggest losing the "just" - there is a long thread somewhere about dropping these kinds of words - in this scenario I think it would tighten the lyric to drop it

You could consider "I love that thing you do", which is a little more specific and gives you some scope for more lyric ideas - giving a nice pay off

Eg

You crinkle your nose when you laugh
I love that thing you do
You sing in the bath
I love that thing you do

Etc. etc.

[stavcoby]

Thanks Boydie

I did initially have no "just" but was put off by the song from the Tom Hanks film, "that thing you do", boss film  btw.

Im gonna have another crack at it today and mentally switch off my original idea if possible, the chords sequence and riff is too nice to leave

[Boydie]

I did the same thing with a song I wrote called "Someone Like You" after Adelle released her song

I changed it to "Someone Just Like You"