Do you struggle with writer’s block? Try this!
I’m so excited to kick off our 10 Songs In 10 Weeks journey with you all today! If you haven’t seen the introduction video to what we’re doing here, please check it out here before you dive in.
We’re gonna jump right in with a lyric exercise from Ra Wilson’s book Write 47 Songs. It’s called…
Write from Theme
This exercise is great to:
- Fix writer’s block
- Write faster
- Write with more clarity
In the video, I walk you through the exercise step by step, so you can follow along. But here are the individual steps, if you prefer to read:
- Pick a Global Theme: What is your song about in one line?
- Fragment into Song Sections: Break up your global theme into sections of your song. Each song section should expand on an angle of the global theme.
- Tell: Use natural language to describe what happens in each section
- Show: Read the description and imagine ways you can “show” this with sensory imagery.
- Lyrics: Now decide on the imagery you like the most and create natural flowing lyrics. Make sure your lyrics say something.
- Put Your Lyrics to Music and finish your demo to the best of your abilites 🙂
You are welcome to use an empty document on your computer, pen and paper or Ra’s lyric template for this! If you use the template we provide, please copy it to your own Google account. Don’t make any changes within the original!
Get access to the template here.
The foundation for this challenge
The book I’m basing this challenge on is Ra Wilson’s book, Write 47 Songs. If you haven’t heard of it yet, I highly recommend you get it. As the name says, the book gives you 47 exercises that serve as a practical roadmap for your artist development through implementation and self-exploration. So it’s a highly practical guide for artists who are just starting out in their songwriting journey, and it’s packed with exercises that are designed to help you put in the practice and level up in all the ways I mentioned before – from your lyric writing to your musical understanding, to developing yourself as an artist in terms of your sound and your artistic voice. All of that through implementation. Because it’s what you DO that counts. When you learn to play an instrument for example, you go to lessons and you spend most of the time DOING. Songwriting should be no different.
Wanna join alongside a group of artists?
If you’ve ever made a purchase with us (like joined any of our bootcamps, or got Ra’s book) you also get access to our free WhatsApp community where our artists hang out and support each other. There you can share what you make within a safe space and listen to what others share as well. This will make it way more fun and really help you with accountability.
If you decide to get the book (or you’ve already joined a bootcamp with us), be sure to send me an email so I can give you access to the community! My email address is sonj@artistspringboard.com
I can’t wait to hear how you get on with SONG 1! And I’m always here if you have any questions 🤗❤️
Happy songwriting,
Sonj