How to Write Good Lyrics

The hook, as John Popper once said, is what brings you back. Finding a good hook is essential if you want your listeners to play your song again and again. Most time, the hook is a line that repeats throughout the chorus of a tune. A simple way to find a hook is to take a common phrase and turn it on its ear. Phrases such as "Too Little, Too Late," "Steady as She Goes," and "You Only Live Once" have all been turned into popular hooks in recent years. Using a common phrase allows the audience to find a familiarity with your song right away. Another good way to find a hook is to take two contrasting images and splice them together such as "Purple Rain," "Angel in a See-Through Dress," or "Sex & Candy." Contrasting images can entice the listener to listen to the song over and over to find the meaning behind your imagery. A hook can bring your audience to you, giving you an avenue to get your message out.

Find Your Story

Most great songs tell a story of some kind. Don't think of your lyrics as a diary. Think of them as a short story. The narrator of the song should start off in his own "ordinary world," that is to say he should be unsatisfied with where he is in life, love, etc. The chorus should introduce an "X" element to his life, something that draws him out of his ordinary world into a world more extraordinary. This can be something as simple as a "boy-meets-girl" scenario or something more iconic such as a man avenging his mother's death. Whatever perspective your character has in the opening verses, the bridge should shake his assumptions at a fundamental level allowing him to change by the end of the song. A clever songwriter keeps the chorus ambiguous enough that one might find a whole new meaning in it's final repeating.

Find Your Rhythm

Most modern songs are written in rhyme. Therefore, the modern songwriter must pick a good rhyme scheme to support his lyrics. It is essential not to repeat the same rhyme scheme throughout the bridge, chorus, and verses as this can tire the attention span of the listener. Some artists even choose to lay out their lyrics without a rhyme scheme, or to compose the chorus of one repeating line. Whatever you choose, make sure to make it appropriate to the subject matter. A song about a blasé young man could have a steady rhyme scheme where every line of a verse rhymes, while one about an angry young man may be formed in an every rising scheme (ex. A-A B-B-B C-C-C-D D-D-D).

The most important thing to remember about writing a song is that despite the personal emotions you bring to it a song is never about you. It's about every person you intend to reach with it. The more a listener can graft his own experiences onto your words, the better the chance he'll listen to the song again.