Don't take my word for it, because I beat my fist against the blank page as must as anyone. But here are 10 of my personal songwriting tips.
- Write songs you would listen to. Pretty self-explanatory.
- Write as someone else. Future you? Alternate reality you? Fantasy you? Put yourself in the someone else's shoes.
- Write in the voice of someone you admire. Have a song idea but stuck on execution? How would your favorite writer say it?
- Outline your song plot. You don't have to write the words, just the structure. To start with, verses usually set up the conflict, and choruses offer resolution.
- Get out of the house. Take just your notebook and pens. Go to the coffee house, the library, or any other favorite place. My favorite place to write is the back patio of a local restaurant, with pita & hummus and a cold gin & tonic close at hand. (Shoutout to Rock-a-Belly Deli!)
- Unlined paper. Really, just be sure to work with tools you really love. But I highly recommend unlined paper, especially in the song-plotting stage.
- Write in a different style; re-arrange later. Two of the songs I've written recently took shape in my head as modern top-40 pop songs. Will I record them in that style? No. But the lyrics flowed, and it was fun. Later I can arrange them as the folk ballads I usually sing. (But don't force it, just let the song happen in whatever style it wants to happen.)
- Use a word generator. For when you're really stuck, or you're looking for a starting point, try https://www.textfixer.com/tools/random-words.php.
- Sing into a recorder, then transcribe. Unless you're NOT like me, and have perfect pitch, then sometimes your initial idea for a melody can get lost when you sit down at the piano. When composing your melody, hum into a recording app on your phone (I like WavePad Free for Android) and then sit down to transcribe it.
- Random chord progression. You don't have to write the melody first. Pick a key, write a random progression of chords (best to do this quickly, don't over think it!) then play them repeatedly until you start naturally humming along. There's your melody.
- Bonus: Read. Read, read, read, read, read, read, read.
- Bonus: Imagine yourself performing the song live. Sometimes visualizing performing the song in front of an audience can help pinpoint words or phrases that do or don't work best for the song. Also, writing the song along to a music video in your head can help generate some great visual/imagery lyrics!