Songs by Eliza

My First Demo!

2014-07-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I took a trip to Nashville. I stopped by the office of Paramount Song and today I received my Democratic from them for the song I Can't Have Christmas Without You. It sounds wonderful and I am so excited to finally have a demo that sounds professional and is ready to be presented.

I wrote this song when my brother first joined the Marines. It was our first Christmas without him because he was at boot camp. It inspired me to write a song about spending Christmas without someone you care about and this song was the result.

As I prepare to present this demo, my next step is to determine which songs I would like to make demos for next. I will most likely make them as I can afford them, but I have a list of about five songs that I plan to make priorities. Completing song fragments is going to be on the backburner for a little while. I am ready to focus on moving forward!

Three Contest Entries

2013-12-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

After being a little too lazy for a while, I have entered three lyrics in contests-"Haven't Been Sleeping", "Evil Queen", and "I Can't Have Christmas Without You". One of them ends at the end of the year and one of them ends mid-January. I can't wait to hear back!

~Eliza

Song Categories

2013-12-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of getting a little more organized and deciding which songs in my songbook I want to focus on the most. I would also like to expand on what I write about, so I've divided most of my material into a few different categories to see where I can grow.

~Love~
Make Believe
Everything I Want
Angelface
Baby You are the One
A Way That I Can Understand
Pull Me In

~Hope/Inspiration~
So Beautiful
Can't Take Away Who I Am
Boundaries of my Comfort Zone
Still Believe in Dreamin

~Jealousy/Desire~
What I Want
See Your Face

~Break Up~
Enough
Damage
So Sick

~Strained Relationships~
Bring Me Down
Victim Card
You've Got a Way

~Idolizing~
Mr. Sophisticated
Bad Boy with a Heart

This is obviously not a complete list. I just wanted to see what would happen if I categorized the first 20 that came to my head. Now I've got my work cut out for me. I need to find somebody to make me idolize them and/or make me jealous so I can write more about those particular topics. Hm, interesting little exercise.

~Eliza

"Dream" is Becoming my Nightmare!

2013-12-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to finish Dream for a couple of months now. I can't even remember the last time I struggled so much to write one song!

What I have so far is a very simple and sweet chorus. It's all about why I love someone who is very important to me. I even have a numbered list of reasons why, but I just cannot seem to make it work for the song. I don't understand why this particular song is so difficult to finish. It's about my own feelings and my own reasons for why I care about somebody. Am I really having this much trouble putting my OWN thoughts and feelings into a song?

It is honestly beginning to alarm me. This song has a simple concept and a very sweet chorus. There is nothing complex or even challenging about it. It's one thing to need a fresh perspective or approach now and then, but this is getting ridiculous! It has been almost four months since I determined that I wanted to finish this song.

This is not the first time that one song has taken me a long time to finish. "I'd Rather Feel Nothing" took me about six years to complete. It's about my struggle with chronic pain. I came up with the idea when I first started getting sick, but could not finish it until about a year ago. "Bad Boy with a Heart" was started in August 2011 and was not completed until May 2012. Many of my other songs have been completed over the course of a few months. The rest are fragments, the most frustrating of which being "Dream".

It's normal for certain songs to take a long time to finish. I would rather spend time to write a song the right way than spit out something I'm ashamed of, but there is something about this particular one that is an extreme challenge to me.

In a way I suppose I feel more pressure with this one. I don't plan on sharing it right away or immediately trying to have it published, but this song is important because the person is important. This one cannot be average. It has to be wonderful. It has to show that what I'm feeling is real. It has to accurately portray something that I have been feeling for the past few years. It's not just any song. It is a song that I truly have my heart invested in.

I only hope that I can manage to overcome these apprehensions and turn "Dream" into exactly what I have imagined it would be.

~Eliza

Stand

2013-12-12T19:46:00.002-08:00

I hope you stand
And I hope you know
I'll always be your friend
I just hope it shows
Through good times and bad alike
My heart won't change with the changing times
And I, I hope you stand

~Eliza

Using a Song as an Explanation

2013-11-23T22:09:00.001-08:00

There is someone that I love and I find it difficult to explain why. I started a song about him a couple of years ago. It's just a chorus and the song is called "Dream". And even though what I have to work with is obviously not a lot, I like what I have and I'm anxious to finish it.

It's one of those cases where the emotions are hard to explain, even though I want to explain them. I have a list of reasons, a list of reasons why I feel the way I do, why I admire the characteristics that I admire, why I am attracted to the features that I'm attracted to, why I want the things I want, and I why I don't want more or less. At least I have my thoughts organized on the matter...somewhat.

Sometimes when you care about somebody it's not just about something that they did or said or something that you expect to get from them. Sometimes it is simply a matter of appreciating how someone makes you feel and recognizing how important that person is to you. And if it's simply a matter of those things, it should be easier to explain.

There are so many factors in this, the majority of which do not make sense to me. How, then, can I break down my thoughts, emotions, and feelings into a list of reasons or a simple explanation? Should I write a song that's twenty minutes long? Should I sell myself short and sacrifice a realistic sense of what I feel in favor of a simplistic rhyming pattern? Or should I make light of the gravity of the situation just so the song flows the right way or has the right appeal?

Human beings can act simple minded sometimes, but we are not simple. We are anything but simple. And as frustrating as it can be, sometimes we are more difficult to explain than we would like or hope for.

~Eliza

My Own Words

2013-11-12T10:22:00.001-08:00

I have a new laptop, some new goals for myself, and a lot of wasted time in between now and my last post.

It's not like I haven't been doing anything. I have a lot of new material to work with that I'm very excited about. It's amazing how many things get in the way of living the kind of life that you want to live. Trying to have a social life, trying to survive by working, trying to help other people. It seems that lately everything I have been trying to do has prevented me from actually doing the things that I care about the most. I don't understand how I am going to survive and pursue my dreams at the same time, but I know that it's time for me to gain a new perspective on my life and make those dreams the priorities instead of thinking of them as things that will hopefully work out someday.

And when it comes to my songs, sometimes I forget to hear my own words. What about all I've written about following my dreams? About chasing the things that I really want the most? About focusing on the things that are most important to me?

I give some pretty good advice. Maybe I should try taking my own advice.

~Eliza

Stay Inspired

2012-10-16T09:51:00.001-07:00

The ordinary life I mentioned is pretty boring and at times overwhelming, but I have something to aspire to-always stay inspired!

When I do have free time, there are too many other things to take up that time. I want to be able to keep up with my friends and spend time with them. I want to get all of my errands done quickly. I want to have time to relax and enjoy myself once in a while, whether that means sleeping in, relaxing in front of the tv, or enjoying my favorite foods. And top of all of that, I want plenty of time to devote to my writing.

Life doesn't work that way. We don't always get what we want and we rarely have enough time, especially when we have to spend so much of our time chasing money to survive.

As I was thinking about this the other day, I remembered that my time being taken up by work was once an inspiration for a song called Money Owns Me. That's an example of a way to stay inspired, even when life seems boring, dull, tiring, or stuck in the same place for a long period of time. Sometimes it's hard to follow your dreams or accomplish all the things you want to do, but no matter what, stay inspired.

~Eliza

Leading the Ordinary Life

2012-10-14T17:09:00.002-07:00

I want to live in pursuit of my dreams and I want to see my dreams come true. In the meantime, I lead the ordinary life that helps me survive while I conquer the smaller tasks that I face.

I'm working two jobs right now. It's rarely fun and it's exhausting. Hard work is harder than I thought, but at the same time I know that I'm doing what I need to do right now. I need to be making enough money to pay off some things and put some money into my savings. And right now working two jobs is my way to do that.

Once I get some of these other issues straightened out, I want to improve my knowledge of music and songwriting. I have been wanting to take some classes on these subjects for a while, but it seems that when it's not time that's the problem it's money. And unfortunately I can't make those problems go away magically. I don't have money lying around to use for those kinds of classes or to invest in demos or travel. All I can do at the moment is work as hard as I can and keep in mind that it will pay off.

We all have to work. We all have bills to pay. That's just what life is right now, but that doesn't mean that it's all bad. When I get home from a day of working both jobs, I pretty much just want to grab something to eat and go to bed, especially if I'm working both jobs the next day. It's a lot of work and it takes its toll, but I try to remind myself to see the inspiration and creativity in my everyday, ordinary life. I interact with all kinds of different people every day. It helps to imagine what my customers lives are like and what makes them who they are. That doesn't mean that I have developed deeply personal relationships with my customers, but from just a few moments of interaction my brain races to fill in the gaps with the information I have. It's a fun way to remind myself to stay creative and continue to be inspired by the incredible possibilities involved in character development.

I may lead an ordinary life now, but I have not lost sight of the things I want for the future. Someday I will actually be spending more of my time doing things that I really enjoy. In the meantime, it's the same old story for me.

~Eliza

Goals Progress

2012-09-13T16:38:00.002-07:00

Well, I might not be as "back in business" as I thought. I have been relying on my nook color for updates. Regular internet access is not much of a problem, but this device freezes up a lot. On top of that work takes up a lot of time as well.

Inspiration, however, has not been lacking. I've come up with some great ideas in the past few days. Meeting my goal of adding five new songs to my songbook for the month is coming along pretty well. Completing Run to You is going to be a challenge though. I have the chorus and two versions of the first verse. Once I decide which version I want to use I'll be able to finish the rest of the song. This is what I have for the chorus.

I run to you when I get hurt
And you let me cry on your shoulder
I curse your name when you turn away
And make me stand on my own
I have no choice but to stand on my own
I have no choice but to stand on my own

~Eliza

The Desperation Mode of Lyric Writing

2012-09-06T17:16:00.001-07:00

Oh yes, lyric writers get blocked, too! Then comes the desperation mode. You've been stuck. You've been uninspired. You haven't written anything in several days or more and you're dying to get out of your dry spell. And in your desperation you pick up a pen and just start writing, with or without the inspiration that so often drives you. The next day you look at what you wrote and laugh so hard you fall to the floor.

I have definitely been there. And I've had plenty of those"I wrote THAT? And I thought it was GOOD?" moments. Even if no one sees it it still feels embarrassing. Those moments are good lessons in humility.

The question is how to get past that desperation and get back your full writing potential and ability. There are a few methods you could try that might help.

Free Writing

Don't let desperation control your writing! Free writing forces you to do what you can with your talent whether you feel inspired or not and may end up inspiring you in way that helps you overcome your dry spell. If you force yourself to free write for a good amount of time you'll probably come up with something you can use, even if it's only a line or two. If you were completely stuck on your writing before, then it's a move forward. And if you were just feeling uninspired something you wrote while you were free writing may end up giving you some fresh ideas. It's natural to occasionally feel uninspired or blocked, but allowing the mentality of "I don't know what to write anymore" sink in is the worst thing you can do. Reminding yourself that you don't knoe what to write sometimes is no way to push yourself back into your normal writing routines.

Writing Prompts

There are plenty of resources that provide writing prompts. If you're having trouble coming up with new ideas in your head, let these help you. Some online resourcrs for this are www.writingprompts.com and www.writersdigest.com. You can also find many idea and prompt books for writers in bookstores and online stores that sell books. While many prompts that are for writing in general are geared towards writing stories, most of these can still be helpful in generating ideas for lyrics.

Getting Back to the Basics

When was the last time you really thought about why you love writing and what motivates you to do it? Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to make our lyrics poetic or witty that we forget some of the basics about lyric writing. Remind yourself why you bother with it to begin with and the people that inspired you to have a deeper interest in songwriting. Give yourself a fresher perspective and allow yourself to enjoy writing lyrics again instead of stressing over it.

~Eliza

Goals for September 2012

2012-09-06T16:21:00.002-07:00

I like to keep my goals pretty simple. My goals for September are to...

-finish " Run to You"
-add five complete new songs to my songbook (completing old fragments does not count towards this goal)

Short, simple, and to the point. Just the way I like it!

~Eliza

The Great Return

2012-09-03T20:00:00.001-07:00

I am finally back in business, thank goodness! I still don't have regular internet access, but I recently purchased a tablet so I should still be able to get online to update my blog and do the other things I need to do every 1-3 days.

Now that the quick update is taken care of, it's time to get back to the usual stuff.

I have obviously had plenty of time to write some new material since my last post. Most of them are fragments. In the past three weeks I have moved again, left my old job, and started a new one. That's not more than I can handle, but it has provided me with minimal stress and a good deal of distractions, the latter being the larger problem.

I don't have any deeply personal or analytical material to post today, but since it has been so long since I updated I think it's only fair to post one of the fragments I came up with during my hiatus. Enjoy!

I wish I could be that unaffected
I struggle with each step and you
hold your head so high
with you it's like nothing even happened
you have no trouble forgetting me
I can't even look you in the eye

~Eliza

Some Changes

2012-08-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

I've gone through another move recently and have not had internet access for a few weeks. It may be another week or so before I can continue posting regular updates. I do have several topics and new material to share.

I have also just started at a new full time job and am currently looking for a part time as well. It's going to be a busy schedule for a while, but it's what I need right now.

In the meantime, I've got plenty of writing and sleep to catch up on. I'll be able to put up another post by Monday!

~Eliza

The Purpose

2012-07-26T19:34:00.001-07:00

I have heard so many people say that they love songs and love music because it makes them feel happy. That is certainly a good thing, but I have to disagree when I hear them say that the purpose of songs is to make us feel happy. I believe that the purpose of songs is to make us feel and happy isn't the only emotion a person can feel.

Writing lyrics makes me feel happy no matter what emotions led me to write them. Songwriting can help me express my happiness or help me deal with my sadness. Above all, it is the best way I know how to truly be myself. Maybe it will never take me anywhere and maybe no more than a few of my friends will ever appreciate anything that I write. That's a very real possibility, although I hope it's not the case. Either way, writing these songs didn't just help me feel happy. It helped me feel. And I am so grateful for that.

Sharing what you have to say is a powerful thing though. And knowing that you can get someone to listen to something that's important to you is a valuable thing that should be cherished by every writer, whether you have one person listening to you or a million. Whatever your purpose is for writing, always keep it in sight.

~Eliza

Writing Lyrics like you Love Songs

2012-07-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of different opinions and perspectives about how to approach songwriting and about what makes a good song. The reason I love my lyrics so much is because they are songs that I want to listen to. I haven't gotten to the point where I have any recordings of the songs that I've written, but there have been so many times when I've been browsing the web for music or listening to a radio station and thought to myself, "You know what? I don't really want to listen to this. I want to hear my song!"

And since there is no recording, I can either listen in my head or sing it to myself. Sometimes it's because the song I wrote relates to something personal I went through, but it's usually just because I think it's a song that has a lot of potential and is fun to sing. And if I enjoy it that much I think other people would enjoy them too.

Write the songs that you would want to listen to. What kind of lyrics pull you into the song? What makes a song stand out to you? Write those kinds of songs because if you want to take those songs anywhere you have to stay motivated and it's hard to stay motivated about a song that doesn't even hold your own interest, let alone anyone else's.

Look to the songs that you enjoy and pull inspiration from them. What rhyming patterns work for the song you're listening to? What metaphors make the song work? It's similiar to reading stories to help you become better at writing them. Examine the strengths that these other writers have and compare them to your weaknesses. Where could you use a better metaphor? Which rhymes are out of place or don't make sense? Once you start paying closer attention to what techniques make other songwriters successful, it will be easier to apply those lessons to your own songwriting. Never underestimate the value of self education and determination.

~Eliza

A Little Update

2012-07-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

The creative writing is coming along quite well. I have written a few songs and fragments in the past couple of weeks. All the other writing has been poems and stories. I plan on using the rest of July to focus on that and revert my attention back to songwriting in August.

I'm currently trying to find homes for two poems that I wrote. One is called "Too Shallow" and the other is "Dear God". I am also working on finishing some stories that I'll be submitting by the end of the month.

As far as my songs go, I recently wrote a song called "Ain't Nothin' to Me" and started a couple new ones called "No Business" and "I Don't Feel Sorry".

I apologize for not updating for so long. I've really been focusing on these other projects that I'm excited about publishing and I'm making some real progress. I'll be sharing some more of my lyrics on here soon!

~Eliza

Writing Stories and Songs

2012-06-13T21:41:00.002-07:00

I feel refreshed and I feel like I'm back! It's time to move on. No more wallowing and no more pity parties. I've got a new attitude and I'm ready to make the most of things and remember the good things about this experience instead of focusing on the negative and the parts about this that hurt me.

As far as my writing is concerned, I would like to focus on writing stories for a while, a few weeks at least. I found some anthologies and contests that would be interesting to write for and I'd like to give it a shot.

This doesn't mean giving up on songwriting and it certainly doesn't mean giving up this blog. I love writing lyrics and I love writing for my blog, so I'll continue to post updates on my blog while I'm working on these projects.

Songwriting and story writing both come with their own challenges. For songs, you have to convey your thoughts with a much smaller amount of words and some of the words you use for that song are repeated over and over in the chorus. In addition to having a limited number of words to use to convey an emotion or a story, those words have to be put together meticulously so that they will fit into a rhyming pattern or specific melody.

For stories, you can pretty much use as many words as you want, make it as long or short as you want. This comes with a greater responsibility, however, requiring the writer to have a higher understanding of how to create and describe characters, develop a believable and interesting storyline, grasp the fundamentals of storytelling, and write well enough to convince an editor to publish their story and entertain the readers that see it. These are challenges that I have not really faced. I have written several stories that I felt weren't quite ready to send out yet, but lacked the dedication to follow through and make the changes that would make it better.

I consider writing lyrics to be easier. They come to me quicker and they're generally more fun. Once I write lyrics, I start singing them whenever I get bored. When I write a story I usually don't sing it. Now that I'm feeling more inspired and energized, I'm ready to tackle story writing again and see where it takes me. I'm very excited about these projects I'll be working on the next few weeks, and when I'm done my songbook will be waiting for me.

~Eliza

A Productive Week

2012-05-08T21:05:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I went to bed at around midnight. I tossed and turned for about a half an hour, then I got up and worked on some songs for about four hours. I finished "Bad Boy With a Heart" and "Just Gets Harder"! Both songs had just been fragments for a couple of months, so I'm very happy that I was able to finally finish those.

I didn't finish any other songs over the past couple days, but I've started half a dozen new ones and added several lines to some old ones. It has definitely started out to be a very productive week and I plan on continuing that on my days off. Hopefully, this new level of energy and inspiration will last that long.

~Eliza

I'm Back!

2012-04-25T21:25:00.002-07:00

I was able to take four days off from work. It's not exactly a vacation, but unlike most of my other days off I wasn't tied down with errands to run or other obligations. I could do whatever I wanted the entire time and it was great. I turned 22 on the 19th. The time off gave me time to really think about things. I caught up on lost sleep, I wrote a little, and I practiced what I had. I have a renewed passion for my songs. That's what I really gained this past weekend. It's not that the passion wasn't there before, but it's easy to lose sight of it when it seems that you have no choice but to spend all your time trying to figure out how to solve your money problems. I have so little money available to me right now that every single decision is complicated by it and it gets frustrating and discouraging to constantly be held back from doing things that I want and need to do because of money problems. Those kinds of problems are things we all deal with. It won't just go away. It's a part of life and I have to deal with it. It's a real issue that can stand in my way sometimes, but it's time to stop letting that keep me from doing what I want to do. ~Eliza

Song Inspirations: Pain

2012-04-09T20:07:00.001-07:00

Passion Level: 8

Motivation Level: 10

Today I'm reminded of a song inspiration that is very real in my life-pain. I'm not talking about emotional pain, but physical pain. I have an illness that causes me chronic pain. I am in pain every day.

At one point in my life the pain was so intolerable and so difficult to face every single day that I did not want to live. There were days that I couldn't even lift my arms above my head because of the pain, holding my head up was a challenge, and the thought of shaking someone's hand petrified me because they were so sensitive at times. The pain was so much more than just an irritant that I didn't want to have to deal with. It interferred with day to day activities. It made simple things extremely difficult, yet it wasn't the pain itself that made me want to kill myself. It was the thought that there was no hope that it would ever get better. Each doctor appointment seemed to reaffirm that thought. It was test after test that didn't provide answers and it was medicine after medicine that didn't work. How could I live a life like that? What could possibly make my life worth living?

The worst part about all of this was that I shared those thoughts with no one. The friends who knew me at the time would probably be shocked if I told them I was depressed and suicidal then. I didn't talk about my pain and I didn't talk about how difficult it was for me to deal with. Everyone around thought I was cheerful. A little strange sometimes, maybe, but certainly not depressed. I felt that if I shared those things with people they would judge me for it and I also did not want to burden other people with my problems. So I kept it all inside and suffered in silence.

I began thinking of ways to kill myself. I didn't have access to any fancy shmancy instant poisons, so my only options were the more gross, old fashioned ways. Fortunately, I'm a bit squeamish, so none of those options were real options for me. There were times I held a knife in my hands, turning it over and thinking about it, but I knew I didn't have the nerve to do it.

What really brought me out of it were some of the friends I had in my life, but I also started to get better. We finally tried some medicine that actually helped. I was barely holding on to any hope at all that something would work. The doctor told me that the medicine was very strong and would make the symptoms worse before they got better. That next week was pure hell. The symptoms did get worse. Everything I had been feeling was multiplied, but after about a week I finally started to feel better. I wasn't healed. It's just not that kind of illness, but I finally felt like I could deal with it. It was suddenly something that I could live with. The pain was not gone, but it was tolerable.

Today the pain is usually tolerable. I will occasionally have some days were I feel like I can't take it and that it is still too much of a burden for me, but I care about surviving more than I did back then. I'll never let some pain take me that low again, even if it is as horrible as it was before. And after all I've been through, pain doesn't really scare me anymore. I don't like it, but I experience it all the time. Whenever something is a challenge for me, I think about that. I would be in pain either way, so how can I let it hold me back? I may be small and I might not have a lot of physical strength, but I can take a hell of a lot more than you might think. I've been at the point where I've had to face something horrific because I had no choice. Now I'm a lot more willing to face things when I do have a choice.

Pain is a great inspiration, but I'll be honest. I didn't care about living at the time, so writing songs was not a high priority. And most of the lyrics I did write at the time were total garbage. They may have helped me deal with what I was going through at the time, but they had no value as songs. It's okay to write songs that are dark because our songs should reflect our lives and life is dark sometimes. That doesn't mean every song you write about something dark will automatically be beautiful. Just because it's real to you doesn't mean that you are communicating it in a way that makes sense to other people.

I still use the experience for inspiration today, and I've found that it's better. As I look through what I did write back then, I really don't like most of it, but I wanted to share parts of what I found.

You could take me almost anywhere and I would be okay

But I can't stand the dark

Looks like that's where I'm headed

No turning back

This is a dark place

And I've cried many tears here

This is a dark place

I've lost myself to fear

And I swore I'd never return

To the dark place

Oh, this is a dark, dark place

For this one all I wrote were these four lines. I didn't bother finishing it at the time for obvious reasons.

Every day is more of a struggle

Just to stand, just to survive

Every day it's just a little harder

To see the value of my life

~Eliza

You Can't Make Yourself Care

2012-04-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

Passion Level: 9

Motivation Level: 7

I feel drained today. I feel drained from caring about people who don't care about me the same way and I feel drained from trying to care about people I don't care about. I can't force myself to care. I want to, but I just don't.

The same thing applies to songwriting. No one can force you to care about it. You either do or you don't. You're either motivated or you're not. So if it's that simple, you should know whether you're motivated enough or not.

That means that if you really care you can stick with it even when you feel drained or uninspired. There are going to be those moments. That doesn't mean you let it stop you or let the road block hold you back. I probably won't write much today and won't talk much about my songs today. That's okay because I know I'll be motivated to do it tomorrow. It's something that will always be important to me, whether it gets me anywhere or not. It matters to me no matter what.

Don't be so used to your comfort zone that you let it stop you from going anywhere. It's going to be uncomfortable sometimes. Go somewhere.

I feel out of place

I feel uninspired

I feel what's at stake

Is all I've most desired

My dreams put on hold

All because of my own

Need to stay within

The boundaries of my comfort zone

All regrets of the past

Are laid to rest at last

No more need to stay within

The boundaries of my comfort zone

When I was a child

I used to believe

I'd always be a child

Free from responsibility

I'm not that little girl

And I can come to learn

It's a challenge to face this world

And it's not worth it to wait your turn

That's not the complete song, but I think it's enough for you to get the point.

~Eliza

A Songwriting Exercise

2012-04-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

If I could remember every song I started to create, I wouldn't have enough songbooks for it all. And I wouldn't be able to finish all the songs. I've come up with so many ideas that were later forgotten. I'm the type of person that needs to scribble down the idea so I don't forget about it. The other issue is that when ideas do come to me I'll often get several at a time and I also tend to get the lyrics and the melody at the same time. If I can write it down I can barely keep up with how quickly the words are coming. If I can't write it down I'm lucky to remember any of it later. I've started doing some writing exercises to see if it would help me retain some of those ideas better. When I set aside time to write, I usually start by working on some pieces I already have, so brainstorming new ideas is rarely part of my writing session. I spend most of the time adding to something that I already have, so when I'm ready to do some writing I already have a starting point for the work I want to do. The past couple of days I've started my writing time with a short exercise. Before I look at any of the projects I want to work on, I'll get a pen and paper and find a short prompt to help me come up with ideas. My favorite writing prompts to use are quotes and pictures. I think over whatever prompt I've chosen for a few minutes without writing anything down. If I'm really focused, I'll have more ideas running through my head than I can count at that point. After I've spent a couple minutes thinking over the prompt and creating ideas, I'll take about ten minutes to do something else, usually writing in my diary since that's the routine that I'm most used to. After the ten minutes have passed I write down on the paper as much as I can remember. I couldn't believe how little I could remember the first time I tried this. I felt so inspired when the ideas were flowing in my mind, but ten minutes later I couldn't pull them apart and write them down. It's not that they were all bad ideas or that I didn't care about any of the ideas, but they were all coming at the same time and because I couldn't separate them enough to focus on any of them I couldn't retain them. It's like hearing five people talk at the same time while you're eyes are closed. You can recognize the voices and know who is talking, but hearing and understanding what each person is saying is impossible. That's the way it is with my song ideas. When I get those ideas, they arrive scrambled and if I can't unscramble them quickly enough I forget them. After doing this exercise a couple of times I have noticed an improvement. At least I know the exercise is helping. I suppose everyone's creative process has its own frustrations or difficulties and these are the ones I have to deal with. I just need to find a better way to focus instead of letting those moments overwhelm me. ~Eliza

Fresh Song Fragment

2012-04-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

I usually don't like sharing songs I'm not finished with, but I decided to post this one. I came up with it a few days ago. So far I've only got part of a verse and a chorus. You like to call yourself a king Think every town is at your feet Your bad, you think you're everything Sometimes I even agree You're a bad boy with a heart You're gonna mess around But you'll do it smart And you will play your games But in the end You'll come out on top No one else can win (c) Bad Boy with a Heart Elizabeth Marion 2012 ~Eliza

Song Topics

2012-04-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I get stuck on songwriting, I find that brainstorming general song topics helps me generate more specific ideas. Each song song topic generates thoughts about my own experiences relating to the topic. That doesn't always result in lyric ideas that I can use, but it's usually helpful.

Love

This one's easy. It's also a bit of a broad topic. There are love songs about falling in love with someone, the experience of being in love, a desire for love, the person you love, etc. Let's take, for example, falling in love with someone. Think about how you would write about these things:

-the moment you met and what drew you to that person

-the moment you realized you were in love

-what you love about the person

-what made you fall in love

-the first time you told someone you were in love

-how much you are in love

If you have someone in mind these prompts are probably already giving you ideas. Even if they're not ideas you could specifically use for a song, you're at least thinking about the topic and exploring it.

Anger

This one can also be broken down into several subtopics. Why you're angry, who you're angry with, things that make you angry, how you express your anger, etc.

-the last time someone made you angry

-the last time you told someone they made you angry

-something you regret that you did out of anger

-things that always make you angry

Jealousy

Who are you jealous of, why are you jealous, do you express it or keep it hidden? This one is especially easy for me! ;)

-what it is that you want and can't have

-how your jealousy effects how you act

-how your jealousy effects how you think

-what, if anything, makes others jealous of you

I don't think I need to go through every song topic I can think of for you to get the point. Brainstorming ideas and breaking down subjects or topics is a technique that is not only good for story or essay writing, but also for lyric writing. Don't toss aside a technique that could be helpful to you simply because you think it is better applied to other forms of writing.

~Eliza