One of the biggest mistakes musicians make is never reviewing their notebook of ideas or drafts. Remember to consult yours regularly, and your ideas will grow and evolve organically.

Each song can be thought of as having a narrator — a real or imagined person who’s the ‘voice’ of the song. By using a first-person narrator, for example, you’re implying the narrator is a character in the events described by the song.

Setting up a daily time to write songs is among the best habits to develop as a songwriter. By creating a regular schedule, it will actually hone your skills and help to spur creativity.

Clarity is particularly important in songwriting. Keep in mind: your listeners might possibly not catch a word, or a line, or maybe even a whole verse. Don’t bet that  just a single line will be able to place your entire song in context for them.

Create vivid metaphors and use strong similes to embellish your song’s narrative. Not only does this assist in telling the story more effectively, but it creates memorable imagery for your listener.

Try to envision a melody that’s perfectly simplistic without being amateurish or “cheap.” Just remain genuine and good things can happen. Be patient and really invest time to create your best work.

Most great lyrics tell a story. It doesn’t have to be a complicated story, but it should have a beginning, a middle, a climax, and an end.

Your subconscious mind is constantly working, but it cannot be forced at times to produce. Good song ideas need time to incubate.

A bit of modified advice from the late, great Kurt Vonnegut — “Be merciless on yourself. If a [verse] does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.”

Generally speaking, you don’t want the verse melody to be anywhere near as catchy as the chorus or you’ll risk losing the impact of the chorus.

Many of the best hooks use a different melodic construction from the verse or chorus to add some variety to a song’s composition.

Strengthen your  song’s originality by evoking creative connections, alliterations, places, and recalling things that happened to you. Also, it doesn’t hurt to read poetry and lyrics from other writers for inspiration.

MindMapping an excellent way to explore the thoughts, ideas and emotions you want to express through song. Having a MindMap will encourage you to populate the paper with ideas and imagery, which can stimulate your creativity.

Concentrate on -really- listening to music and you’ll start hearing subtle undertones to help produce your own most brilliant ideas

All ideas start somewhere. If you create a load of cr@p for a few pages, whether it’s creative writing in Word or sheet music, the brain loosens up and it’s easier to break through the barrier and come up with ideas.