Every songwriter knows what songwriter’s block is and has probably experienced at least once in their career. I however, like the way Amanda Patterson frames songwriter’s block it in a recent Writers Write article, 10 Ways To Get Out Of A Writing Rut.
She doesn’t believe in writer’s block at all. She thinks writers simply get stuck, and she quotes novelist Ramona Ausubel describing her real job as learning “to get stuck and then get unstuck.”
The word “Blocked” sounds like something that happens to you. “Stuck” is just a normal part of the process, and therefore something you can do something about.
Patterson’s article is specifically written for novelists, but almost every tip translates to songwriting, especially if you write story songs or narrative lyrics. Below I’ve taken her ten fixes and reworked each one for songwriters, with a simple exercise you can try today.
Why Songwriters Get Stuck
Patterson lists ten common reasons writers stall. Most of them come down to four patterns songwriters will know well.
- You’re stuck on the past. You keep going back to one old song you never finished, or every new lyric ends up saying the same thing as the last one.
- You never really start. You have a great title or hook but can’t see past it, so you talk about the song instead of writing it.
- You’re avoiding the hard line. The song needs an honest or painful moment, and you keep writing around it.
- You’ve got no map, and you won’t stop polishing. Without knowing what the song is about, your narrator ends up in a corner. Meanwhile you rewrite verse one for the tenth time instead of moving on to verse two.
As Patterson points out, naming the problem is half the job. Once you know which pattern you’re in, you can pick the right fix.
10 Ways to Get Out of a Songwriting Rut
1. Change one thing
When a story won’t move, Patterson suggests changing the setting, the antagonist, or a character’s goal. Sometimes one small change opens a whole new direction.
Songwriters have even more levers to pull. Change the key, the tempo, the groove, or the time signature. Move the lyric from a city apartment to a country road, or from summer to winter. A song that felt flat in G at 90 BPM can come alive in a minor key at half the speed.
Try this: Keep your best line, then rewrite the verse around it in a completely different setting.
2. Switch the point of view
Patterson recommends writing a scene from another character’s angle, or swapping first person for third. You don’t have to keep the result. It just helps you see the story differently.
In songs, point of view is one of the most underused tools. An “I” song becomes something else entirely when it’s sung as “you” or “she.” You can also change who the narrator is singing to: a lover, a parent, a younger self.
Try this: Write the other person’s reply as a verse. Even if it never makes the final song, it’ll tell you something new about your narrator.
3. Commit to a routine
Writers write, as Patterson puts it. Set a time or a target and turn up whether you feel inspired or not. Even 20 minutes moves things forward.
For songwriters, the trick is never starting from a blank page. If you capture lines, titles and melodic ideas as they come, a writing session becomes a matter of opening the drawer and picking something up.
That’s the whole idea behind the Drawer System I use to catalogue song ideas.
Try this: Book three 20-minute writing slots into your week and treat them like any other appointment.
4. Learn something new
Patterson’s advice is to read a craft book, join a writing group, take a course, or try an exercise you haven’t done before. Sometimes you’re stuck because you’ve looked at the same work the same way for too long.
For songwriters, learning can be as simple as pulling apart a song you admire to see how it works. Try an unfamiliar chord, a new instrument, or a co-write with someone whose style is different from yours.
Joining a local songwriters’ association helps too, because hearing other writers’ work keeps your ears fresh. The article also mentions a simpler option: put the song aside, work on something else, and come back to it later.
Try this: Pick one song you love and write down exactly what happens in each section: the rhyme scheme, the line lengths, and where the title sits in the scheme of things.
5. Give your character something to do
When a story stalls, Patterson suggests making a to-do list for your character. Where do they need to go? Who do they need to see? What are they avoiding?
Lyrics often stall because they’re all feeling and no action. “I miss you” can only carry a song so far. A narrator who drives past your old house, leaves the porch light on, or deletes a voicemail gives the listener something to see.
Try this: List five things your narrator physically does in the song’s world. Then put two characters in the same room who shouldn’t be there together.
6. Play “What if?”
Keep asking “What if?” until something interesting happens. What if the character makes the opposite choice? What if they leave? If you’re still stuck, Patterson suggests going back to the last point where the story worked and taking it somewhere else.
This is gold for choruses and bridges. What if the chorus turns the meaning of the verses on its head? What if the bridge reveals the one thing the verses have been hiding?
Try this: Go back to the last line in your song you’re sure about. Write three different next lines, each heading somewhere new.
7. Reward yourself
Patterson recommends breaking big goals into small ones and rewarding yourself when you hit them: a good meal, a walk, a film, an afternoon off.
A finished song can feel like a distant target. Break it into milestones: title, chorus, first verse, full lyric, rough demo. Each one deserves a small win.
Try this: Write your song milestones on a sticky note and tick them off as you go.
8. Stop editing
Keep writing, Patterson says. If you go back to fix every paragraph, you’ll never finish. The first draft is where you tell yourself the story.
Songwriters are especially prone to this. We’ll spend a week chasing the perfect rhyme in verse one while verse two doesn’t exist yet. Get the whole song down, rough lines and all, then record a quick voice memo demo. You can’t rewrite a song that hasn’t been written.
Try this: Put a placeholder in any line that isn’t working (even “something about the rain”) and keep moving.
9. Use a timer
Give yourself 15 or 20 minutes to write the part you’ve been avoiding. No editing, no research, no phone. As Patterson notes, starting is often the hardest part.
That avoided part is usually the second verse or the bridge. A short, timed sprint takes the pressure off, because you’re only promising 15 minutes, not a masterpiece.
Try this: Set a timer, put your phone on silent (keep the voice recorder handy), and write the section you’ve been dodging. Don’t stop until the timer goes off.
10. Write a synopsis
If you don’t know where your story is going, Patterson says, stop and write a synopsis: the beginning, what the protagonist wants, what gets in the way, and how it ends.
The songwriting version is a one or two sentence summary of what the song is saying. Who is singing? Who are they singing to? Where are they emotionally at the start, and where do they end up?
If you can’t answer those, that’s usually why the song has stalled.
Try this: Before your next session, write the song’s whole story in two sentences and pin it above your writing space.
My Take: Habits Beat Inspiration
What I like most about Patterson’s list is that none of it relies on inspiration showing up. Every fix is something you can do on an ordinary day when you don’t feel especially creative.
Songwriters have more tools than at any point in history: voice memo apps, chord generators, AI lyric and music tools. They make it easier to produce raw material, and that can help when you’re stuck.
But a pile of ideas isn’t a finished song. The hard part is still deciding what the song is about, telling the truth in it, and following it through to the end.
The writers who keep finishing songs over the long haul tend to share the habits Patterson sees in the authors she’s interviewed: a plan, a routine, a willingness to keep learning, and a sense of where the work is heading.
Tools will come and go. Those habits carry over to whatever the next ten years throw at us.
Fiction writers can also teach us patience.
A novelist expects to get stuck dozens of times on the way to a finished book. Songs are shorter, so we tend to expect them to arrive whole, and when they don’t, we assume something’s wrong but usually nothing is. You’re just at the stuck part.
Keep Moving
Getting stuck is part of writing songs. It’s not a sign you’ve lost it, and it’s not a reason to sit around waiting for the muse.
Change one thing. Ask “What if?” Write the song’s story in two sentences. Set a timer and get the words down. The point is to keep moving.
