The novelist Hilary Mantel (twice winner of the Booker Prize and one of the most disciplined writers of her generation) once offered this advice to writers who hit a wall: “If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take…
Writer’s block looks different once you’ve been writing songs for a while. When you’re starting out, you don’t know enough to be blocked. Later on, you know too much. You can hear the cliche before you write it, spot the…
If you’ve ever felt stuck in your songwriting like you’re working hard but not really moving forward, it might not be your talent that’s the problem. It might be your focus. Clay Mills, co-founder of SongTown and a 16-time ASCAP…
“When writing goes painfully, when it’s hideously difficult, and one feels real despair (ah, the despair, silly as it is, is real!) — then naturally one ought to continue with the work; it would be cowardly to retreat. But when…
There’s quite a bit of pressure building in the creative world right now. Open your email and autocomplete finishes your sentences. Turn on the TV and there’s another ad telling you to let AI do your writing for you. It…
My phone is full of voice memos. My notebooks are full of lyric fragments, half-finished ideas and possible song titles scrawled at odd hours and my hard drives are full of WIP (works in progress) demos from DAW sessions that…
If you’ve ever identified as a poet first and a songwriter second, you’re probably closer to writing great lyrics than you think. The skills overlap more than most people realise but poetry and lyric writing are not the same thing,…
Most people listen to music for enjoyment. They put a song on while driving, working, relaxing, or unwinding at the end of the day. The music becomes part of the moment. It’s something they feel, something they connect with, something…
Every songwriter, at some point, asks themselves the same quiet question… “Where do I even begin?” If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a blank page, guitar in hand, waiting for something to arrive, you’re not alone. And it’s exactly…