“Write. Start writing today. Start writing right now. Don’t write it right, just write it – and then make it right later. Give yourself the mental freedom to enjoy the process, because the process of writing is a long one. Be wary of ‘writing rules’ and advice. Do it your way.”
— Tara Moss
Behind a lot of songwriting there sits quite a lot of pressure…
You sit down with a guitar, or at the piano, or in front of your DAW, and before you’ve even written a line, there’s already an expectation in the room. It has to be good. It has to mean something. It has to be worth finishing.
And more often than not, that pressure is exactly what stops the song from ever getting off the ground.
This is where the idea of “write first, fix later” becomes more than just advice. It becomes a real shift in how you approach your entire songwriting process.
The Problem: Trying to Get It Right Too Early
Most songwriters don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because they judge those ideas too quickly.
- A line comes out and it feels a bit obvious, so you stop.
- A melody feels familiar, so you second-guess it.
- A verse doesn’t quite land, so you go back and start again.
Before long, you’re stuck in a loop. Four lines. Maybe eight. A promising fragment that never becomes a song.
What’s happening here is simple. You’re trying to write and edit at the same time and those are two completely different and incompatible mindsets.
Two Modes: Creation vs Editing
If you strip songwriting back to its essentials, it comes down to two distinct phases.
Creation mode is fast, instinctive, and a little messy. This is where ideas are allowed to show up as they are, without being filtered or refined.
Editing mode is slower and more deliberate. This is where you shape what you’ve created into something stronger. You tighten lyrics, refine melodies, adjust structure, and bring clarity to the song.
The problem is that most songwriters live in editing mode before they’ve given themselves anything to edit. In other words, they’re trying to polish something that doesn’t exist yet.
What “Write First” Actually Looks Like
Writing first doesn’t mean lowering your standards. It just means changing the order in which you apply them. In practical terms, it looks like this:
- You let the first draft be rough.
- You allow lines that feel a bit too obvious.
- You follow a melody even if you’re not convinced by it yet.
Most importantly, you keep moving forward.
- You write the verse, even if it’s not perfect.
- You push into the chorus, even if the lyrics are placeholders.
- You get to the end of the song, even if you’re unsure about half of it.
Because a finished rough song gives you something real to work with and as we all know, an unfinished idea gives you nothing.
Why This Changes Everything
Something interesting happens when you give yourself permission to just write.
- You stop trying to be clever.
- You stop trying to impress.
- You start paying attention to what actually wants to come out.
And that’s where the more honest material tends to live.
A lot of the time, the first version of a line isn’t the final version. But it points you in the right direction. It opens the door to something better.
You don’t arrive at strong lyrics by thinking your way to them. You arrive at them by writing your way through everything that isn’t quite right yet.
The same goes for melody. The first idea might not be the one you keep, but it leads you somewhere. It gives you movement, and movement is what songwriting needs.
The Role of “Fix Later”
This is where the craft of writing songs comes in. Once the song exists, now you can step back and listen properly which means you can now start to ask of yourself better questions.
- Does the lyric say what it needs to say?
- Is the melody doing enough emotionally?
- Is the structure supporting the song, or working against it?
This is the stage where you start shaping the song into something that feels complete.
- You might rewrite lines.
- You might change sections.
- You might simplify things or push them further.
But you’re no longer guessing. You’re responding to something that’s already there.
Be Careful with Rules
Now, there’s no shortage of songwriting advice out there. Structure guides, rhyme schemes, rules about hooks, choruses, and what makes a song “work” and some of that can be useful.
But it can also become a problem if you let it take over too early.
If you start writing with a checklist in your head, you lose something important. The sense of discovery. The unpredictability that often leads to the most interesting ideas.
Rules are best applied after the fact.
Once the song exists, you can decide whether it needs tightening, reshaping, or simplifying but during the writing phase, the most important thing is that the song feels like it’s coming from somewhere real.
Let the Process Be What It Is
Songwriting is not a straight line. Some songs come quickly while others take time. Some start strong and fall apart. Others begin quietly and grow into something meaningful.
If every writing session has to produce something “good,” it becomes hard to keep showing up.
But if the goal is simply to write, to explore, to follow ideas without shutting them down too early, the process becomes lighter. More sustainable.
And over time, that consistency is what leads to better songs.
Finally, Give Yourself Permission to Write Bad Songs
This might be the hardest part to accept, but it’s also the most important.
You are going to write songs that don’t work, you are going to write lines that feel flat and you are going to have songwriting ideas that don’t go anywhere but that’s not failure.
That’s just the songwriting process doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. Every strong song sits on top of a pile of rough drafts, false starts, and ideas that didn’t quite land.
So instead of trying to avoid that, you lean into it.
- You write the song anyway.
- You finish it anyway.
- And then, if it’s worth it, you come back and make it better.
Because in the end, songwriting isn’t about getting it right the first time. It’s all about giving yourself enough space to find something worth getting right at all.
