Really Bad Writer's Block

[natenatenate]

Hey everyone, I've had a Writer's Block for the last year and still do. I tried everything to break it. I studied Writer's Block, Music Theory, tried everything. I long to write sick mathcore like Between the Buried and Me, but I CANNOT write a single thing AT ALL!! If I do get a start, which is not very often, I only get like 5-7 seconds worth. I have no idea what it could be, could it be my OCD Personality Disorder? It's not cause I only listen to just one genre!! I listen to anything I like!! Any advice on this will be very much appreciated!! Thank You!!

[Newsboy]

Go for a long walk with a mini tape recorder. Hum out your ideas and think of what words go along with what you're feeling. The one word you said a lot in your post is "try" and writing songs isn't about trying, it's about feeling. If you can't feel, no one can help you out.

[natenatenate]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Go for a long walk with a mini tape recorder. Hum out your ideas and think of what words go along with what you're feeling. The one word you said a lot in your post is "try" and writing songs isn't about trying, it's about feeling. If you can't feel, no one can help you out.

Thank You!! Thanks for the advice man!! Forgive me if this sounds Thick-Headed, but what exactly do you mean by feel it?

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by natenatenate

Thank You!! Thanks for the advice man!! Forgive me if this sounds Thick-Headed, but what exactly do you mean by feel it?

I believe everyone has music within them of some sort. I think the music we create ties in directly to how we feel. You do listen to certain types of music when you want to feel a certain way, right? What I'm saying is the same is true in reverse, when we feel a certain way our music shows it.
The conflict of a songwriter can be when you don't feel the way you should to create the music that you want to. It doesn't mean you can't write songs, it just means you should be writing in a different style for now.

[natenatenate]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

I believe everyone has music within them of some sort. I think the music we create ties in directly to how we feel. You do listen to certain types of music when you want to feel a certain way, right? What I'm saying is the same is true in reverse, when we feel a certain way our music shows it.
The conflict of a songwriter can be when you don't feel the way you should to create the music that you want to. It doesn't mean you can't write songs, it just means you should be writing in a different style for now.

I feel ya on that one man!! I def. listen to certain types of music when I wanna feel a certain way!! Excellent point!! It's just I have really bad anxiety for some reason,dont no y, all the time and dont really feel any emotion besides nervous, but when i listen to music i def. put on wut im in the mood for like alt. if i want to feel happy, and so on... but i truly believe thats its my minds fault because i strongly believe a persons feeling,emotions reflect everything they do even music and the enviroment and mindset have alot to do with that... i do not at all wanna sound like a whiny emo haha but I get SAD(seasonal affective disorder) in the winter here in PA cause its ugly and just blah but i will definately take your advice because it is excellent advice, and i thank you very much, and I believe it will work for me... Ive never thought of thinking about it that way im more of a vertical thinker and thats more on the lateral thinking side so thank you for opening my mind to these ideas

[wilsonNC]

Originally Posted by natenatenate

Hey everyone, I've had a Writer's Block for the last year and still do. I tried everything to break it.

Have you been active - playing/jamming with other musicians? It seems that I have 90% of my song ideas soon after the stimulation of jamming with 'like-minded' musicians. just a thought...

[Charlie_M]

Here is what works for me: go to a place that is picturesque (doesn't need to be the grand canyon, just a lake or a beach or even just a wooded trail near you that you enjoy). Take a nice long jog. Jog at a very slow pace. Slow enough that you can comfortably move along and not really have to think hard about jogging or breathing or whatever. Just enough to get your mind and body stimulated without becoming the main focus of your attention. Let your mind wander. Do not think about music or anything else at this time. Just keep doing that for a while and you should sooner or later have musical phrases popping into your head that you can string together into a song. That's what I do anyway... hope it's of some help to you. Good luck.
Charlie

[natenatenate]

Originally Posted by wilsonNC

Have you been active - playing/jamming with other musicians? It seems that I have 90% of my song ideas soon after the stimulation of jamming with 'like-minded' musicians. just a thought...

Yeah, I'm trying to get my little band project off the ground here, but the rest of my bandmates are getting mad cause I can't write nothing... but thank you for replying!!

Originally Posted by Charlie_M

Here is what works for me: go to a place that is picturesque (doesn't need to be the grand canyon, just a lake or a beach or even just a wooded trail near you that you enjoy). Take a nice long jog. Jog at a very slow pace. Slow enough that you can comfortably move along and not really have to think hard about jogging or breathing or whatever. Just enough to get your mind and body stimulated without becoming the main focus of your attention. Let your mind wander. Do not think about music or anything else at this time. Just keep doing that for a while and you should sooner or later have musical phrases popping into your head that you can string together into a song. That's what I do anyway... hope it's of some help to you. Good luck.
Charlie

Thank You for this advice!! I will definately try it man!!

[Twangler]

You wrote: "I have really bad anxiety for some reason,dont no y".

Write about that! Anxiety is something that you have personal experience with because you are presently grappling with it. Explore anxiety in a song. Write about not knowing why you have it! Write about how it makes you feel - how it affects your life, your relationships and so on!

Exercise your songwriting chops to craft a song about anxiety. Try several different spins on the subject - even a humorous, bouncy one!

Ask yourself if are you experiencing this block because absolutely nothing is coming to you, or because what comes to mind doesn't fit a preconceived notion of what you think you should or want to write about. Are you rejecting what you feel are unsuitable song ideas popping into your head or is nothing popping into your head?

I think the remedy for both scenarios is basically the same. You have to keep writing and flexing your songwriting chops - even if you think what you are writing is crap! If it starts as just an academic exercise, thats fine. The crap will eventually give way to cool song ideas.

You can continue to wait for a lightning bolt of inspiration to drop out of the sky or you can take command by writing, writing and writing until you plow through to the other side of that wall of resistance. Exercise is the message. The more you exercise your craft, the more the ideas will flow and the faster you will experience a breakthrough!

It has been said that art is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. To break through that writer's block, pick any subject and start flexing your songwriting chops with it! Yeah, even writing a song about anxiety will help get you back on track. You could be surprised, it might develope into a really cool song!

You'll be amazed at the flood of inspiration that will come when you seriously commit to sticking with it and begin developing your themes. And don't worry about the themes too much until the writer's block goes way!

[DT Chris]

I find that writing anything and everything is the best way to stimulate the writing. Check out the lyrics on "Too Late" (demo) while it's still up. I wrote the lyrics simply not caring if they made sense or not, and now I read them later they do have a context to them that can be interpreted differently by different people (who gave me feedback).

On a related note, many musicians/songwriters censor themselves due to what they think their parents/friends/church etc may be against, and then they get a block. They're trying to write about happy things and God, when perhaps they want to write about being angry instead. Why write about happy, when you're sad?

For me, even though I do have my moral standards, if my words are not pleasing to others I don't care - I stopped censoring myself early on. It's the only way to be truly free creatively. I get a lot of crap songs out of it, and some good ones, but at least the flow continues.

I too, have had a problem writing lyrics and such - I have more tunes and songs than I have lyrics at this point. Part of that is that my life isn't all that exciting right now, so in many ways I don't have much to say.

As mentioned before, just write something. Make noise. Write dribble. Babble if you have to... it will come.