I'm not sure where I should put this thread, but I wanted to ask a question to those who write poetry/music about a problem I have. When I get inspired to write music by my experiences in life, I usually try to write spontaneously;However, when I breakout my notebook, I stare into the page and nothing comes out. Very rarely can I actually funnel what I feel or think into the page. Are there any tips or techniques that I could learn from you poets and songwriters to break past what feels like an invisible barrier to me?

Again, sorry for posting this in an odd place,

Cody

Most of the time it just comes out for me. I can't explain it. Except for maybe it's not me that's really writing it. Perhaps it was Mabo. I think most of the people on this part of the forum aren't that interested in rap, but I could be wrong. I wish that I had something to recommend. For every 5 good songs I write, I probably write 10 or more blah ones.

Originally Posted by BackInBlack

I think most of the people on this part of the forum aren't that interested in rap.

I don't want to write rap either. My lyrics in the past had a folky influence, but I write rock instrumentals on guitar. I don't really see a problem with the combo. It kind of worked before. Again, just the intimidating white page is what I'm trying to combat.

Originally Posted by Cody Baggett

the intimidating white page is what I'm trying to combat.

That's a line right there;D
I don't usually set out to do this, but I've noticed that looking into different genres, poetry, descriptive music really influenced my own writing techniques. It's kind of like 'the more books you read, the more skills you'll pick up in punctuation'
Another thing I do is start off with some simple chords on my acoustic and mumble along until I get some kind of melody, I know what I want to write about however the direction of the song has changed before. I mumble things like "travelling down this road hmm hmmm da da da when will they ever go" and most of the time my lyrics make no sense, over time it should just come to you. Once you've got the mumbled verse down, start educating yourself more and widen your vocabulary, until you have the words. I have pages next to me where I've mumbled two verses, written loads of phrases around them and scribbled all over it to make corrections

Once I finally get the song down (maybe mumbled) I go through each line and change words or add a witty metaphor, then I can look at adding different instruments to work around my guitar and vocals
Once you get the ball rolling, it will get easier. I have random words, completely out of context with the song written around the chorus that helped me lead onto another word that fitted. I've done this before and changed the whole direction of my song, hope you get some ideas from this