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A successful song usually has great lyrics that stick to a central theme or idea. “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos has a theme of an unrequited love, while “Fix You” by Coldplay is full of sympathy and comforting words. Great lyrics tell a story or create a mood, sucking the listener in with every successive word.

But writing great lyrics can be easier said than done. If you don’t try to contain your thoughts to a particular theme, you run the risk of going off on tangents and losing the focus on the song. Losing focus means you might lose the attention of the listener… And you never want to do that!

Tell a story

Storytelling is a common device among songs. Direct storytelling can make it easy to keep yourself within the confines of your song’s theme. Take the song “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan. It’s about the alleged wrongful trial and conviction of a man in the ’60s, and the lyrics follow a straightforward narrative style. As the song progresses, you hear more of the true story as Dylan sees it; other songs make up fictional stories and tell them directly through their lyrics.

But storytelling doesn’t have to be quite as cut and dry. In the song “American Pie” by Don McLean, the lyrics don’t spell out a story per say, but they have a story-like quality to them (and they’re all related to the central theme of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper). In other songs, the lyrics tell the story of a turning point or defining moment of a person’s life.

Whether or not you actually narrate a story or simply recall the tale of a moment in your life, your lyrics should take the listener on a journey from start to finish, leaving them feeling like they learned or experienced something from the song.

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Who doesn’t love a good rhyme?

There’s really no way around it: if you’re going to be writing songs with lyrics, you’re going to end up coming up with rhymes. Rhymes help a song sound cohesive and consistent, poetic and memorable. Rhymes are usually part of the art of a song–it’s really just a poem set to music, and most poems rhyme. It’s true that your song doesn’t have to rhyme (I’ll touch on that below), but since most of the time it will, you’ll want to have a good strategy when it comes to writing your verses and choruses.

As a songwriter myself, I’ve run into plenty of tight places when trying to write rhyming lyrics. Here are a few things I’ve come across that might help your songwriting process as well.

Use a rhyming dictionary

Sometimes I write what seems to be the perfect line for a song, only to realize to my horror that I can’t think of anything that rhymes for the next line. After I mentally run through the alphabet in a desperate attempt to think of any word that might possibly work, I usually give in and pick up my handy little rhyming dictionary. These books take the ending sounds of words and give you a list of every word in the English language that rhymes with it. Not only does it save time I would spend agonizing over what word to choose, but it gives me all sorts of options that I never would have thought of. I’d highly recommend picking one up (or using an online rhyming dictionary), as it may come in handy.

Half-rhymes

Many songwriters and poets utilize partial rhymes in their stanzas. These are words that don’t technically rhyme, but they sound similar enough that they might as well rhyme (and no one will accuse you of cheating if you use them). For example, you could easily take a line that says “when will it all change” and follow it with something that says “it only stays the same.” “Same” and “change” do not rhyme–but they have a similar vowel sound in them that makes them work together in some lyrical situations. Although, I will add that rhyming “change” with “same” is pretty common, so while you can pull it off it may not end up being the most original thing you’ve ever written!

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Did you ever wonder if your song has what it takes to win a songwriting competition?

There are many contests out there to choose from, including the International Songwriting Competition and the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Boasting celebrity judges and thousands of dollars worth in prizes, winning one of these competitions could not only help you financially, but it could potentially bring great exposure to your music.

I used to think I should just send my songs to every competition possible, cross my fingers and hope you win one. But with typical entry fees around $30 per song and hundreds, maybe even thousands of other songs competing for the same prize, I realized that any songwriter would want to do everything they can to make sure their song is the best it can be–and that it can hold up to the stiff competition!

So the first question is this: what do the judges look for when deciding which songs are the best? The good news is, most good contests will publicly list the criteria they judge your song’s merit on. The bad news is, these categories can be vague and don’t give too many hints as to what makes one song better than another. I decided to come up with a few pointers to get you started in the right direction.

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