Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill

From little things, big things grow. 

I have a whole lot of word snippets, possible song titles and miscellaneous phrases floating around in my head or organised on pieces of paper.

I am constantly on the lookout for these songwriting ideas because, it’s from these ideas that my songs are born.

One songwriting technique that I use a lot to turn these random ideas into songs is writing a story in longhand using an idea as it’s inspiration and then, once finished, condensing the story into a song.

From one line a sentence is formed, from a sentence a paragraph is formed and from a paragraph a short story is formed.

Its amazing how much you are able to write if you let yourself go. Writing a story from a single idea enables me to express that idea to its fullest potential.

I start writing automatically and explore every tangent that comes to mind. I might even use a mind map to keep track of all the different paths that I come across.

I try to fully exhaust all my options in one sitting.

Once I have finished writing all I do is eliminate the non essential bits of the story and mould a song with what’s left over. A process of elimination.

I find it best to begin this editing process a day or two after I’ve written the story, to ensure I have fresh eyes and ears. Nevertheless, this is where the fun begins.

Personally, for me, it’s much easier to write too much and take things away than to write too little and have to add things in afterwards.

It just goes to show that in songwriting, it pays make a mountain out of a molehill.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, mind map, writing, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting idea,  songwriting technique, songwriting blog, corey stewart