I just recently came across this article on Reductress which both made me laugh and also reflected a feeling that I think is really common in the songwriting world. I get this sort of question a lot, so today, we’re going to talk about what on earth to write a song about when your day to day life just isn’t that interesting.

Character Writing

The article I mentioned does actually give some okay bits of advice, then best of which is to write using your imagination. Creating a character is a totally valid way to write songs and writing about a movie or a book is also a great writing prompt that will give you a ton of material to play with. Not being held back by what happens in reality means that you can write about all sorts of situations you may never find yourself in.

One of my very favorite artists in the whole world is Regina Spektor, which is very easy to figure out if you’ve listened to any of my music or watched a couple of my videos. One thing I adore about her is that she’s not held back by her own experiences. She frequently writes from characters, she writes about the things she thinks about and dreams about. She often uses literary and biblical allusions in order to describe feelings that just about anyone might feel. She has first person songs about Samson and Delilah; about divorce (which she’s never gone through); about what it must feel like to be a violin in a museum, unable to ever play again; and about a love affair in an office building.

She’s able to do all of this without ever worrying about her own personal life. And it means that her music is creative and interesting and unique. It means that she doesn’t have to rely on having new, crazy experiences all the time in order to write great songs - she can just enjoy her life and write about stuff whenever it comes up.

Emotions

The fact that you’re having this feeling in the first place, that your life isn’t interesting or that you don’t have anything to write about, means that you have a whole inner world of emotions that is separate from whatever it is that happens in your daily life. You can write a song about the fact that you have nothing to write about. You can write about contentment or depression or boredom. All of these feelings are valid and just because you’re not dealing with crazy amounts of drama or romance or whatever doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t interesting. A lot of people feel these exact emotions, which makes them relatable.

So, go ahead! Write about that person you have a crush on. Write about the fact that you’ve never had a crush on anyone. Write about feeling like you’re too grown up to sleep in your childhood bedroom. Write about your dreams and aspirations. Write about how much you love your mom (I write about how much I love my mom constantly).

When you start by focusing on an emotion, you can build your song in either fact or fiction. You can use the senses, you can use metaphor. And you never ever have to feel held back by spending your days going to work or grocery shopping or doing your homework.

From the Other Side

Now, I’ll be honest. A lot of things have happened in my life. I’ve been alive for 30 years now and I’ve experienced some really weird, sometimes really bad, sometimes really wonderful things. But what I find interesting about looking at this from the other side is that I don’t necessarily find it any easier to write songs about my life. Sometimes I write to blow off steam when I’m angry or sad; sometimes I write love songs for my husband; sometimes I write to help myself understand things that have happened to me.

If I’m honest, though, those songs typically aren’t my best ones. If I’m too close to the subject matter, it can sometimes cloud my judgement or make it impossible to have a succinct enough main idea. I also don’t personally release songs about people in my life if I know it would hurt their feelings - that sort of thing doesn’t feel good for anyone.

I find that it’s hard to turn your own experiences into a “story” because things aren’t black and white. Sometimes there are too many characters involved. Sometimes there are too many conflicting emotions. There aren’t always perfect endings or morals to the story. Sometimes the things that happen in reality are so random that they just don’t make sense to someone who wasn’t there.

There’s this idea that a lot of people have, which is that depressed, starving artists write the best songs. That you have to be living a tormented existence in order to write something truly great. Coming from someone who has experienced both grief and depression, there is nothing harder in the songwriting process than fighting with your own brain.

I write my best songs when I’m feeling good or just okay. This allows me to take a step back from whatever sad thing I’m writing about and write about myself the way I would if I were writing from a character. And sometimes, I literally do write from a character. This allows me to focus on telling a great story and using all of those songwriting tools that we’ve talked about in other posts and videos.

So, point being, if your life is boring or you feel like nothing has ever happened to you, there is always something to write about. Your life isn’t as boring as you think it is and you are capable of writing some truly amazing songs.

♫ Time Stamps:

00:00 - Intro

00:33 - Characters

02:26 - Emotions

04:08 - From the Other Side

I hope you found this post helpful! If you did, consider subscribing.