5 Proven Songwriting Tips On How To Write Better Lyrics

Let’s face it, writing lyrics is hard.

Capturing BIG ideas and putting them into short, clever, creative, crafted words feels like a form of science in itself. Let alone trying to fit them into a singable melody.

It can feel so defeating, leaving you wondering if songwriting is for you, right?

But becoming a good lyricist is not some special, unattainable talent, it’s a skill.

And like any other skill it can be studied, worked on and improved.

That is why I wanted to share these 5 proven songwriting tips I have learned that can help you write more powerful, more memorable, and relatable lyrics. These tips have been used by songwriters for centuries.

I hope these tips inspire you and provide you with practical and actionable ways to write more effective lyrics that catch the listener’s attention and bring them right into your story.

“What brings a listener to a song is melody. What keeps them is lyric.”

Ralph Murphy

So here’s are some things I hope you can walk away after reading this post:

• Learn 5 proven songwriting tips to help you write better lyrics.
• Practical ways to write a unique and catchy hook.
• Why identifying the BIG IDEA is in your song is key.
• What word economy is and how you can use it in your songs.
• How to show and not tell with your lyrics.
• How to write lyrics that are conversational and relatable to the listener.

DISCLAIMER: While I will make a lot of references to Christian music, these same tips can apply to most genres.

Songwriting Tip #1: Have a UNIQUE and CATCHY hook

The hook is the part of our song that will draw people in. It’s the part people will remember, and hopefully be singing once the song ends.

Your hook is typically the chorus or the song title of the song. It can be a line that repeats at the end of the verse or even a melodic line.

It can take many forms. But whichever form you choose, it’s important to make it thoughtful, fun, and memorable.

It has to be able to grab someone’s attention, many times subconsciously, and have their brain “hooked” to the music, wanting to sing it or listen to it again.

So how do you do that? Let’s break it down into two parts, how to make it unique and how to make it catchy.

How to Make Your Hook Unique

First, you need a UNIQUE hook. In any genre of music, there are a lot of topics that are sung over and over again. In Christian and Gospel music, this is even more so.

The problem is as Christians we all are using the same source of inspiration, the Word. There are so many songwriters and only one Word that is the foundation of what we write.

While it’s great to have a unified message, especially one so powerful, it can lead to many of us gathering to the same stories, the same verses to help write our lyrics.

The solution, however, is YOU.

You’re the key to making your song have its own unique voice. There’s a big difference between the lyrics you’ll write and the lyrics someone else can write from that verse, or that story. We each have our own unique stories, experiences, and testimonies that shape the lenses from which we see the world. Use it to write your song and you will find people who will also find it relatable and want to be singing along with you.

This is how you make your lyric stand out from the crowd. Take a topic and don’t be afraid to put your own spin on it, to put your story in it.

Even if you do take a common title or topic make sure that by the time the listener hits the chorus, they realize they are experiencing something different about this song. Give them something they weren’t expecting and you will turn heads.

There’s a big difference between the lyrics you’ll write and the lyrics someone else will write from that verse, or that story.

How To Make Your Hook Catchy

The second part of making a great hook is to make it catchy. A catchy hook is exactly how it sounds, it catches the person’s attention, pulls them in, and is instantly memorable.

So, what makes your hook “catchy”?

A catchy hook incites emotion, it’s fun, it’s thoughtful or hopeful, and easy to remember.

It will have you tapping your feet or singing along with the lyrics before you even know them. Think about the first time you heard your favorite song. What part of it made you want to listen to it again and again?

With Christian music, a catchy hook may make you think, feel, or see God in a different light. Maybe it just takes a well-known verse and puts a fun or deep spin on it. Sometimes it’s just something that sounds so silly by itself, like some oh’s or a fun play on a word. However, when put together with the right melody it really lights up your soul.

Practically, there are some literary techniques that you can use to make your lyrics more catchy. Using repetition, alliteration, and a good rhyme scheme:

Repetition

Repetition is one of your best weapons when writing your lyrics to make them easy to remember. It such a simple thing to do, but many writers don’t use it enough.

If you want your hook to be catchy, use repetition strategically to your advantage. You don’t have to repeat it over and over again, but you can repeat your hook in certain sections like at the beginning or end of each verse, or the beginning or end of your chorus.

Alliteration

Alliteration is when the same letter or sound is repeated at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. This is a great device to use because it is in essence another form of repetition.

It also creates a natural rhythmic feel and cadence to your lyrics that paired with the right melody can make your lyric soar.

The best place to think of alliteration is in the nursery rhymes, tongue twisters we were taught as a child. For example, “peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..” If you listen to a lot of songs today, or even greater speakers and preachers, you’ll hear where they place a lot of alliteration into their words.

Rhyme

Rhyme is such a vital literary device to use in your hooks. We are ingrained with a sense of needing to hear those rhymes when listening to a song or a poem.

So much so that the right rhyme scheme used correctly can even change the way a song makes you feel, or how the message is received.

Learning how to use rhyme to your advantage can really make your lyrics so much more memorable.

Here are some examples of some catchy hooks/titles that incite an emotion and use some of these devices to grab your attention:

• Reckless Love – Cory Asbury
• 10000 Reasons – Matt Redman
• Indescribable – Chris Tomlin
• Peace Be Still – Lauren Daigle
• Fresh Fire – Maverick City
• Something About The Name Jesus – Kirk Franklin

Songwriting Tip #2: Center Your Lyrics Around One Big Idea

One of my songwriting coaches, John Chisum of Nashville Christian Songwriters, always harped on this concept. He always stated that everything in your song needs to be centered on your ONE BIG IDEA. 

This BIG IDEA is essentially your hook or your song title. It’s the foundation of your song. It’s the cornerstone that holds your song together.

Imagine you were building a foundation of a house with stone, but then midway through the process decided to use wood. You would end up with a very shaky foundation to build your house on, and most likely that house won’t stand up for very long, no matter how well dressed up it is on the outside.

The same goes for your songs. If you start writing lyrics about “Faith in the Fire” in your chorus, then begin to talk about “God’s love and mercy” over your life in the verse, and in your bridge talk about “God working miracles”, you have now taken the listener on a very confusing journey. 

While these topics can be interwoven together, you need to make sure to tie them back to the “BIG IDEA”.

“If you confuse the listener you lose the listener.”

Sticking to your big idea helps you not to confuse the listener. If you confuse the listener, you lose the listener. You don’t want to confuse your audience about the message of your song, you’ll only end up losing them in the process.

Songwriting Tip #3: Use Powerful Imagery and Metaphors

You may have heard the saying, “show don’t tell” when it comes to writing, and for good reason. We are visual creatures, and we connect best when we can picture what we hear.

Using powerful imagery and metaphors helps connect the listener to the message of the song. It allows them to pull their story into your story.

It helps to convey the image of what is happening in the song. If done right, it can place them right there in the middle of the song. It makes the song relatable and helps to see themselves through the lyrics that are being sung. 

Even more importantly, imagery and metaphors help convey the emotion of the song. When people connect with the lyrics and can picture in their mind where the song is taking them, it creates an experience like no other.

They may begin to remember a time they were in a similar situation. Or a time when they had a similar feeling and gain a sense of hope that they too can find what the song is telling them they can. 

One great sense of imagery is in a song “Reckless Love” by Cory Asbury. In the bridge he states:

“No shadow you won’t light up

Mountain you won’t climb up

Coming after me

No door you won’t kick down

Lie you won’t tear down 

Coming after me”

Caleb Culver / Cory Hunter Asbury / Randy Matthew Jackson

Reading those lyrics, you get a picture of a God who relentlessly pursues you. Even if you have never climbed a mountain, or physically seen God chasing you, you can immediately relate to the emotion conveyed here.

He uses great imagery in nouns like “shadow”, “mountain”, “door”, and even metaphors like “lie you won’t tear down” making a lie something physical. He ties them to powerful verbs to bring life to the lyrics.

Verbs are an important tool that needs much emphasis when you are writing your lyrics, but that’s a whole topic for another day 🙃. 

Songwriting Tip #4: Say More, Speak Less (Economy of Words)

It said that the best way to teach someone about a topic to is to explain it to them like they are five.

That means taking all these complex ideas and thoughts and compacting them into bite-sized sentences, phrases, and language a child could understand. This has also been called having a good word economy.

With your songs it is no different, less is more. The best songs are the ones that can pack a ton of imagery, emotion, and story into short, lines and phrases.

You want to keep the same impact of your lyrics with as few words as possible. 

Part of becoming better with this process is understanding the value of each line, each word, each syllable. There should be no wasted space in the song.

Each syllable is used to help drive the story and portray the imagery and feeling. Always think about the who, what, why, when, and how. See how you can address them through each line.

To give you some actionable methods to do this, here are 4 great tips on how to write more economically, taken from this great article on word economy written by MasterClass:

4 Tips for Improving your Word Economy:

1. Use an Active Voice

Keep your lyrics in action, use an active tone to keep the song moving, feeling, doing.

2. Use Strong Verbs

Choose verbs that will explain what it is that is going on, be very precise as using the right verb can help you to cut down on the number of words needed. 

[ Example: “I’ve been working so hard to get through this pain…” vs. “I’m pushing through the pain”. Notice the difference in tone and syllable count just by adding one powerful verb. ]

3. Avoid Wordy Prepositional Phrases

Avoid words like “and”, “the”, “really”, “at”, “on”, unnecessary pronouns, or adverbs. Only use them if they are adding significant meaning to the song. Try taking these out and see how you can say that line without it, then you’ll see the power of your lines increase.

4. Compress, Compress, Compress

For songwriters, this is better said as rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Always go back through your song and see how you can refine it down more. Great songs are not written, they’re rewritten. It’s a lot of WORK but it’s WORTH it in the end.

Songwriting Tip #5: Keep It Conversational

Your song needs to be easy to say, easy to sing, and easy to listen to.

This is where the power of prosody comes into play. Prosody is the natural patterns of stress and intonation in a language. It’s the natural rhythm to how you say your words. 

The best way to use this technique in your songs is to say your lyrics before you sing them. Listen to how the words flow naturally.

If they begin to sound too clunky, or unnatural then you need to find a better word or phrase to put there.

Your song needs to be easy to say, easy to sing, and easy to listen to.

Conversational lyrics are easy to remember.

Imagine you were speaking with someone face to face, or on a date with someone. You wouldn’t want to be someone who is rambling when someone speaks and never give them time to process what you are saying.

Keeping your lyrics simple makes them easy to process and understand and therefore more memorable.

Conversational lyrics are more relatable.

Listening to someone sing lyrics that sound like they are speaking directly to you, helps them become more real.

It helps the listener pull the emotion out of the song out. Since there is not much thinking that needs to be done to understand the lyrics, they can now feel the song.

They can put themselves in the song and respond to it as well. 

Conversational lyrics help you in creating your melodies.

Listening to the intonation of how you say or where you place the highs and lows of your words can help you create the shape of your melody.

If you tend to say the word “beautiful” with higher stress on the “beau-“ then maybe your melody will need to rise there or start from a higher note and descend on its way down. Or vice versa.

It all depends on how YOU say the word in your accent, or in your tone. 

Summary

Writing lyrics can be hard, it’s an art all unto itself. While these five tips are not the “be-all, end-all” of lyric writing, they are PROVEN tips that will help strengthen the message and listening power of your song. 

These songwriting tips are used by pros everywhere, just listen to your favorite songs, and I mean REALLY listen and dissect them and you will see what makes you love them so much.

Just working on these five tips is GUARANTEED to strengthen the story of your song, and grab the ear and emotions of the listener. You will see a difference in how people respond to your music.

So take these tips and try them for your next song and tell me how it worked out for you in the comments section below. I would love to hear if any of these tips helped spark any new ideas, or help you fix that line you were struggling to finish.