Previously we have discussed various ways to come up with song ideas by simply becoming more “in-tuned” to the world around us.
The next step in that process is to make a record of those ideas as they hit. I can promise you that when a great idea hits, although it might be clear in your mind at that moment, as you progress through the typical meanderings of the day – that “great” idea will be forever gone.
Many pro songwriters keep a “hook book” handy at all times. This doesn’t have to be fancy, just a small pocket size notepad will do, so that when that moment of inspiration strikes it can be recorded for later on.
It’s important, at this stage of inspiration, to leave the “editor” out of it. Just write the idea down as it comes to you and don’t kill yourself trying to make good sense out of it, or re-write it to “make it better”.
By attempting to edit it “on the fly” you may end up writing yourself right out of what could have been a really great idea! Just let the ideas roll out naturally, and worry about sorting them out later.
By definition, a “hook book” is a place to record possible song titles that may come to you. But it’s also a good place to record song topic ideas as well as possible song “lines”.
Anything that pops in your head is fair game. Write them all down religiously. You may want to keep a larger notebook at home and transfer ideas from your pocket notebook to the larger one. You may also want to separate the larger book into categories, one for song titles (or hooks), and another for song topic or subject ideas, and yet another for ideas that might make good “lines” in a song.
The truth is, when you look back on ideas you have written for a period of time, many of them won’t make sense later on. A lot of those ideas will seem like junk on a later reading, but keep them handy anyway because you just never know when they might fit into a new song idea.
Obviously the point is, that when you write down all your song ideas, no matter how stupid or inconsequential they may seem at the time, once you do actually sit down to write a song, you will always have a full reservoir of ideas to tap into.
Keeping a “hook book” is one great way to avoid taking a trip around the dreaded “writer’s block”!
