Guide · Songwriting

25 songwriting tips that actually get songs finished

Not theory. These are the small, practical moves that turn a phone full of half ideas into finished songs: finding what you already have, sorting it, getting unstuck, and getting one song over the line this week.

Your next song is probably already recorded

Most songwriters do not have an ideas problem. They have hundreds of ideas they cannot find. Start here.

1. The half-asleep memo

The one you mumbled at 2am. Bad recording, real feeling. Listen back.

2. Under another song

The riff you played before the take started. It might be better than the song after it.

3. The "too simple" chorus

The one you skipped because it felt obvious. Obvious is often just catchy.

4. The voice note to a friend

You sent it to someone, then forgot it. Check your messages, not just Voice Memos.

5. The one-line problem

The demo you never finished because of one bad line. Fix the line, not the song.

Sort the voice memo pile in one afternoon

No deleting. The goal is to know what you have.

6. Play them at 2x

First pass is fast. You are not judging the song, just whether it still gives you a feeling.

7. Three piles

Yes, maybe, not now. Nothing gets deleted. Not now just means not today.

8. Name every yes

New Recording 412 becomes "car park chorus". If you cannot name it, it goes in maybe.

9. Group the takes

Three memos of the same idea are one song. Put them together so you hear it grow.

10. Merge two half songs

That chorus from March and the verse from June might be the same song. Play them back to back and see.

Voice memo habits that cost you songs

Small habits, big pile.

11. Never naming them

New Recording 312 means nothing in a year. Name it the second you stop recording.

12. Deleting the bad takes

The bad take often has the one line you need later. Keep everything.

13. Never listening back

If you never replay them, you are not saving ideas. You are hoarding them.

14. No finish line

Ideas, half written, demo, done. If a song has nowhere to move to, it never moves.

15. Rewrite one line

Not the whole song. Just the one line you skip over every time you sing it.

Stuck on the second verse

Five ways in. Pick one and write for ten minutes.

16. Move the camera

Verse one was wide. Zoom right in on one object in the room, or pull right out to the whole street.

17. Skip ahead in time

What happened next? A week later, a year later. Verse two is the morning after verse one.

18. Swap whose eyes

Write the same story from the other person. What did they see that you missed?

19. Change one sense

If verse one was all things you saw, make verse two all things you heard or smelled.

20. Flip the chorus line

Take the first line of your chorus and say the opposite. Now explain why.

Finish one song this week

Twenty minutes a day. Close beats good.

21. Monday: pick one

Not the best idea. The one closest to done.

22. Tuesday: find the hole

Find the one part that is missing. A bridge, a second verse, a last line.

23. Wednesday: ten bad versions

Write ten rough takes of that part. Do not judge them yet.

24. Thursday: choose

Play them back. Pick one. Done beats perfect.

25. Friday: record and send it

Phone in front of you, one take, start to finish. Send it to one person. A rough demo sent beats a perfect one sat in a folder.

Questions

How do I finish more songs?

Pick the idea closest to done, not the best one, find the one missing part, and give it twenty minutes a day for a week. Most unfinished songs are missing one section, not a whole song.

What should I do with hundreds of voice memos?

Play them at double speed, sort them into yes, maybe and not now without deleting anything, name every yes, and group takes of the same idea together. Then pick one to finish.

How do I write a second verse?

Change something from verse one: zoom in or out, move forward in time, switch to the other person's point of view, or swap the sense you are writing about.