TIMED WRITING EXERCISE

In this article we’re going to take a look at a simple exercise that can really help when it comes to creating a starting point and overcoming creative blocks. We call this exercise ‘timed writing’, and it forces you to ignore your internal critiquing process and get something down on paper. 

To complete this exercise, all you need is a pen and paper, a timer or stopwatch (I generally use an app on my smartphone) and an overall topic. Once you’re ready to start, sit down with your pen and paper, decide on the topic and set your timer for ten minutes. 

Let’s say you pick the subject of ‘breakups’, once the timer begins, your task is simply to write down your thoughts on the subject, and to continue until the timer runs out. 

Do not spend any time reviewing what you’ve written, don’t worry about making it poetic or well written, and don’t give any consideration to tone of voice, rhyming structure, vocabulary or anything else. Your job is simply to write on the subject for ten minutes, no other rules apply. 

Once the ten minutes are up, you can then go through what you’ve written and review it – not for language or structure, but for sentiment, emotion and overall ideas. One line might jump out at you as a title, there may be an idea for a song subject or you may be able to pick out certain sentences or phrases to form part of a verse or chorus. 

The idea here is to get you writing, and to help overcome the difficulty in starting a new song. By getting something down on paper, you will usually find you have a starting point that can spark further ideas, or at the very least give you some words, lines or phrases that you can refine and bring into a new song. 

Personally, I like to do this once or twice a week, as I’ve found it invaluable when it comes to starting out with my lyrics, and it’s a great way of getting round creative blocks and procrastination.