From Scratch – Adventures in Independent Music Making

Change of plans. I was going to write about copyright today, but have been working on music this morning and feel more compelled to write about lyrics than legal concerns.

Being in the middle of pre-production for our next album, I have been making an effort to engage in “object writes” every day. An object write is a lyric writing exercise designed to a) improve your ability to write with deep description and b) train you to ‘get in the zone’ more quickly. I learned about this strategy from a great songwriting book called Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison. There are a number of awesome approaches in this book that have helped me problem solve during writer’s block or even just start an idea from scratch. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who I lent my copy to, so I am going to have to buy a new one. Balls. (If you’re reading this and you have my book, give it back!).

So how does an object write work? Basically, you set a timer or alarm to sound after 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes, you focus exclusively on writing as much as you can without stopping (letting your instincts guide you), while trying to incorporate all 5 senses into your project. I usually write each of them on the top right hand corner of my page so that I can check them off as I go. The point is to develop a mental picture of where your object is, everything that surrounds it and how things/people interact with it. From there you can pick out elements of imagery that jump out at you and build off of those or just abandon the whole idea all together. The point is simply to get your mind in the ‘descriptive zone’.

I’m usually very hesitant to share unfinished ideas with people (Admittedly, I’m a bit of a perfectionist), but am trying to overcome that insecurity because I know that collaborating and sometimes just sharing ideas is a great way to grow an idea … and as an artist. So here it goes… one of my object writes from the past week.

Object: Robot

Once shiny, now rusted like the Tin Man, his joints creek as they are moved into a seated position. Once lit up, now burned out, the light bulbs in his eyes are quiet. I try flipping his switch, but only a squeal ensues, later accompanied by a delayed puff of burning rubber smoke. Small and flimsy in my hand, I straighten his back flush against the wall and look on… as his empty eyes look back at mine and we both taste the sadness.

Okay, so it’s pretty short. But I think I’ve got all 5 senses in there.

Any suggestions on where it could go from here? What I could do differently? Or perhaps, would you like to share your own object write about a robot (or other object)? Leave a comment below :)

Next Week … I’ll try to get that copyright stuff done (eep), but it might turn into more songwriting topics :) haha

Meghan Morrison

www.meghanmorrison.com
@MegsMorrison

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