Here's a new word. It's a unique word I made up myself –
"Universalizing"
This is a general lyric tool, inspired by the beautiful book "The Craft of Lyric Writing" by Sheila Davis. What I mean by "universalizing" is turning our experiences into things that somehow resonate with our listeners. And this resonates in a far more powerful way than if we tell them every detail.
One of my co-writers put it very well when he said:
”The songwriter's challenge is to turn the specifics of their lives into something everyone can hang their stuff on."
This might at first seem to be a bit of an idea crusher – having to make every idea 'big enough to write a song about. But, while I do think ideas need to be substantial enough to write, I think that's looking at universalizing the wrong way round. I believe universalizing opens up a whole new world of potential song ideas because it's about harvesting elements of what may seem to us as sometimes negative, mundane detail to produce beautiful principles that can unlock, inspire, empower and ignite our listeners' lives through our lyrics.
Examples
Instead of writing a song about the fear of seeing a dentist after having a long-standing toothache, write about how taking charge of our challenges empowers us to live life to the full.
Perhaps, from our experience of deep frustration or failure, write a song about how we will persevere. Or maybe, how we draw strength from our faith in dark times or how, with a bit of belief from a loved one, we become empowered to achieve more than we ever thought possible.
How to universalize
I suggest the following three-step method:
Recollection: Think of several recent struggles or challenges you have had, no matter how mundane they might feel to you
Extraction: What life lessons can you derive from those experiences, replacing your specifics with generalities?
Mapping: Using an appropriate Song Map (Tension/Response, for example), turn one of these life lessons into a Writable Idea.
Question
What recent experience, struggle, or meaningful moment could you universalize into a great song idea?
Simon.