I’ve made a small gift for your next writing session: a free, three-page Song Maps Quick-Start Kit. Something to add to your idea bank.
If you have a title you love but aren’t sure where to take it, this is for you. It is also for the half-written lyric whose second verse keeps saying what the first verse has already said.
A title can suggest a feeling, a picture or a situation. The next question is how that idea will develop over the length of a song. What will the listener discover in verse two? Why will the chorus be worth hearing again?
That is where Song Maps can help.
Give each section a job
A Song Map is a plan for the flow of ideas through a lyric. Pair a title with a map developed for it, and you have what I call a writable idea. You can see what you want to say in each section before you start wrestling with every line.
For example, take the title “Room for You” and the Tension/Response map.
In verse one, someone stands by a doorway with their coat still on, unsure whether they belong.
The chorus offers a welcome: there is room for you.
In verse two, the singer pulls another chair up to the table. The coat comes off. A conversation begins. That second verse gives us evidence of the welcome. By the time the chorus returns, we have seen its promise take shape.
The bridge can then reveal why the singer cares: they remember being the person outside, and they are grateful someone once made room for them.
A small kit for your next song
The download has three pages:
A cheat sheet introducing Tension/Response, Timezones and Places
The full Room for You planning example
A reusable worksheet for your own title
You can print the worksheet or type into the PDF and save your plan.
Choose one title you already have. Try it with one of the maps. Keep your notes simple, and give verse two something new to contribute. If the first map does not help you find a convincing direction, try another.
When the plan makes you want to write, start crafting the lyric. Keep the map flexible as better ideas arrive.
Download the free Song Maps Quick-Start Kit attached to this post.
I’d love to hear which map you try and where it takes your title. Leave a comment or reply to this email.
Hope this helps!
Simon