Breaking Through Creative Stagnation in Songwriting
How do I Overcome Writer’s Block?
Writer’s block isn’t mysterious. It’s a symptom of something: perfectionism, overthinking, exhaustion, lack of inspiration, or disconnection from your material. Identifying the cause helps you address it. Block isn’t permanent. It’s temporary. And it’s treatable with the right approach.
Lower Your Standards Intentionally
Perfectionism kills songwriting. You’re sitting trying to write the perfect hook and you’ve written nothing in two hours. Instead, write terrible hooks. Write 20 terrible hooks. One will be salvageable. Many professional songwriters’ first drafts are embarrassingly bad.
Bill Burr said, “You’ve gotta write a thousand bad jokes before you write a good one.” Same applies to songs. Lower your standards and write freely. Quantity before quality. Always.
Auf Wiedersehen, amigos.
