Prompt-ly

Any of you songwriters out there use prompts? 

I guess I should’ve led with an explanation of what I mean by a “prompt”. In creative writing circles, it’s typically defined as a word, short phrase, paragraph or even an image. In songwriting, use of prompts usually relates to initiating lyrics. For example, I was once offered the prompt of “inner tube”, and I wrote a song. 

Yes. Yes I did.

I find prompts very helpful, particularly when I’m stuck for song ideas, which doesn’t happen very often… just, uh, every day (a-hem).

Here’s my approach to using prompts. Unless someone suggests one (as in a songwriting circle), I seek out my own. I try to stick to using single words (though I can be flexible on that), and I almost always select a noun. You can find prompts in a book (open up to random place, close eyes, slap finger down on page, there’s your word) a dictionary, or even an online random word generator (trust me, they’re out there!) 

But why a noun? Because it’s the most useful type of word to help with the next step: object writing. In object writing, you simply free-write quickly and for a short amount of time (say, 10 minutes), and use your senses to incorporate/describe/relate to the noun prompt. For instance, suppose your prompt is “charcoal”. As you write, consider what does charcoal look like, what sounds do I associate with it, what does the smell remind me of, etc. Now look back at what you wrote for any interesting phrases or observations that could be a jumping off point for song lyrics. 

And BTW, the prompt does not have to become the subject of the song lyrics. Maybe, for example, “the smell of burgers on the charcoal grill” launches lyrics about being a kid in the backyard on a carefree summer day! I once used the prompt “sofa”, which I described as a “place of comfort”, and that led to a story-song about childhood insecurity. Go figure.

Using prompts is just one of the implements in my songwriting tool box; I would love to hear about your experiences using songwriting prompts!