Personally I like the top down approach to writing lyrics. I start with general prose, like a diary entry or journal article, and then I start taking key words and phrases from the article as well as the general ideas being conveyed and turn them into something between a bullet point summary and a poem. Finally I go back and make a few stylistic decisions about how the final lyrics should be structured that, usually based on what I intend to convey. This can be based on a straightforward, clear statement of the message itself, sensory experiences, metaphors, repetition schemes and other poetic devices. Hopefully it doesn't turn out like the abstract and terse rhyming jibberish that passes for lyrics these days.
So my recipe for lyrics is:
- Gather long form prose about a subject.
- Cut the prose down to a list of key phrases and sentences, possibly making multiple passes.
- Decide on what poetic devices you might want to use (sound repitition, sensory descriptors, abstract metaphor, etc.) and reform your text accordingly.
I find the third step to be where practice helps the most, though you can also be creative in your interpretation of what is important in the second step. For instance, in an article about the Iraq war, you may choose to focus on the colors mentioned in passing and use them to build metaphors. Sometimes the least significant looking text can make the most thought provoking lyric.
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