Creative ways to write your name on paper
10 Ways to Make Name Writing Practice Fun for Kids
ByRachel Updated on
Today we are showing some really fun name writing practice ideas for kids that are way more fun than just practicing on plain paper. It is an important skill for kids to easily write both their first name and last name before they go to Kindergarten. Don’t let this task be intimidating or frustrating because we have the easy way to practice your child’s name with a lot of fun!
Let’s practice writing our name!Write Your Name
A basic Kindergartener skill is that kids can write both their first name and last name without prompting.
Related: Check out our free printable Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
Because most children thrive when education is coupled with sensory activities, we’ve put together a bunch of different ways you can help your child practice writing their name in different and fun ways.
This article contains affiliate links.
Name Writing Practice Tips
Helping your child practice writing their name gives your child the confidence to do their best in school and feel great about it.
- Don’t just have them practice their first name, but their last name also.
- This would also be a good way to teach about capital letters and that the first letter of your child’s name needs to be capitalized.
- Plus, practicing is also important fine motor skills practice and help with letter recognition.
Use these Writing Activity Ideas Other Ways
What is even cooler, not only can these help your young learners learn their names, but this would be a good way to teach sight words as well!
Related: This is part of our homeschool preschool curriculum of play based learning
We hope you and your kids enjoy the activities we’ve put together for you to help gain the necessary skills to write your first name and last name with ease.
Fun Ways Kids Can Practice Writing Skills
1. Writing Name in Gel Bags for Easy Name Tracing
These are brilliant. Fill a giant Ziploc bag with about half a bottle of hair gel and some food coloring. To use, write their name on a page. Lay the gel bag over the paper. Your kids trace the letters to make their name.
This is a fun way to teach kids (2 year old and up) how to write their name. It’s mess free and you don’t have to worry about little ones sticking fingers and glitter and such in their mouths.
2. Creating Sandpaper Letters of Name for Practice Tracing
Kids love sensory experiences. This one helps your kids recognize that letters need to be formed in a particular order. Write their name on sandpaper. Your child needs to use yarn to form the letters of their name.
I love these name activities for preschool kids and older! They’re so fun they will forget they are learning.3. Dot-to-Dot for Name Writing Practice to Write Your Name
This is an especially useful technique for older kids who have learned all the wrong habits. Create a series of dots and number from where they start. Your kids need to follow the dots in order. Start with lots of dots and as your child gets more practice, remove dots.
This is a great way for a preschool teacher and kindergarten teachers to not only learn their name, letter formation, but also work on fine motor skills as well.
4. Glittery Letters Name Letters – Cool Way to Write Name
Review their name multiple days in a row. Using a stiff piece of paper or cardboard, write their names. Your child traces letters of their name with glue. Cover the glue with glitter. When it has dried you can trace the letters with your fingers.
What a great way to get your little learners to practice their names. Plus, it gives your child a creative outlet as well..
I would suggest putting something under to catch the excess glitter.
5. Scramble and Unscramble the Letters of Name
One of the precursors to writing their name is recognizing it and deciphering the order of the letters in their name. Practice putting letters in order from left to right with this fun name activity. Refrigerator letters and foam letters work well for this activity.
I like all these different fun ways to work on writing skills.
Looking for cool ways to write your name? Use crayons to write your name in rainbow!6. Make Name Rainbow Letters for Colorful Practice Tracing Name
Give your child a handful of crayons. They get to trace their name over and over again. Each time using a different crayon. You will be surprised at how fast your kids will become experts at writing letters with this technique.
This is first place in name writing practice fun. Mixing colors, building colors, going wild with the crayons, what fun!
7. Chalk-Board Swabs for Name Practice
If you have a chalk board this is super handy and fun! Write their name on the board with chalk. Give your kids a handful of cotton swabs and a capful of water. Your kids need to erase the letters using the swabs.
If you don’t have a chalk board, you can also use a dry erase marker board! You can buy all the different colored dry erase pens to make it more fun.
Name writing doesn’t have to be hard! Let your little one trace their name first!8. Highlighter Tracing Exercises with Name Letters
Write the letters of their name with thick lines using a bright highlighter marker. Your kids trace the letters “ their goal is to stay inside the line of the highlighter markings. As they become a more confident writer, make the letters thinner and smaller.
9. Masking Tape Street Letters Fun with Name
Form the letters of their name in tape on the floor. Grab the bin of cars. Your kids get to drive around the letters of their name. Encourage them to move their vehicles along the roads the way they would write the letters.
This is one of many great ideas. Mix play and learning to keep it interesting for young children.
10. Play Dough Etching of Child’s First Name & Last Name
Etch your child’s name into play dough using a pencil. Your child can trace the lines. Then roll it flat and trace their name very softly. Your kids need to etch their name deeply following the lines you made. The tension of the dough will help develop the muscle motor control needed to write.
Free Name Writing Practice Worksheets You Can Print
This name writing practice worksheet set has two pages of fun for kids.
- The first printable practice sheet has blank lines to fill in the child’s first and last name for tracing, copy work or writing from scratch.
- The second printable handwriting practice sheet is an About Me printable page where kids can write their first name and last name and then fill in a little about themselves.
Name-writing-practiceDownload
So many fun practice printables that are free…Looking For More Writing and Name Writing Practice Activities?
- Learn how to write in cursive! These cursive practice sheets are so much fun and easy to do. You can learn about uppercase letters and lowercase letters. This is a great opportunity to teach a skill that is quickly dying out.
- Not quite ready to write? Your child can practice on these preschool pre-writing skill worksheets. These are fun practice sheets that will get your child ready to write their names and other words.
- Practice writing with this I love you because worksheet. This is one of the sweetest practice worksheets. Plus it doubles as a coloring sheet.
- Here are 10 fun and engaging handwriting exercises for preschoolers. My favorite is #5. This is great if you’re looking for different materials to keep learning fun.
- These ideas to get your preschooler excited about handwriting are genius! Start teaching your child at a young age so they will be ready when they go to kindergarten.
- Check out these 10 free handwriting worksheets for even more practice. These are great for kindergarten students, preschool students, and any student who may struggle with writing. We all learn in different ways and different paces.
- These are our favorite preschool workbooks!
What name writing practice idea are you going to try first?
Rachel
Rachel is the founder of the blog, One Crazy House. She is the co-author of 101 Kids Activities that are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! and The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and six children.
CreatePrintables - Name Tracing Practice
Kids all learn at different paces, but one of the best ways to start with writing is having your child practice their name. Not only is it an important early skill that they’ll use, it’s also something that they’ll want to practice. But, names can be so diverse! That’s why I’ve created this free editable name tracing worksheet printable so your child can practice writing their name.
New name tracing worksheets available:
- Name Tracing Practice Pack
- Seasonal Name Tracing Practice
Most children don’t need to be able to write well by the time they enter kindergarten but even preschool classes work on teaching name recognition. That includes both identifying and writing a child’s name.
When preschoolers are first learning name writing it’s important to make things really simple for them. Personally, I love to use name tracing worksheets to help develop those early writing skills.
Why Use a Name Tracing Worksheet Generator?
Did you know that there are over five thousand popular first names in the US alone? That’s an awful lot of variation even if your child doesn’t have a super unique name. It would be impossible to create tracing name worksheets for each and every name like we do with other early words.
That’s where this name tracing worksheet generator works great. You can customize it with your child’s exact name (both first and last!) even if you use unique spelling.
This writing worksheet generator replaces blank name tracing worksheets because you can finally customize them to say anything you want!
How to Use Name Tracing Worksheets
These free name tracing worksheets for preschool are perfect for developing those beginner writing skills in kids. All you have to do is insert your child’s name and how many times you’d like the name repeated.
When you’re working with young children start with less repetitions. Too many can be overwhelming, plus the larger words are easier to trace for little ones. Then as they gain confidence in their writing you can make the letters smaller and include more lines.
You could start with your kid’s first name, then move on to including the middle and last name. Or have them practice names of family members and friends!
What Font Should I Use For Name Tracing?
I love this name tracing generator because you can choose from multiple fonts. Which font you go with depends on your child’s age, abilities, preferences, and your learning goals.
It’s popular for parents, especially when doing preschool and kindergarten age name writing practice, to opt for dotted letters that can be traced over. Writing formation guides are optional and it really depends on the kid. Try experimenting with different font styles and see what works best for you.
Printable names in bubble letters are great for beginners or if you’re doing other crafts with their name. To turn the name writing worksheet into a custom name craft just enter the name with one repetition with the paper set to landscape.
You can also use this free name writing generator to help kids practice handwriting their name. A lot of schools are starting with cursive instead of printing. If that’s something you want to work on at home choose the cursive font when creating your printable.
Why Should Kids Learn to Write Their Name?
I usually recommend starting early with name writing because it’s something most kids will find useful even from a young age. Unlike other words, preschoolers have plenty of reasons to write their names.
With name writing practice kids will be able to label their own artwork, sign their name on cards (Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to practice name writing!), and it helps with general word recognition.
Since it’s more practical than other words it’s easier to keep preschoolers focused when practicing name writing. They’ll still develop important pre-writing skills like muscle strength, pencil grip, and letter formation while also getting to write something that relates to their life.
Finally, most preschoolers can identify their name. It can be challenging to convince pre-readers to write words they can’t yet read.
How to Make Name Writing Practice More Fun
Even enthusiastic kids can get burnt out on name tracing worksheets. It’s really important to make sure kids have fun while developing preschool skills. If something is too boring you might start getting resistance in the future when the pressure is higher to teach these early skills.
My best advice is to allow the child to lead in your learning. What that means is providing tracing name worksheets and encouraging kids to do them without being forceful. If they’re completely uninterested, pause and try again at a different time or when they’re older.
Another great way to make things fun is by turning the activity into something more than just writing practice. For younger children you could use the bubble letter font to create a colouring page. Then have them decorate their name however they want.
I’ve also created activities for my kids by painting the letters of their names and decorating them with stickers. These are both great for kids of all ages! Pre-writers will practice letter recognition and older kids can get creative.
For older children who need to practice their writing skills try changing out the names with other things they find interesting like TV show characters or friends’ names.
Can You Use These Free Name Tracing Worksheets With Older Kids?
Writing practice isn’t just for preschoolers and kindergarten students. Even older kids can benefit, especially if they’re learning cursive.
You can also use these writing practice printables to practice spelling. Just insert the spelling words and have your older kids trace over them on the worksheet. To encourage concentration on each letter you can have them alternate what colours they use to write.
Writing practice worksheets are also a great way to practice spelling and vocabulary in a second language at any age.
How Can You Make Your Own Name Writing Printables?
The printable name tracing worksheets generator is completely free and available on the Create Printables website. You can use it to create your own name writing paper in guided printing, handwriting/cursive writing, bubble letters, and more.
They’re perfect for your preschool aged kids, kindergarten writing practice, homeschool families, and even working on writing skills with older children.
prescriptions is not scary. How to teach children to write through a fun game
Many children before school willingly write in large block letters, sometimes they skip letters, sometimes some of the letters are reversed, but they still like to write! But now they go to school, and the prescriptions become a nightmare. Why? And how to change it? By Zhenya Katz.
Different countries have different attitudes about whether it is necessary to write letters without separation, whether copybooks and calligraphy are needed, and if so, from what age. In England and the United States, children write more in single block letters. In France, prescriptions are written, and they insist on it. In China, they start learning hieroglyphs early.
Many psychologists and physiologists agree that it is not useful for all children to write letters without interruption, and they recommend writing separate letters without trying to write everything together.
What's the problem with capital letters? Is it possible to learn to write beautifully by hand calmly and without tears? At what age is it better to start? How often do I return to copybook assignments? Is it possible to learn to write beautifully if bad handwriting has already formed? The answers to these questions are of great interest to parents and teachers.
Let's start with the fact that all children are different, and the difficulties in mastering writing are also different. Depending on the situation, it is necessary to choose suitable games and solution methods. What are the most common writing difficulties?
Weak hand, weak fine motor skills, the child quickly gets tired of holding a pencil and putting pressure on it
In such a situation, it is important to offer feasible written tasks - and select convenient written materials. Sometimes parents, seeing the difficulties, decide that they just need to postpone all activities related to pencils until the child himself wants to.
As a result, we meet a child about whom the parents say: “You know, he is 6 years old, but he has not yet chosen which hand to write with, and as a result, he writes neither right nor left.” This is also not very true. Let him write and draw at least a little, let him write with different materials, but you should not completely postpone these exercises.
It is unlikely that a child who is not used to drawing at all will suddenly learn to write beautiful sticks and letters just because he gets older and goes to school
In our group there are often children with weak motor skills who find it difficult to hold a pencil. We keep thick triangular pencils 4B or at least 2B especially for them. You can write with soft felt-tip pens, brushes, wax crayons.
Some teachers in this situation give a thin hard pencil, they say, let them work hard so that the line can be seen. This often leads to the fact that children strain even more, squeezing the pencil, and get tired much faster. We advise, on the contrary, to give such materials with which it is easy and pleasant to draw, and the result was immediately visible.
Many children like to write with chalk on asphalt, write with berry juice on large sheets, play with semolina or foam and write letters on them.
For children whose hand gets tired quickly from writing, it is important to gradually increase the load. The more tired they are, the worse they hold the pencil. On the other hand, if a child does not like and cannot write at 4-5 years old, and cannot write his name, then sometimes parents think that you just have to wait - it will get better by itself. And then - bang - and the first class, and immediately you have to write a lot by hand, and in all subjects - in Russian, in mathematics, and then more homework! Parents suddenly catch on, start insisting on beautiful handwriting, children get upset, refuse, get angry. This is not the most pleasant scenario for everyone, frankly.
We usually start by asking at 4-5 years old to sign the name on the pictures, then the name and title, then we call the child to help us write the shopping list, the guest list, the pie recipe. We play drawing, where any funny squiggle is good. We come up with a variety of games with letters, gradually adding different written versions of word games.
It is difficult for a child to write in small letters
If we see that the child cannot draw a straight line, it does not work out or carefully paint over, circles do not work, the line trembles - we must start with very large samples. Do not try to write small letters, squeezing them into narrow rulers.
Do the opposite: take a huge piece of paper and write a letter on it. You can take an A4 sheet and put it in a transparent file folder, or laminate sheets with large letters - one letter per whole sheet. And then we write in transparent with a marker for the board.
In this case, we fix the motor image of the letter, but at the same time we do not run into problems with fine motor skills. You can write giant letters with a stick on the sand, with a sponge on the bathroom wall, or with chalk on the asphalt. Which, in my experience, does not help much - shading and playing with small Lego.
Parents are often surprised: they say, how bad motor skills can be, he plays Lego for hours!
Alas. Lego requires completely different movements, not the same as for writing. And the ability to connect cubes and bricks does not help in any way the smooth coordinated movements that are needed for capital letters.
My friend, mother of nine children Olesya Likhunova, told how she taught all her children to write: they did not start with letters, but with a variety of games with clay and plasticine, so that the child had good motor skills, an eye, and good coordination eye-hand. After that, they took a large sheet and drew one letter on the whole sheet. One huge! First, the mother draws, and the child traces this letter with his finger. Then he tries to write with a felt-tip pen. And the most beautiful of the five attempts is shown to all households and boasted: “Look, what our Petya is like! No one taught him capital letters, and today he wrote such a beautiful “A”!”
Ideally, to make a notebook from wide rulers for first-graders who find it difficult to write small letters. You can give a teacher who will conduct classes with first-graders a stack of paper with large rulers. If we want the child to form an image of a letter, then it is useful to write each letter in a variety of ways:
- with your hand in the air
- sponge on bathroom wall
- chalk on asphalt
- sand or pavement sprinkler
- colored water on snow
- tassel on large sheet
- with a finger or the whole palm - on clay, semolina, sand or shaving foam.
It is useful to lay out letters from sticks, from plasticine sausages, from shoelaces, from nuts and designer parts.
Outlining letters along dotted lines is not so useful, but drawing a family of similar baby letters around a sample letter is good and useful.
You can also make letters-matryoshkas of different sizes, one inside the other, or draw letters on a hill and under a hill, drawing a sheet diagonally.
The child can write letters, but they turn out “wrong”
It happens that the child’s image of the letter is not formed very accurately, and he does not understand what width, height the letter needs to be written in order to come out beautifully. Or he simply doesn’t remember which way the tail of B or D is, or confuses the written letters H and C. In this case, it is useful to draw the same letter with chalk, lay it out from counting sticks, from a handful of rice or beans, from plasticine sausages. It is important to use different materials so that you can easily change the proportions of the letter and see if it gets better. You can draw a line on which we draw letters, not straight, but curved so that "the letters go over the mountains", and then it's not scary that one letter leans to the right, the other is bent - it's even funnier. In general, the more play and laughter there will be in your classes, the better!
The child is distracted and confuses the letters
My brother in the first grade wrote "the first of December" instead of "February" because he mixed up the letters and did not like writing. And he wrote this ill-fated "Devra" all month long, both in class and at homework. In such a situation, different attention games work well: for example, find all the written letters "d" among the written letters "c", "f" and "b".
You can do small tasks every day like a correction test - for attention and accuracy. You can compose funny phrases in which all the words begin with this letter: "The purple lantern snorted at the violets." "A good melon perforated the oak."
Child forgets how letters are spelled and what they look like
Some children have difficulty reading and writing because they cannot remember what letters look like. Adults are used to the fact that this icon denotes this sound. And for children, all these icons are often too similar. In this case, we need alphabets in pictures. This is called "forming an association with the image of a letter." We advise you to take the "ABC" by Daria Gerasimova, there in the book "ABC with transformations" each letter has its own image, and there is a rhyme to it.
You can collect the letter A from watermelon seeds or orange rings, O - from cucumber rings, P - from sticks, W - from cones, F - from dates or pistachios, K - from chestnuts, etc. Then the image of the letter will be associated with the material.
You can remember and write down different words that begin with this letter. We draw the letter "A" and around it we write down and draw different words that begin with this letter: bus, arch, acrobat, orange, watermelon. Then we draw the letter "B" - and a squirrel, a ram, a banana, a drum, a bun appear around it.
What do children like to write about?
According to my observations, children are most likely to write their name, their compositions, fairy tales, homemade books, tips for finding treasures, inscriptions on their maps, price tags when playing shop, tickets when playing theater, their order when playing games. Cafe. Many children are ready to write their own name at least ten times in a row, and at the same time they are ready to experiment, write letters of different sizes, decorate letters with curlicues, write each letter in a new color, master written letters (not all letters, but only their own name), write wide letters or narrow, high or low.
You can add an element of randomness to the games with prescriptions. We throw a dice, and how many points fell out, so many times we draw the selected letter or the selected short word. When the work is divided into small observable pieces, it is much easier to do it, and it is not so scary to start. Perhaps at some point the child will see that there is not much left - and he will simply add letters to the end of the line himself.
If we are only teaching a child to write, it is important to separate literate writing and writing
It is very difficult to learn everything at once, to have time to follow the spelling, the meaning, the beauty of the letters. And therefore, it is most reasonable to separate these aspects of learning. And in any case, there is no need to rush a child who is having a hard time.
Let's say that in the exercise we are focusing on writing correctly. Then we start by choosing those words that most children can write without errors. Let there be no unchecked vowels, and even unstressed ones. And let it be clear whether the letter is voiced or voiceless at the end. It is not necessary to write off, you can choose pictures - and write captions to them. House, cat, whale, bow, beetle, lamp, table, chair, fox, wolf, hand, porridge, sofa, robot, arch, forest, park, Christmas tree - it's hard to make a mistake in these words. We print pictures - without words, and ask the child to choose any 5 cards and write captions for them! And we can, with a clear conscience, praise everyone who wrote so many words correctly. And then you can come up with funny combinations with these words: “the house flies”, “blue cat”, “red whale”, “fun bow” - and write them off too. Or you can attach separate cards with adjectives to the words that we already know how to write - and write down the funniest. For this, by the way, cards from the game "triple nonsense" are great. Or you can flip through the pages of a paper cutter and write down the resulting nonsense. If we want to teach children to compose, to write meaningful texts, at this moment we must put aside both literacy and the beauty of letters. Let him write at random, skipping letters, making mistakes, erasing and crossing out, as long as the ideas in the text are interesting and the plot is fascinating. As one teacher friend says, let them write an essay with a million mistakes! But by yourself!
And if we focus on calligraphy, then at this moment there is no need to find fault with speed, literacy, etc. Copybooks at school are given so that children learn to write quickly and can quickly take notes. The idea is great, but according to the research of many psychologists, calligraphy goes well at 9-10 years old, and for many six-year-olds, writing is difficult. For uninterrupted writing, they need to strain their hand very much, they get tired, they begin to squeeze the pen in their hand even more strongly, a tremor appears, the letters tremble and “slide” off the line.
Is it possible to change the situation and make copybook work a pleasant experience?
If we want to write beautifully and be interesting, then we need to start with motivation. If we just force it, then the child gets tired quickly, starts to get distracted, writes worse and worse. And if you allow yourself to choose in what order to write off the words, what will change? Does he write less? Then let's let him set his own order!
You can arrange a lesson-quest and invite the child to choose 5 or 10 words that he is ready to write neatly and beautifully.
You can also offer to do a nice half of the task and not finish the second part. You can offer to write off your favorite poem, anecdote or the lyrics of a song instead of a text from a textbook. Or you can make a homemade picture book. Or write down a story invented using story cubes. You can write a birthday guest list or a grocery shopping list. And you can share responsibility: a child comes up with one phrase, and an adult writes it down, and vice versa. The adult invents, the child writes. Let it be funny nonsense - inventing and writing funny things is much more interesting!
If we want children to write more on their own and understand written letters better, we can leave them notes written by hand more often
And at first it will be notes written in large capital letters, and then you can write some words in capital letters or even everything. If a child cannot read italics, then learning to write in cursive does not make sense. It will copy the text as a picture without dividing it into individual letters and words. And this will be mechanical copying, which will not help you learn how to write each of the letters separately.
Bonus: for adults
I recommend two exercises for adults to remember how they feel about writing: take a pencil or pen in an unaccustomed hand, and write a number and the words "homework". And then you can try to change the color of the pen after each letter. Please note that in adults the image of the letter is formed, you do not need to remember how to write "a" and in which direction the tail of "d", but still writing with an unusual hand is not very easy. When you write a text, you do not have such difficulties, you think, and the hand itself writes the necessary squiggles. But if you have to stop after each letter (you - in order to change the color, and the child - to remember how this or that letter is written), then there will be more errors, you can easily skip the letter too.
Writing is a difficult skill, and for many children it is the most difficult thing to write without stopping. Let's separate writing speed and accuracy then. If we want beautiful letters, then we will not rush and customize. Those letters that are convenient to write together, he will write together. This, for his convenience, was invented by idea.
When I hear that it is very easy for children in the first grade, there is practically nothing to do, I understand that the parents forgot about the letter and the prescription. The older the children, the harder the hand, and the easier it is for them to master writing skills. But this skill takes a lot of work. And the task of parents at this moment is to help and support the child. Teach a first-grader to rest and relax his hand, find an erasable pen - or agree with the teacher that he can write with a pencil and correct mistakes.
Good luck to you and your children on this difficult journey.
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How to Write Lyrics: A Step-by-Step Guide
Learning to write lyrics is an important skill for every musician. After all, lyrics are one of the central components of the connection between listener and performer. A track with great lyrics is simply irresistible as it allows almost anyone to immerse themselves in your audio world.
However, writing lyrics is not an easy process. On your favorite songs, writing lyrics seems easy, but don't forget that every great lyricist started somewhere. Writing lyrics for the first time can be tricky, but luckily, below we'll walk you through exactly how to write lyrics so that you can write a great song by the end of this article. Let's dive into it!
How to write lyrics for beginners
The best way to learn write songs - is to start creating texts! Here is a step-by-step guide to writing your own songs for both beginners and experienced musicians.
- Define your lyrical goals.
- Determine your starting point.
- Brainstorm.
- Decide on the structure of the song.
- Create phrases in your structure.
- Make sure your story has an arc.
- Put your text on the melody.
- Adjust the song for melodiousness and memorability.
- Rinse and repeat!
The lyrics turn elevator music into a profound art form. While many people can only communicate with instrumentals, strong lyrical content will make it much easier for your songs to reach your target audience. Lyric writing isn't always easy, but this plan should make it easier for you to start the process.
1. Define your lyrical goals.
Before you get started, it's helpful to define the goals of the songwriting process for each particular track. You might want to think about what exactly you want to say with your text, or maybe come up with a few topics that naturally inspire you.
Also think about who is the speaker on your track. Are you talking directly to the listener? Is your song more of an emotional monologue? Or is it just a story or experience? Write down common song ideas about which you would like to write, and formulate the most convincing option. Who knows, maybe these first words of inspiration will later serve as a good title for a song!
The most important part of the task here is to start. If you can take that small step of narrowing your thoughts down to one lyrical concept, you'll be well on your way to writing full page of text . Sometimes we get too overwhelmed with the topic which results in us not writing anything at all, so taking the time to define your intentions for the track will surely put you on the road to success.
2. Determine your starting point.
Songwriting is not a linear process. In some sessions, the second chorus is written first. On others, a more chronological approach, starting from the initial couplet and moving on to chorus and chorus. Before you start writing, allow yourself to be changeable.
Your lyrics and song structure will go through a few iterations before you create the best lyrics for the track, so don't strain yourself to find the right word. Allow yourself to start with a clean slate and trust that you will continue to edit as needed.
If you are into other art forms within the framework of music, you can find text after rhythm creation or writing melodies on the guitar. These are all powerful ways to awaken your intuitive writing abilities, so don't be afraid to use them!
Chord progressions can also help you get inspired as some performers prefer to create lyrics and melody at the same time. Others may create songs by starting with just the lyrics. Whatever it is, be confident in your style and follow it. The best songs are created by those artists who are willing to adapt their process to the needs of the track.
3. Brainstorm.
Once you've decided on a starting point and theme song, start brainstorming! Grab a notepad and paper, or write down on your phone whatever comes to your mind that relates to your song. You can also record your ideas on a tape recorder or discuss them with a creative collaborator. These can be words, melodic phrases, or even complete sentences of the song. Now is not the time to be very strict, let it all out!
Try not to disturb yourself. If you're not sure if your idea will make it into the final lyrics, write it down anyway. You want to brainstorm as much as possible so that you can write a complete song later on.
If you are having a hard time finding inspiration, listen to different songs related to the topic of your composition. Are there parts of them that resonate with you? Think about how you can convey these moments in your own words and from your own point of view, and write them down.
Don't let the great be the enemy of the good. Even the best songwriters experience at some point in their careers writer's block . The main thing is to get through it and not give up. You can write a song if you put aside your fears and allow your innate creativity to emerge. It's natural to be nervous if you haven't tried to write a song in the past, but don't let that feeling stop you from starting writing. Set a lyrical goal for yourself and move from it.
4. Decide on the structure of the song.
In order to write lyrics that make sense rhythmically and melodicly, you need to understand basic song structures . Decide what words or phrases you want to use in the chorus melody versus the first verse, bridge, pre-chorus, etc. In general, the most popular song structures are:
- VERSE - CHORUS - VERSE - CHORUS
- INTRO - VERSE - CHORUS - VERSE - BRIDGE - CHORUS
- VERSE - CHORUS - BRIDGE - CHORUS
While many songs deviate from these formulas, it's probably best to stick with one of these tried and true song structures while you get comfortable with the songwriting process. The important step here is that you group your brainstorming thoughts into your own subsections, which will eventually become the centerpieces of your song.
Some important details to pay attention to include:
- Hook: Hook is a short musical phrase that often appears in the chorus. Hooks are memorable, catchy and convey the mood of the song in a few words.
- Chorus: This is likely the most memorable section of your song, so the lyrics should be easy to follow. Chorus lines repeat throughout the song, so focus on writing texts chorus that are easy for anyone to remember.
- Song Title: The title of the song draws the listener into listening to the song, so you need to make sure that your lyrics match the main concept of the title. It's also a good idea to include the title of the song in the lyrics. hook or chorus .
Note that all song components are important. However, when writing lyrics for a hook, chorus, or title, you will need to give it extra time and attention. These parts of the song are the most likely to stick with the listeners, so make sure you write a song that highlights these parts as strengths.
5. Create phrases within your structure and a solid rhyme scheme.
Now that you have a general roadmap of where you want to place certain lyrics, it's time to create lyric phrases if you haven't already. Think about the flow and cadence of your lyric lines: Each line should ideally have the same number of syllables and cadence as the previous one, as in the poem.
This is also a good time to get a rhyming dictionary. It's much easier to make a song lyrically cohesive if you use a rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes are basic rhyme patterns. Here are some of the most common rhyme schemes to use in your songs. Note that the letters represent matching pairs of rhymes, so the string "A" rhymes with another string "A" and "B" with another string "B".
AAAA- All lines rhyme. An example would be,
"I fell in love with you (A)
Until I became black and blue (A)
Autumn came too soon (A)
But this is nothing new (A)"
ABAB- 1st and 3rd lines rhyme, and 2nd and 4th lines rhyme. This pattern is continuous throughout the song. An example would be,
"I fell in love with you (A)
Before I forget my name (B)
You made me black and blue (A)
And I welcomed all the pain (B)."
AABB- the first two lines rhyme and the 3rd and 4th lines rhyme. This scheme emphasizes pairs of couplets. A basic example might be,
"I fell in love with you (A)
I'm getting my hopes up too soon. (A)
You confused me (B)
Looking forward to the day you leave. (B)"
As you can see, not all relevant rhyme schemes use the same rhyme type. You can use precise rhyming (such as "you" and "blue") or subtler internal rhyme (such as "name" and "pain").
These types of rhymes can work in the same way, as long as you choose a structure that makes sense for your song. Use your brainstorming to create phrases within the rhyme and structure of the song and see how your song starts to take shape.
6. Make sure your story has an arc.
Now that you have the basic structure of the song, make sure your lyrics convey the story arc. Do your lyrics create tension? Do they tell a story that easily takes the listener from one point to another? Any good song should have a clear beginning, middle and end. Your texts should be memorable and easy to understand.
Scan the verse, chorus and bridge : Do they work independently and as a unit? If not, it might be time to refine your parts. Analyze the lyrics of the songs that hooked you as a listener: What is the emotional impact in them? Taking the time to analyze through the lens of a listener will surely make your job as a writer easier.
7. Overlay the lyrics to the melody.
Once you've got your first complete draft of the lyrics, it's time to start translating it into melody, if you haven't already. If you're a musician, overlaying a chord progression on your instrument of choice can help you get inspired by note combinations. you also can try first write a tune on your tool, and then transfer it to the text.
If you don't play any instrument, it's a great idea to collaborate with someone who does! Worst case scenario, you can always find a chord progression cycle online and start creating a melody based on it. This process will be fairly intuitive, so don't let it scare you. Many well-known melodies consist of just a few notes: It doesn't have to be complicated to be effective.
8. Refine singing ability and memorability.
The first verse you create may not be the best. Before you finalize a song, take the time to edit it! Are the consonants in convenient places? Is the chorus really catchy? Is it easy for most people to sing along and remember the words? Don't be afraid to rewrite snippets at this point in the process. Sometimes in music you have to kill your favorites to get the most out of your song.
9. Rinse and repeat!
Without a doubt, the best way to become a great songwriter is to write songs as much as possible. Many songwriters take the time to write a few songs a week, and you can too! You may not be able to write songs daily at first, but if you set goals for yourself and trust your intuition, writing songs will become easier over time.
The hardest part of the songwriting process is mastering the songwriting process itself. Creating your own songs will become more and more natural. For some, it may be helpful to set specific goals for yourself: You may find it easier to motivate yourself to write music if you try to write a certain number of songs per month, etc.
Spend time with other writers to discuss writing strategies and of course, don't be afraid to collaborate! Some of your favorite songs on the radio today were written by more than five people. When it comes to songwriting, two heads are often better than one.
Finally, don't be discouraged if you don't like your text the first time. Most songs go through several iterations before they are properly delivered to the listeners. For every killer song, there are about 20 "eh" songs that don't quite work out, and that's okay. Actually, it's okay! Give yourself a pat on the back for writing your first song and quickly move on to the next one.
Lyric writing tips
Songwriting can be incredibly difficult, so here are a few tips to keep in mind throughout your journey as a songwriter. Don't forget that good lyrics can take time to create, but with these tips and practice, you'll be writing radio hits in no time.
Remember that this is not always a linear process
This songwriting guide should be taken with a grain of salt. There is no one way to start writing lyrics, so don't be discouraged if your natural writing process doesn't fit into any particular plan. The most important part of songwriting is the result: If you get songs, that's the most important thing.
In some songs you can start with a melody, in others you can start with a lyric phrase. Sometimes you can use tools like songwriting books to spark your creativity, other times the song will flow out of you without a hitch. Trust the process in any of its manifestations.
Instrumentalists and songwriters wear different hats
Even if you are a great instrumentalist, producer or engineer, you are not necessarily a great songwriter, at least not yet. Keep in mind that every aspect of music production requires you to wear different hats. The skills you have in one area may not catch on in another, but don't let that put you off.
Instead, use this nugget to give yourself some perspective: Learning how to write lyrics takes time and attention, which is why there are sectors in the music industry devoted exclusively to this art. You may already be into music, but that doesn't necessarily mean you've learned how to write lyrics (but there's nothing stopping you from starting).
Record sparks of inspiration and save them for later
The musician will tell you that inspiration can come at any moment. Whether you're in the shower, in bed, or at work, don't take these spontaneous outbursts for granted. Get into the habit of writing down these inspirations and referring to them later.
You can jot them down on a sticky note, record a voice note for yourself, or even email yourself a message that you can open during your next songwriting session. Inspiration is not always convenient, but many songwriters manage to capture these moments and use their power further.
Don't be too hard on yourself
One of the best ways to overcome writer's block is to give yourself a break. So often we want to emulate the style of one of our favorite lyricists so badly or come up with great songs on the go that we get distracted from actually writing songs. Sometimes it's good to just let yourself write!
This means saving the "critic" hat for later. Allow yourself to unleash your creative writing flow without getting in the way. This stream of consciousness will be curated later, as long as you decide to write songs on a regular basis. Your first song may not be the best, but it's better not to be your last. Remember that all of your favorite songwriters have probably written a terrible song at some point in their career.
Get into the habit of learning songs
In order to write the songs you love, actively explore the structure of the songs and the shape of the tunes you already love! Take the time to listen to the tune and look at the lyrics to some of your favorite songs. What do these songs have in common? What is it about the lyrics or the melody that makes you get attached to a particular song?
Often the "answer" to the magic of popular songs or some of our favorite songs is right in front of us. You just need to take the time to understand what exactly makes the best texts stand out from the rest.
The practice of writing lyrics is extremely important
Ed Sheeran once compared songwriting to cleaning a dirty faucet.