Using Synonyms And Rhymes In Lyrics and Poems

Many people find writing poems and lyrics difficult. So here’s my tip—keyword brainstorming.
Say you wanted to write a song about being dumped via a text message. Identify the keywords—in this case “text” and “dumped”. Then for each one make a synonym and rhymes list. First, write down any synonyms or similar words you can think of for your keyword. Then make a list of all the rhymes you can think of for your keyword and synonyms. For “text” it might look something like:

Using synonyms and rhymes in lyrics 15 Feb 2020

Many people find writing poems and lyrics difficult. So here’s my tip—keyword brainstorming.
Say you wanted to write a song about being dumped via a text message. Identify the keywords—in this case “text” and “dumped”. Then for each one make a synonym and rhymes list. First, write down any synonyms or similar words you can think of for your keyword. Then make a list of all the rhymes you can think of for your keyword and synonyms. For “text” it might look something like:

Having a word bank laid out in front of you can help you to form sentences in your mind. From the above example you might come up with:

How could you send a text
to tell me I’m your ex?
It’s left me really vexed

I’m overcome with stress
since your thoughtless SMS
has left me in a mess

A message on my phone
and now I’m all alone
my heart has turned to stone

Okay, perhaps needs polishing, but you get the idea. You might do another list for “dumped” and begin to intertwine the lines. My little example uses triplets of rhyming lines to highlight the rhyming but it would be more usual to rhyme on alternate lines, like:

A message on my phone
has torn my world apart
and now I’m all alone
with the silence in my heart

This technique is basically something I’ve been doing in my head since God was in the cubs but if you find poems or lyrics a struggle you may well find writing out word charts helpful. And bear in mind they can be re-used—you could write bunches of them on index cards then pick out a few for the keywords in your song, pin them up on the wall and just see what words jump out at you. It won’t work for everyone but it may work for you. Failing that, another good technique is to find yourself a lyricist and let them worry about it all.