Writing gets easier after a while, once you get past the initial block then the riffs come thick and fast. Me and our guitarist jam pretty much every Thursday and by the end we'll have a song even if it's not a finished version. Also helps if you have a tape recorder handy when jammin on your own so you catch everythin. Nothing worse than writing a monster riff only to forget it half an hour later.

Kilgore~Let 'Em Burn wrote:Nothing worse than writing a monster riff only to forget it half an hour later.

Ugh that's happened to me so many times

I, like some others have said, have written shitloads of killer verse riffs, but can't seem to fit anything round them
Same with intros, I've got some good intros but then they just end up tailing off in a mass of weird time signatures and 3 part harmonies.... or something. That actually only happened once... maybe twice *ahem*

On a more positive note, I'm currently finishing up writing a song that I actually wrote the ENDING of first. haha

As for some words of wisdom/advice etc: Just jam on your guitar for ages, something good will come out eventually

it helps to write not purely from a guitarists perspective; may sound a bit much, but if you can learn about constructing drum tracks and the basics of theory, write your songs as a whole and youll get a much better result. terror storm (rager) was done from the drums upwards; it just helps keep the songs diverse and breaks the riffery up a bit, good for the structure!

Pez wrote:it helps to write not purely from a guitarists perspective; may sound a bit much, but if you can learn about constructing drum tracks and the basics of theory, write your songs as a whole and youll get a much better result. terror storm (rager) was done from the drums upwards; it just helps keep the songs diverse and breaks the riffery up a bit, good for the structure!

I like how you use a Rager song as an example to outline how useful it is to learn other instruments and theory. If anything it's a deterrent.

Pez wrote:terror storm (rager) was done from the drums upwards

nah it wasn't... silly Pez....

fuck theory, just thrash!

My system for writing songs is to drink myself into a stupor over 48 hours, and then get a tape recorder and dictate whatever I can hear in my head. After a lot of sleep deprivation I usually start hallucinating riffs.

Hostile wrote:After a lot of sleep deprivation I usually start hallucinating riffs.

hahaha wtf?!

In my opinion you have to try and tap into some sort of dynamic flow with your song when youre putting it together. Its difficult, and a nebulous concept at best, but its normally better than just sticking riffs together. People who have done this well include Trey Azagthoth and... i cant think of anyone else in particular.

Raging Paul wrote:In my opinion you have to try and tap into some sort of dynamic flow with your song when youre putting it together

yeah man!!! u just gotta be in the right mood i find, be inspired enough to put riffs together that somehow naturally flow, and getting the changes all nice and stuff is always annoying, especially when therres 2 riffs that must go together, but then they don't flow into each other very well...

Haha! I concurr! When im pissed i write some good riffs!

take a walk by yourself and things just come into your head. When you're alone you have no choice but to think to yourself. This usually works for me. I'd be walking down my road and i'd just get a kick ass riff in my head that i'd need to get down.

Maleficarvm wrote:take a walk by yourself and things just come into your head. When you're alone you have no choice but to think to yourself. This usually works for me. I'd be walking down my road and i'd just get a kick ass riff in my head that i'd need to get down.

Yeah I'd pretty much agree with that. I usually find it a lot easier to come up with riffs if I'm on my own with no distractions, doesn't happen very often though

Maleficarvm wrote:take a walk by yourself and things just come into your head. When you're alone you have no choice but to think to yourself. This usually works for me. I'd be walking down my road and i'd just get a kick ass riff in my head that i'd need to get down.

That's definitely happened to me a few times and has resulted in some of the best songs I've written! Generally though, I find that even just listening to some great music helps inspire you. I'm not saying rip it off, though sometimes it helps, but if you listen to something amazing it makes you want to be amazing and so you write something great. It doesn't work like that all the time, but sometimes it does. I definitely agree though that you cannot just sit down and write a song, you need to be inspired, that's when the best stuff happens. Or if you have something to aim towards, like for example this year for my independent project i needed to write an album and decided it would be a ncie concept thing blah blah blah, anyway the moral of the story is that because I had such a specific target, it helped me write some great stuff. If you just sit there and think you're going to write a song just for the sake of writing a song, it won't always work. If you try and force things out, they more often that not turn out bland or unoriginal, and my top pointer of songwriting would be, don't just settle for anything. The ability to be able to tell when something you've written is shit is one well worth having. And second opinions from people you can trust who like the same sort of music are worth having too, as long as you don't take the criticism personally.

Technically of course, after all that babbling, there's not a specific way to write a song. It just happens when it happens, and when something is great, you'll definitely know that it's great. If there's any doubt, it's probably not that good. And generally I find that if you come up with a great melody or idea of riff or something, it will inspire you to write more great things and thats how a song will sometimes come about!

All sorts of fun, really.