When that inspiration hits you, you want to express it. For some people it's making art, others it's a new strategy in Chess. But for my kind of people it's in music. However, the easy part is getting pen and paper. But then it feels hard. But how? I mean, we have a brain, we should be able to draft everything to the pinnacle of our skill. Well the short answer is that is the biggest misconception about music theory and song writing that the television shows us. Inspiration is almost never immediate, and not always clear. And while posing a challenge it can be worked around. Here are a few tips to start drafting how to be inspired before I go over my song writing process and how it is, from my musical upbringing, rather simple.
1) Don't over think while drafting ideas for a song, that leads to trying too hard and then it'll end up like a Lady Gaga song.
2) Go to a quiet place with no distractions. Zip. Zero. Nothing. You want to be able to focus on music and only music. Part of this is on you for being able to plan for a specific time if your life or house is busy.
3) Always carry a small pocket notebook and a pen, inspiration hits when you least expect it. I'll admit I'm the not the first to think, "Hey, I'll remember this, I got this." Usually it ends in frustration because you lose a good idea and then try and make an idea to out do the other idea and it goes back to tip 1 with not over thinking.
4) Lastly, don't try and copy be someone else, be your own muse. Influential artists are good and inspiring but if you write like them too much you lose your individual style.
Now people will usually tell you that to be a successful song writer you need to be able to read music and study music theory. Yes and no. I say yes because it greatly helps, but no because you can be self taught and still teach yourself to write good like I did. (I only ended up picking up music theory when I turned 12, which by then I'd been doing guitar since I was 8, plenty of time.) However what does matter, music theory or not, is how you compose your songs. Whether it is through chord structures, tabs, or the not so common staff notation. Now when writing music there are three key things I tend to keep in mind that I've noticed from music that is like a pattern.
Verse(s): These are what leads up to the Chorus* and determines the song's mood (sometimes.) These are usually repeated throughout the song and is recognized as a bread and butter to a song.
Chorus: This is the catchy part of the song. That part that just really connects to you. Writing this part can be the hardest but the most rewarding as it is strongly emphasized as the part people will remember your song by.
BreakDown : This is a term that I don't see used much that I really feel describes when the song starts to "breakdown," or start to end. It's like a verse that leads up to the chorus being played for the last time,. If you are curious just listen to your favorite songs, it isn't hard to see the pattern.
Now with this information you'll see that the pattern goes. Verse (sometimes two or three), Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Breakdown, Chorus - Finish. It's a song writing process that as I like to relate to as like how in Math when doing Algebra you put the formula of the volume of a cone before doing the problem. It makes the problem easy because then it's like filling in the blanks. This is honestly to me and quite a few other song writers like Ben Burnley and Kurt Cobain as the easiest and simplest way to write music without investing a education and large amount of money into professional song writing lessons. I hope this has helped you out and if you have any questions please by all means PM me or just ask me on this thread.