Katie McCaslin and I have been friends all throughout college. We met our senior year of high school at Grove City College’s senior visitation day. Since then we have led worship, performed, and co-written together.

It was a pleasure to have her on my podcast to discuss getting into songwriting and finding inspiration.

Object writing is taking a word or short phrase and sitting down for 5-10 minutes to write without stopping. It’s that simple.  

This simple daily exercise can change your songwriting drastically.  

How to Begin Object Writing

It doesn’t matter where the word comes from. You can think of words on your own, have a friend or family member suggest them to you, research random lists of words, or start making your own list to pull from every day. It really doesn’t matter – all you need is a word, a piece of paper, and a pen.  

For right now, let’s choose the phrase “Christmas Tree Farm.” When you begin writing, you want to consider all five of your senses. In your 5-10 minutes write up, be sure to write about what a Christmas tree farm looks, smells, sounds, tastes, and feels like. Don’t worry about staying entirely on topic but let yourself explore the depths of the phrase.  

If you find yourself writing about what hot chocolate tastes like, keep going! That was the result of you pondering what you taste when you’re at a Christmas tree farm. You might even elaborate on the smell of both pine needles and melting snow in the mud.  

What does it sound like as your boots slosh through the snow mud? Is it a busy or slow day at the farm? Do you hear kids laughing or screaming? Are there dogs barking? Or is it a slow day, such that you primarily hear the hollow breeze?  

Does the snow melt on your eyelashes or does rain pelt your face? Do your toes feel numb, or did you shove heat warmers in your boots beforehand? Are you merry or stressed? Is your family joyful or tense? When asking what something feels like, don’t forget to include both physical and emotional feelings.  

The more intricate and detailed you can get the better, because these small details are what builds a picture in someone’s mind. We all picture something different when we hear the phrase “Christmas tree farm,” but what exactly do you picture?  

Begin Your Own Object Writing

Below is a list of words and phrases for you to take a few practice-runs with before you start building your own list of words that inspire you.  

• Crunchy Leaves
• Sunday 
• Brick Wall
• Starry Night 
• Champagne 
• Family Dinner

Sometimes object writing can result in a song. Other times in can result in a line or two. Yet other instances it might simply remain a writing exercise. Writing frequently is guaranteed to keep the ideas coming. So even when you don’t get a song out of it, don’t let your pen stop moving.  

Explore Object Writing Stories

Check out the stories behind my songs “Wretched Scoundrel Kin” and “Fierce Love” to explore some of the products of my own personal object writing.  

To learn more about object writing and other ways to improve your lyric writing, read Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison.

Many times, when we sit down to write, we find ourselves lacking inspiration. We can easily fall into the assumption that songs and inspiration should simply appear to us, but more often than not, we need to seek them out.  

Here are 7 ways to find inspiration when it won’t come knowing at your door: 

Explore Nature 

Take a walk through the woods, a pasture, or a park and be intentional to notice everything. Let the wind hit your face, smell the pine of the trees, and let your feet imprint the dirt. There are endless stories to be found in nature, you just need to listen.  

People Watch 

Go to your favorite coffee shop or a coffee shop you’ve never been to. Sit at a mall or on a park bench and just watch. Within every person there are a billion stories, but you’ll only be able to see the surface level ones. Relate them to your surroundings and finish the story with your imagination.  

Read Something 

Sometimes it will help to sit down and read something – anything. A novel, a newspaper, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Reading will help not only jumpstart your writing ideas but stimulate your story ideas. Remind yourself of fantasy through a novel, brokenness through a newspaper, or love through poetry.  

Watch a Movie 

Taking in different stories can get the creative juices flowing as well as have certain themes stick out as ideas. Watch your favorite movie for the tenth time to find something new hidden in it or watch a movie entirely new to you and find inspiration there. Listen to Songwriting with Katie McCaslin to hear her personal story about how Revenge of the Sith inspired one of her songs.  

Read a Passage of Scripture 

An easy way to start writing melodies is sitting down with a Psalm and singing it to a melody. You could also take the ideas and truths of scriptures to develop or compliment a story. Themes of forgiveness and mercy, rebellion and betrayal, or sacrifice and love (Explore the story behind “Dried Flowers”) can weave itself into a story or can create abstract lyrics without a literal story.  

Do an Activity You Haven’t Done Before 

Introducing yourself to something new can open a world of possibilities. Try going skiing, painting a wall, cooking a new dish, or planting something (shrubs, vegetables, a cactus). It doesn’t matter what but pay attention to every detail of what is happening. How does it make you feel? What does it remind you of? This experience is itself a story.  

Do the Ordinary but Think About It 

A lot of times songs come from what we know very well, the mundane instances of our lives. So, when you don’t know what to write about, try doing what you would normally do. Mow the lawn. Make a sandwich. Water the garden. Take a bath. And think about what you’re doing, why you do it, how it impacts your life, why it matters – and as always – what it smells like, because that always spices up the lyrics.