Songwriting Habits and How They Shape Your Songs

Image source - Miriam Alonso (Pexels)

As songwriters, habits play a powerful role in how we create. A habit is simply your "usual way of doing things." Good habits can improve your creative process, while bad habits may hold you back, leading to repetitive, uninspired results.

To evolve as a songwriter, it’s essential to identify your habits—both good and bad—and understand how they influence your songs.

Where Do Songwriting Habits Come From?

Our songwriting habits are a combination of musical influences and skill limitations:

Musical Influences

Songs you listened to during your adolescence (typically between ages 12 and 22) often shape your creative instincts. This phenomenon, called the "Reminiscence Bump," explains why music from that time feels more vivid and meaningful (learn more here). These influences naturally find their way into your songwriting. Unless you consciously push beyond them, they may become ingrained habits that define your style—for better or worse.

Skill Limitations

Your current skill set also shapes your habits. Whether it’s your ability to play an instrument, your grasp of language and vocabulary, or your understanding of chords and melodies, your technical limits often dictate your creative process. However, this area is the most flexible—one where new habits and skills can be actively developed.

How to Evolve Your Songwriting Habits

While you can’t (and probably shouldn’t) erase your formative influences, you can expand your habits to include fresh ideas and techniques. Here are some strategies to evolve your songwriting:

Listen to New Music

Stay up to date with contemporary songs in your genre. By actively listening to and analyzing modern music, you’ll gain fresh insights and ideas. Consider this an essential habit for any songwriter.

Analyze Songs

Study the structure, lyrics, and production techniques of successful songs. Breaking down how these elements work together can help you improve your own writing. (Check out our Song Analysis course in the We Write Songs community for more in-depth guidance.)

Are Your Songwriting Habits Helping or Hurting You?

Here’s how to identify whether your habits are working for or against you:

Not Working

• Your songs all sound the same, leaving you feeling stuck and uncreative.

• Your writing feeds off older music and styles, making your music feel dated.

• You confuse familiar habits with "your style," limiting your creative growth.

• Negative habits fuel self-doubt and hinder your confidence.

  
  

Working

• You regularly experiment with new techniques, keeping your music fresh and exciting.

• You stay inspired by listening to modern music and integrating new ideas into your own songs.

• When you acquire new skills, it gives you more options, helping your true style emerge.

• Good habits help silence your inner critic, allowing your creativity to flow.

  
  

Image source - Anastasia Kolchina (Pexels)

What to Do About Old Songwriting Habits

Surprisingly, you don’t need to abandon your old habits entirely. Instead, add new habits that complement your existing ones. Expanding your toolkit will give you more creative choices and keep your songwriting fresh.

Let New Songwriting Habits Shape Your Songs

Songwriting is more than just writing songs. Like professional athletes, we can improve through drills, exercises, and deliberate practice. Here are a few ways to start building new habits:

Try Writing Prompts

Use prompts to explore ideas or themes you wouldn’t typically consider. These are a game changer if you have never tried before. One thing I do suggest when trying this, is to see it through even if the song isn’t something that will see the light of day afterwards. It’s the exercise of doing something different, that can hone your writing skills.

Practice Techniques

Experiment with songwriting drills, like using a new chord progression or melody structure. There are lots of exercises that take less than 15 minutes to complete, and can be done to fill in those gaps when you might pick up your smartphone and be aimlessly scrolling. I certainly get a lot of satisfaction for filling those short time gaps with something productive instead of mind-numbing content.

Seek Inspiration

Read blog posts, take courses, or join a community of like-minded songwriters. The We Write Songs community offers writing prompts, exercises, and peer feedback to help you develop new skills and stay motivated. Finding your ‘people’ is a huge, positive way to grow as a songwriter.

Challenge Yourself

There are many ways you can create your own songwriting challenges, but there are many, many options online or in books that can push you in new and interesting ways. One is coming up in February and is a challenge I take part in every year - FAWM or February Album Writing Month is a challenge to write an albums worth of new songs in the shortest month of the year. It’s a pop up community that is available for a week or so before February 1st and for a few weeks after the end of the month.

When Old Habits Resist Change

Old habits can be stubborn, making it uncomfortable to try something new. If you feel the urge to revert to familiar patterns, remind yourself that you’re not replacing old habits—you’re simply adding new ones. Experiment freely, knowing you can discard what doesn’t work for you.

By consciously evolving your songwriting habits, you’ll unlock fresh creative possibilities and keep your songs exciting and relevant. Embracing new songwriting habits can shape your songs in unexpected ways. Start small, stay curious, and enjoy the process—your best songs are yet to come!