Step1Select a topic - love or a humorous or novelty theme like "Never Hit Your Grandma With a Shovel" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," which are other exceptions.
Step2Select your approach - compose your lyric and melody simultaneously; write the lyric, then find a melody to fit; or fit your lyric to a melody previously written.
Step3Write both the lyric and the melody yourself if you possess the musical skills. This may be the most advantageous route. Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and Irving Berlin, for example, worked more productively alone.
Step4Collaborate with a partner if you work best this way. Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe are collaborations made in heaven. Choose wisely - the two key requirements are creativity and personal drive.
Step5Select a form. A working knowledge of form and structure is an absolute necessity for composers, arrangers, orchestrators and lyricists. (See "How to Study a Lyric's Form," under Related eHows.)
Step6Work out your rhyme scheme. The most common practice is to rhyme the last word of each section, but the better lyricist will display his or her skill with a generous helping of interior rhymes as well.
Step7Write. If you wait around for divine inspiration to drop the completed product in your lap, it's doubtful you'll ever write a note. Put something on paper. Word by word, note by note, change by change, your ideas will gradually take shape.
Step8Be disciplined in your work habits. In the musical comedy "No Strings," Broadway composer Richard Rodgers penned this phrase: "The sweetest sounds I've ever heard are still inside my head." Without a solid, sustained effort to get it on the page, your "sweetest sounds" cannot become a reality. Best wishes and welcome to the club!
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