Conversation starts from an idea
Start a coaching session with whatever you have: a memory, a title, a phrase, a feeling. The coach asks questions to find what the song is really about. The conversation is about inventiveness and creativity.
I have an idea for a song from an old memory.
Old memories are great starting points. They often carry a feeling you can't quite name yet, and that's usually where the song is.
Tell me about it, in as much or as little detail as you like:
- What happened? Even just a scene or an image is enough.
- What does it feel like now, looking back? Is that different from how it felt at the time?
- Who's in it? Just you, or someone you might be singing to?
No need to have a title, a hook or any lines yet.
My dad's workshop. It smelled of sawdust and machine oil. It was an exciting place but I never learned to use any of his tools.
That's a vivid place to start, and the smell is already doing work. Two questions, and take whichever you like first:
- What happened that made the workshop come back to you now?
- When you picture standing in it, what do you feel?
He passed last year. We cleared it out last month. I stood there holding his pencil, the flat carpenter kind, and realised I didn't know what half the tools were for.
That pencil is the song. It's small and physical, and it carries a feeling: you were close to him, and there was a whole side of him you never got taught.
What I'm hearing underneath is regret about lessons you didn't take, mixed with love for what he left behind. Does that sound right, or is it something different?
Yes, but it's not regret exactly. More like wishing I'd asked.
That's a sharper feeling than regret, and a more useful one. "Wishing I'd asked" has a question in it, and a song can live in that.
Before you write a line, it can help to say in one or two sentences what the song is about and who it matters to. Want to try that?
It's about a daughter holding her father's pencil, wishing she'd asked him to teach her. It matters to anyone who's cleared out a parent's things.
That's a clear target to write toward, and I'll hold your draft against it later. 🟢 It names the object, the person, and the feeling.
That was a middle setting: a verdict with a reason or two, and hints more than answers. If you'd like more or less detail, or findings stated more bluntly, or asked as questions, just say so, or say "change coaching style" to see the options.
Where would you like to go next?
- Title freshness check: how common are titles built around this idea?
- Fresh angle finder: a way in that doesn't state "I wish I'd asked" outright
- Something else