Speed and quality don't have to be at odds in songwriting. Many professional songwriters produce high-quality material quickly — not because they cut corners, but because they've developed efficient processes and strong creative instincts. Here's how to write faster without sacrificing what makes your songs great.
The fastest way to slow down your songwriting is to edit while you create. These are two different mental processes, and trying to do both simultaneously creates a bottleneck. When you're generating ideas, write freely without judgment. When you're editing, be critical and precise. Keeping these phases separate allows each to move at its natural speed.
Don't wait for the perfect idea before starting. Begin with whatever you have — a phrase, a chord, a rhythm, a feeling — and build from there. Starting is the hardest part, and beginning with imperfect material that you can develop is always faster than waiting for perfection to arrive.
Having a go-to song structure, a collection of chord progressions, and a bank of writing prompts means you spend less time making structural decisions and more time on creative work. This isn't being formulaic — it's being prepared. Templates provide starting points that you can always deviate from once the song takes shape.
Work expands to fill the time available. If you give yourself a week to write a song, it'll take a week. If you give yourself an hour, you'll be surprised how much you can accomplish. Set firm time limits for your writing sessions. The pressure of a deadline forces you to make decisions quickly and trust your instincts.
Maintain a running list of interesting words, phrases, rhyme pairs, and images that you can draw from when writing. Having this bank of pre-collected material means you spend less time searching for the right word during writing sessions. Feed your bank by reading, listening, and observing between songwriting sessions.
The more songs you complete, the faster and better you get at writing them. Finishing songs — even imperfect ones — builds the skills and instincts that make future songwriting faster. Don't let the pursuit of perfection prevent you from finishing. A done song that's good is more valuable than an unfinished song that could be great.
Writing songs faster is about developing efficient habits, trusting your instincts, and maintaining momentum. By separating creation from editing, using frameworks, and setting deadlines, you can increase your output without compromising the quality that makes your songs worth listening to.
For help speeding up your lyric-writing process, Fast Rhymes provides instant access to rhymes, near-rhymes, and vocabulary that keeps your writing moving forward.
21/08/2025
Everything you need to write songs & poetry.
