Hi readers and writerly friends!

Welcome back to the blog and if you’re new, thanks for stopping by!

Today, I’ll be showing you how to write a poem or song from a bunch of common words. By unlocking our subconscious and letting go of predictability and perfection, we can create unique and interesting lyrics.

“Why words? Because I believe all words have their own music and along with that music, I believe words contain worlds of words and meanings that are more often than not, locked beneath the surface.Poetry is what happens when words are opened up and those worlds within are made visible, and the music behind the words is heard.” (Tweedy 2020, 65)

I first heard this concept from Logan from vib3.machine on TikTok who explained using Jeff Tweedy’s ladder method from his book How To Write One Song. It’s called the Ladder Method because of the way you write out the words and link them together on paper.

Keep the words simple

I’m not talking about expanding your vocabulary. I mean, that’s always a nice thing to do in the name of self-improvement, but fancy, multisyllabic words aren’t going to make a lyric better.They’re very often the thing that breaks the spell being cast by the melody being cast when I listen to music….In fact, I would say that most of my favorite songwriters consciously stick to common, simple, and precise language, but they don’t use it in a common and simple way within a song or melody. (Tweedy 2020, 68-9)

He gives John Prime as an example of someone who uses concise, simple, language effectively, that he “didn’t use a log of big words or flowery language and when he did, he always stayed true to the song and what needed to be said over any desire to make himself sound smart or poetic.” (Tweedy 2020, 69)

Word Ladder - Verbs and Nouns

The 6 Steps For Songwriting Using The Word Ladder

Step 1: Come up with a label or word for a specific job
Step 2: List out 10 Verbs to describe the label or job
Step 3: List out 10 nouns you currently see in the space around you
Step 4: Connect the two sets of words in a way is unexpected
Step 5: Write a poem with these connections
Step 6: Rearrange and edit the lines to your liking

Jeff Tweedy’s Word Ladder

Step 1: Come up with a label or word for a specific job.

Tweedy picked “physician” for his example. He listed out ten verbs to describe a physician and then listed out ten nouns from objects within his line of vision.

Jeff Tweedy’s word ladder. Photo by Payton Hayes.

Step 4: Connect the two sets of words in a way is unexpected.

Examine→ Lightbulb
Thump→ Microphone
Prescribe→ Cushion
Listen→ Window
Write→ Sunlight
Scan→ Carpet
Touch→ Turntable
Wait→ Drum
Charge→ Wall
Heal→ Guitar

Step 5: Write a poem with these connections.

“Now take a pencil and draw lines to connect nouns and verbs that don’t normally work together. I like to use this exercise, not so much to generate a set of lyrics but to remind myself of how much fun I can have with words when I’m not concerning myself with meaning or judging my poetic abilities.” (Tweedy 2020, 73)

Jeff Tweedy’s first draft:

the drum is waiting
by the window listening
where the sunlight writes
on the cushions
prescribed
thump the microphone
the guitar is healing
how the turntable is touched
charging in the wall
while one lightbulb examines
and scans the carpet (Tweedy 2020, 73-4)

I find it almost always works when I’m finding a need to break out of my normal, well-worn paths of language. (Tweedy 2020, 74)

Below is Tweedy’s revision of the poem. He says, you don’t have to use every one of the verbs and nouns or put any restrictions on your writing at this point. The goal of this exercise is to warm up your creative muscles.

Tweedy’s revised poem:

The drum is waiting by the windowsill
Where the sunlight writes its will on the rug
My guitar is healed by the amp charging the wall
And that's not all, I’m always in love (Tweedy 2020, 74)

“That’s still a little awkward, but it's enough to jumpstart my brain to where words and language have my full attention again.” (Tweedy 2020, 75)

Logan’s (Vib3.machine) use of the Word Ladder

Step 1: Come up with a label or word for a specific job.

The word Logan picked for his example was “astronaut.” He listed out ten verbs to describe an astronaut and then ten nouns from objects in his room.

Step 4: Connect the two sets of words in a way is unexpected. In his captions, Logan said, “Having your subconscious constantly finding creative unique phrases while you aren’t actively TRYING is super powerful. It’s a habit [I’]m [trying] to develop.” (00:45-1:00)

Logan’s word ladder. Photo by Payton Hayes.

Logan connected his verbs and nouns like this:

Explore → Basket
Discover→ Kitchen
Float→ Floor
Wait→ Fan
Voyage→ Books
Travel→ Letters
Learn→ Bike
Fly→ Watch
Land→ Art
Journey→ Camera

Step 5: Write a poem with these connections. Don’t worry if it still doesn’t make sense. Right now, we’re just writing; we’ll edit it soon!

Logan says in regard to lyric writing, to make it as conversational as possible because it’s more relatable. (Logan 2022, 1:30-1:45)

Here was the poem he came up with from those connections:

I explored your basket
And discovered us in the kitchen
We floated on the floor
And waited next to the fan
You voyaged through this book
And traveled every letter
So I can learn to bike
And fly through this watch
You landed in my art
And the camera we journeyed (Logan 2022, 2:36-2:50)

He said, “I know this sounds like nonsense, but we just wrote something without thinking about it.” (Logan 2022, 2:30-2:35)

Step 6: Rearrange and edit the lines to your liking. For full-length songs and longer poems, continue the process with each stanza. Consider sticking with a common theme, for your first 10 words each time you start the process within one poem or song, but change the words you use for this process with each stanza. Try to avoid unintentional repetition. For poems, see if you can create a rhyme scheme with the words and themes present and make use of the elements of poetry.

I wrote a poem using the Word Ladder

I was substituting for a high school drama teacher when I tried this exercise so, you might notice a theme.

Step 1: Come up with a label or word for a specific job

I picked “Actress”

Step 4: Connect the two sets of words in a way is unexpected

Perform→ Spotlights
Practice→ Tape
Dance→ Carpet
Project→ Podium
Articulate→ Piano
Memorize→ Spotlights
Act→ Garbage
Pantomime→ Mirror
Smile→ Curtain
Transform→ Screen

Step 5: Write a poem with these connections

The performance begins with the spotlights
The practice tape is peeling up as I
Dance across the carpet
My teacher projects from the podium and
The piano’s keys articulate a melody
I’ve memorized my position beneath the spotlights
Inside, I hope my acting isn’t total garbage
My classmate pantomimes in the mirror
I plaster on a smile as the curtain opens
We transform from stage to screen

Step 6: Rearrange and edit the lines to your liking

The performance begins with the spotlights
The practice tape is peeling up from the stage
Dancing on the painted wood is nothing like the carpet in our classroom.
For a breath, I think back to rehearsal —the director projecting ques from the podium
The pianos keys articulate the melody of the opening coda
I’ve memorized my lines a million times beneath these spotlights
And still, I hope that my acting isn’t total garbage
The other actors pantomime one another like reflections in mirrors
I plaster on a smile as the curtain opens
We transform from students on a stage to actors on a screen

Here is my final poem:

ACTRESS
The performance begins with the spotlights
The practice tape is peeling up from the stage
Dancing on the painted wood is nothing like the carpet in our classroom.
For a breath, I think back to rehearsal —the director projecting cues from the podium
The pianos keys articulate the melody of the opening coda
I’ve memorized my lines a million times beneath these spotlights
And still, I hope that my acting isn’t total garbage
The other actors pantomime one another like reflections in mirrors
I plaster on a smile as the curtain opens
We transform from drama students in a classroom to actors on a stage

As you can see this process is easy, effective, and creatively freeing. It takes the pressure of your shoulders to create something perfect, especially with the first draft. Having this skill is a great resource for writers both new and seasoned because it gets the words out of our heads and onto the paper and it gives us something to work with. You can edit a bad page but you can’t edit a blank page.

Exercise 4: Word ladder variation using adjectives

“Don’t let adjectives make you think you’re being poetic. An “impatient red fiery orb loomed in the whiskey-blurred, cottony-blue sky is rarely going to hit me anywhere near as hard as “I was drunk in the day.”...Of course, it’s strange how adding words to paint a clearer, more specific image often muddies the image you’re trying to expose. The problem is when they are used to spice up a vague verb or noun instead of replacing that with precise language….”I was extremely frightened by the very large man behind the counter” versus “I was petrified by the colossus working the register.”” (Tweedy 2020, 86)

Step 1: Come up with a location
Step 2: List out 10 adjectives to describe that location
Step 3: List out 10 nouns in your line of vision or that pop into your head (and aren’t related to the location you picked)
Step 4: Connect the two sets of words in a way is unexpected
Step 5: Write a poem with these connections
Step 6: Rearrange and edit the lines to your liking

Step 1: Come up with a location

Tweedy selected “outer space” for his location.

Step 2: List out 10 adjectives to describe that location

Circular
Distant
Ancient
Haloed
Cold
Vast
Bright
Frozen
Silent
Infinite

Step 3: List out 10 nouns in your line of vision or that pop into your head (and aren’t related to the location you picked)

Ladder
Kiss
Daughter
Hand
Pool
Summer
Lawn
Friend
Blaze
Window

Jeff Tweedy’s word ladder variation. Photo by Payton Hayes.

Step 4: Connect the two sets of words in a way is unexpected

Circular→ Summer
Distant→ Hand
Ancient→ Blaze
Haloed→ Daughter
Cold→ Kiss
Vast→ Pool
Bright→ Window
Frozen→ Ladder
Silent→ Lawn
Infinite→ Friend

Step 5: Write a poem with these connections

Tweedy’s poem came out as:

there is a distant hand
on a frozen ladder
climbing through
a bright window
a vast pool waiting
beside a silent lawn
where a daughter haloed
lives a circular summer
one cold kiss
from an infinite friend
away from an ancient blaze (Tweedy 2020, 87)

“It’s not a perfect poem, but it took me only about fifteen minutes to complete, and I really do enjoy some of the imagery that emerged. I actually found a few bits of language that I’ve been looking for to complete a song I’ve been working on.” (Tweedy 2020, 87)

Exercise 2: Steal words from a book writing exercise

This is the second writing exercise in Tweedy’s book. It’s a bit more free-form than the first exercise and can be helpful for getting you used to working with lyric fragments. (Tweedy 2020, 77)

Step 1: If you have a melody, keep it at the forefront of your mind as you read
Step 2: Skim over a page and see what words jump out at you
Step 3: Highlight the words that strike you
Step 4: Keep going until you have a collection of words that sound right with your melody
Step 5: Use an anchor word if one strikes you and pair other melodic words you find with it

Tweedy explains that this process helps put his ego securely in the backseat and forces him to surrender to a process that puts language/words in front of his creative path and he feels free to find them as though they’ve come from somewhere else. He feels more free to react with surprise and passion or cold indifference than he is able to when his intellect begins treating his lyrical ideas like precious jewels. (Tweedy 2020, 78)

He recommends using anchor words if any jump out at you and to find words that go well together sonically. He uses “catastrophe” as an anchor word and uses it to create the following lines:

wouldn’t you call it a catastrophe
when you realize you’d rather be
anywhere but where you are
and far from the one you want to see?” (Tweedy 2020, 79)

Tweedy advises “overdoing it” in terms of coming up with lyrics you like. “Coming up with more than you need is almost never going to make a song worse. Sometimes every good line doesn’t make it into the song you’re working on. But that doesn’t mean you have to throw those lines away. I go back and look at the pages of lyrics I’ve written with this process…and find things I love, even ones I never used, frequently. It helps for there to be some length of time between when they were written and revisited, especially for it to be long enough for the initial melody to have faded. At this point you’re not committing yourself to anything. You’re just creating building blocks. (Tweedy 2020, 79-80)

Exercise 3: Cut-up techniques

“Grab something you’ve been working on and write it all down on a legal pad. Or if you have access to a printer, print it out double-spaced… The easiest cutting strategy is line by line, but word by word or phrase by phrase can provide equally interesting results. Once you’ve cut up your text, you can either put the strips in a hat or turn them over and pull each line/word/phrase randomly. Then scan your chosen poem construction for unexpected surprises.” (Tweedy 2020, 81)

Tweedy says he almost always finds “at least one newly formed phrase or word relationship” that “moves” him or makes him “smile.” (Tweedy 2020, 81)

“Another way to use your cut-up strips is to forget about trying to make random associations and just use them as moveable modules of language. It’s always fascinating to me how much more alive lines I’ve written become when I’m able to have a simple tactile experience reorganizing the order and syntax of the lines and phrases.” (Tweedy 2020, 81-2)

Tweedy provides a comparison of the initial order and finalized order of a set of lyrics from his song, “An Empty Corner”

Version 1:

In an empty corner of a dream
My sleep could not complete
Left on a copy machine
Eight tiny lines of cocaine (Tweedy 2020, 82)

Version 2:

Eight tiny lines of cocaine
Left on a copy machine
In an empty corner of a dream
My sleep could not complete (Tweedy 2020, 83)

“[The second] version is so much more powerful and better overall that I can’t believe I ever tried to sing these lyrics in any other order…Take the time to play with your words. Allow yourself the joy of getting to know them without being precious about directing everything they are trying to say.” (Tweedy 2020, 83)

Exercise 5: Have a conversation

In Chapter 12 of Tweedy’s book, he advises trying another liberating writing exercise. He says to record yourself and someone else having a conversation to see what lyrics can emerge from common conversational language. He shows two examples of this exercise in action and it’s actually brilliant. For the sake of brevity, I’m only including the steps for this exercise but I highly recommend you try it.

Step 1: Record a conversation or rewrite it as accurately to life as possible
Step 2: Take the important and surprising snippets from the conversation
Step 3: Arrange those snippets to amplify or give them new meaning
Step 4: Read it aloud
Step 5: Rearrange and edit as necessary

Other poem and song writing exercises in the book

Some other exercises Tweedy recommends in his book include playing with rhymes (in an unexpected and new way) and pretending to be someone else and channeling their essence when writing songs or poems, which takes the pressure to be vulnerable and perfect off the writer’s shoulders. He also recommends songwriters collect pieces of music, either in the form of mumbled songs, hummed tunes, instrumentals you play yourself or digitally, or music from other artist’s songs and advises songwriters to learn other people’s songs like the back of your hand, so you can take them apart and create something new with those parts.

Additionally, he advises writers to “steal” elements of songs such as themes, lyric fragments, chord progressions, and melodies from existing songs and make them your own. He strongly advises writers to loosen their judgment and allow the creativity to flow freely.

He explains writer’s block as he sees it and provides four conflicting tips for combatting the “stuck” feeling that comes with being creatively blocked: “1) start in the wrong place, 2) start in the right place, 3) put it away, and 4) don’t put it away.” (Tweedy 2020, 144-49) By all of this, he means rearrange song parts until they sound like a good fit for that part of the song, work on fragments or start from the end if the beginning is stumping you, walk away from the piece if its just not working and “keep punching” until you push through to the lyrics you’re looking for.

That’s it for my guide, on writing a song or poem using writing exercises from Jeff Tweedy’s book, How To Write One Song. I hope you enjoyed it and that this process inspired you to try this in your own writing. If you do try this method, post your work in the comments below so I can see how it helped you! Make sure to check out Jeff Tweedy’s book and Vib3.machine’s TikTok for more information on songwriting! Thanks for reading!

Bibliography:

Hayes, Payton. “How To Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy.” Thumbnail Image, November 6, 2022.
Hayes, Payton. “Jeff Tweedy’s word ladder.” Image, November 6, 2022.
Hayes, Payton. “Logan’s word ladder.” Image, November 6, 2022.
Hayes, Payton. “My word ladder.” Image, November 6, 2022.
Hayes, Payton. “Jeff Tweedy’s word ladder variation.” Image, November 6, 2022.
Logan, Vib3.machine. “Word Ladder” Tiktok.com. 2022.
Tweedy, Jeff. How To Write One Song. New York: Dutton, Penguin Random House LLC, 2020. (65, 68, 69, 73-83, 244-49)