As you work through the initial processes of songwriting, keep organized by categorizing your themes. Ask yourself what feelings you want to express through your song. Perhaps you want to tell a story based on your own life experiences, or perhaps you have created a fictional story you want to tell. Keep a notepad and pen with you at all times and write down any inspirational phrases, thoughts or ideas that come into your mind. When you feel that you have enough inspirations for one song, organize the concepts into varying themes. This step will help you in connecting ideas through the lyrics.
A tip for organizing the structure of your song is to ensure your piece of music has sound musical development. Listen to the instrumentals of the song. Does the music have a catchy tune? Is the music strong enough to hold an audience even without the lyrics? How do the lyrics fit in with the music? Do all of these factors support one another? After analyzing these questions, organize the relationships in your song by creating a list of areas you want to work on to create a more cohesive structure.
An essential part of successful songwriting is completing rewrites. After each draft of the song, analyze it for a rewrite about a different component of the song. For example, listen once to evaluate the lyrical quality. Listen a second time to determine if the song structure is good. After each time of listening to the song, take notes about the area you are listening for. Compile the key factor of each set of notes and complete a rewrite that encompasses all of these factors to ensure the song stays cohesive.
Practice prosody, the idea of writing music that follows the tone of the lyrics. Organize the music choices to coincide with the message of the lyrics. For example, somber or melancholy lyrics are paired with music that consists of a slow tempo and possibly minor chords. In contrast, happy or carefree lyrics work will with rapid and upbeat music choices. While there are instances where songs do not follow this formula, a songwriter can typically draw the most emotion and response from an audience by pairing lyrics with music that supports the tone of the song's message.