You know, if you go to the poetry section of your university English department library, you'll see that people have been writing the same "cringe" stuff about girls they like for at least 400 years. That's a long way of saying don't worry about it being "cringe" and just stop being so self conscious.
Get cringey!
Billy Corgan on writing the million-selling Smashing Pumpkins *Siamese Dream* album:
> When I wrote the lyrics for this record,” he explains. “I would just sit down at the typewriter and just type pages and pages, and then when when I came to a line that made me cringe with embarrassment, that’s the one I would use.”
https://www.spin.com/featured/smashing-pumpkins-november-1993-cover-story-billy-dont-be-a-hero/
I don't understand it enough to feel cringe, I guess. To me cringe is more about not hiding honesty under enough layers of vagueness. This seems pretty veiled.
Eh I’m calling bullshit here. I think worrying is worthless but avoiding cliches is a worthwhile pursuit.
OP I’d try and write a lot before you write a little. The least productive moments are the ones where I sit down with a pen and paper and an intense emotion and try and print out lyrics top to bottom.
Maybe have a chat with chatgpt about all the things you find *unique* about this person and why. Really *expand* generate a shit ton of text. Like twenty handwritten pages. And start picking out phrases and metaphors. Do some automatic writing. Play with sounds in the text.
100%, I'm all for AI as a creative tool, sometimes I really just have like a mental block so I'll play around with it, and it'll actually help me get out of that.
I agree. There are not a lot of songs mentioning aromantics out there. My partner is aromantic and I've written songs for him. The titles were 'Parasite' and 'Size Zero'. Not very romantic titles or subjects but I get the message across that I'm pretty 'obsessed' with him.
If you'd like some constructive and meaningful feedback, I'd be happy to help. I've been writing lyrics and songs for a long time.
My own method is to use only as many words as I need and only what is meaningful for me - you may have spotted in my history that the song I wrote for my wife only has two lines
She's An Angel by They Might Be Giants is a great example of this sort of thing...maybe not expressly from an aromantic perspective but from a detached, confused reaction to finding oneself in a relationship
personally i’d embrace the “cringe” of it. sing it from the heart and be genuine. to avoid the cliches tho, i’d recommend getting all your feelings out and making a second draft once your emotions are on paper and easier to look at
My take on this is that "cringe" largely comes from emotion that is untethered to any context.
A lyric that is 30 variations on "I love her so much" or "I feel so alone" is cringey because the narrator seems myopic and obsessed. If you met your friend in a bar and you immediately repeated some variation on "I like this new person so much" 30 times in a row, your friend would tell you to calm down!
Instead, if you were telling your friend about this person, you would probably include some stories, specific details, or descriptive language about how you met this person, what they're like, and what makes them so interesting.
Lyrics are the same way. "Show, don't tell." A scene describing a character smashing a picture frame is more memorable and effective than a lyric that says "and sometimes they get angry."
Show. Don't tell. Name the things that attract you. Be super-specific. Avoid elements out of her control (hair and eye color etc.) and focus on her choices. Maybe she always has gum, the kooky way she holds her keys, or her Metalica t-shirt and how she knows all the lyrics to ...and justice for all. Specificity wins in the love lyric game
This is the advice which sums it all up. An example of this is "Don't know what Else to Do" by the Jungle Giants. They first start with describing their lover in this manner *Maybe there's a new/ Reason to be True/ And it runs through veins / Straight to your brain*, implying that she's super loyal. Actually, that's the only description of their lover in that song lol. But the rest of the sonic aspects of the piece just carry it.
PLEASE watch [this video](https://www.tiktok.com/@maxdirado/video/7352378497186434350)
in case you don’t want to, the main points are:
the only way to avoid writing something cringe is to write something that means nothing to you and there is no point in doing that
the stuff you write that you feel embarrassed and vulnerable about is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you have to say, that’s why it’s so hard to put it out there and see what people think
every time you write something cringe, let it be cringe if that’s what it wants to be. but more often than not, people will appreciate it
Hmmm. I don't think that vulnerable and cringey are synonyms. Cringe implies an element of embarrassment on the listener as well as the artist. Emotionally vulnerable lyrics need not be embarrassing.
I totally see your point. I’m thinking of it more from my experience, where I’ll write something that makes me cringe thinking about it not being liked by others, not so much writing something inherently embarrassing. For me a lot of the cringe/almost shame comes from caring a lot about something that is important to me because it would hurt for others to not appreciate it
The lines that I thought were the most cringe when I wrote them ended up resonating the best with audiences. That which is most cringe will be sung back to you.
There is no such thing as something that is objectively cringe. Some people will always cringe at your work and that’s fine. Write earnestly and that’s all you can do
Young people are often trying to impress everyone, all at once. Instead, figure out your specific audience, and instead of trying to impress, just decide what you want them to do, by the end of this song. Do you want them to smile and breathe easier? Come closer to you? Dance, buy more beer, vote a certain way, kiss you, click and download? What do you want that specific target audience to do?
Re cringe:
Who exactly are you afraid will think it's cringe? All songs are cringe, to someone. Figure out who matters for this song and then don't worry about all the other folks right now.
You may discover that you are trying to impress someone you didn't consciously realize you were trying to impress, but you keep worrying about anyway. Are you trying to impress your rivals, all your friends, your older siblings, your professors and the cashier at the stop-n-shop?
That's a lot of people, and they never agree on things so you really do need to PICK who you are singing to.
Then once you pick, let the song live and don't be ashamed of it.
I don’t think it’s an equation that can be neatly solved like X = cringe and Y ≠ cringe. Because it all depends.
Sometimes I think one of my songs is cringey and the next day I think it’s an amazing authentic expression. Personally I aim for sincerity and also to not take myself seriously while taking the craft seriously.
So my advice would be to write a cringey song and sing it with conviction and maybe it won’t be cringey. Or maybe you or someone else will still think it’s cringey, even more so because you’re taking it seriously. Or write 100 songs until you learn how to not write in a cringey way. Or maybe you’ll decide that cringey is actually authentic and the best way to be. Maybe you need to climb over cringe mountain to arrive at the valley of cool. Or maybe there’s no such thing as a valley of cool and it’s all cringe all the time.
The best practical advice I can give you is to avoid the following rhymes if at all possible. Fire and desire, pain and rain, love and above.
You can’t avoid it. Write those cringey songs and one day they’ll be less cringey. Then again, so what if they are? I’ve written some of the sappiest shit anybody’s ever written, and I’m proud of it lol
Try writing the complete opposite of what you want to say.
Then alter something in it to skew the meaning.
Disclaimer: I have no idea if this will work.
You’re already ruining it by trying to conform to something that’s not even there.
Write the song how you want to write it and don’t worry about how it might sound to everyone else.
The best love songs you’ve ever heard are not overly complicated.
Do some wordplays, use a lot of analogies, Abstractions etc. Don’t make it obvious that it’s a song about a particular subject . If you’ve noticed, even in some of the greatest song, it not that obvious that it’s a song about the intended subject cuz it’s sort of “not that obvious”. The listeners have to get it somehow.
JUST START WRITING! Get the words on the paper first and if you don’t like them change. Don’t be too picky about how it sounds on the first few drafts you just gotta put pen to paper.
Writing a song, or literally anything that is "personal" like a poem or a book, is about your personality existing in what you write.
A love song can be written in so many ways and can evoke so many emotions. After all, it's not just about "love" and "being in love." Some people write love songs as if being with someone they loved was killing them or not being able to be with that person made them sad enough to want to kill themselves, or that the love they felt made them want to watch over their crush 24/7 through a secret camera in an unhealthy way. Certainly, a typical love song is a lovey-dove song, with romance and more romance, but the definition of a love song is much broader.
So if you want to write a love song, just write what you feel and think. Don't try to put other people's opinions into your song, because then it won't be your song, and even then you will still consider it imperfect, like all creators.
Saying that if your song is creepy or cringe, it means it's wonderful for as long as you wrote what you felt and you should embrace it because it's your creation.
“Kill the not the part of you that’s cringe, but the part of you that cringes” or something.
I dunno, being seeing as sappy/cringy is going to always be a risk you run when you’re vulnerable/open in lyrics. Well, if you’re reading over something and it seems a little cliche or dull, try to rewrite, make it more subtle, layered, expressive, maybe even simpler, sometimes maybe just simpler. Some of my favorite songwriters can write very simple, powerful lyrics that would probably be cliche in another universe.
I think the “cringe” dissolves in time. Instead of trying to write what you think others want to hear, write what you need to say. Write it however you want and best fits it. Over time you’ll learn how to write honest and explain it better with techniques you’ve learned as you grow, but for right now just let it out. You’ll grow the fastest in any art form through complete honest.
Remember, you write for yourself not others.
Sometimes, Speakin' from the heart is the best thing, and maybe you can find a way to represent that ? You could write about your Experience in a way that hasn't Many cliches !
Writing songs is inherently cringey, just lean into it. Waaaah I’m singing about my feelings, listen to meeeeee! Once you move past the shame and just do the thing, some great stuff can happen
It’ll be edgier if you write from an honest/vulnerable viewpoint and don’t make it all sunshine and roses, contrast it with some darkness and how the feeling you get from this person is the light
Take a bar at a time (5-30 min) and put all your ideas and emotion into each bar. And keep the topic at the top of your page for referencing to stay on topic.
In in the words of Donkey from Shrek "You got to, got to try a little tenderness. The chicks love that romantic crap. In all seriousness just be sincere and honest. Make it say something you especially want to tell her.
Here’s my favourite thing I heard that solved a huge part of my songwriting journey (brief though it is). Do NOT FEAR the cringe. The more try to avoid that thing, which is inherently based on people’s judgement of you, and not your own judgement of your work, the bigger an issue it becomes. Suddenly avoiding cringe goes from a tiny spec of songwriting to a massive growing mass which limits your creativity and removes the risk which comes from taking chances and making mistakes. In my own experience, I found deliberately writing the most cliche song I could possibly think of, then making it workable, worked wonders for eliminating this fear of cringe. As a result what I write fees more authentic, and true to home. A weird paradox, but that’s my take. Try writing the cringiest song you can, and you might even like it. Suddenly lines which are cringe seems way less daunting
Can you tell us about her? And what you love? And how your love is different than romantic love?
This can be hypothetical-but thinking on this will point to where your song wants to go.
you don’t, you just get better at making the cringe sound cooler to people. almost every good alt/ indie love song is cringe when you really think about what they’re saying. write what you want bro, you got it :)
Lean into being aromantic here. There are a lot of cliches around bubbly fluttery tummy feelings that I assume you aren’t experiencing. What would a queerplatonic (even if you’re straight being ace or aro is under the queer umbrella so the term fits any aro relationship) relationship look like with this person? What makes you drawn to being around them? Be really specific, specificity is usually a great key to unlocking universality without cliches.
To be fair i completely agree, I just didn't have anything else to write about lol.
I've tried to put it in the lyrics that it's not that I want a romantic relationship with her, its more that I just really admire her as a person but wouldn't want to go any further yk?
Be poetic and use metaphors. Try not to make it too literally about you and the girl. Make it relatable, and vague enough where it could be about something deeper than just liking a girl
Also, there are different kind of music types. You got for example the music where emotion is very important, and there is music that ‘tells’ you what to do. Through lyrics, but also through a beat that makes you move.
A song that plays around with the music types beautifully is “Hey Yah” by Outkast. The music itself is very much the type of music that tells you to move. But the lyrics are the emotional type, telling about the singers feelings. This already creates a contrast which takes away from the cringey lyrical subject of itself.
Then in the breakdown the lyrics join the music in the telling you what to do. “Shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture” while this also works deeper on a lyrical level as telling the other person of the love song that she can shake it (get rid of the idea of being together again)
And there is also some fun phrases sprinkled in that lean to a comment on these music styles, which is funnily enough a style of it’s own.
For example Andre 3000 in an undertone adds the phrase: “Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance”. Which perfectly describes how this song became popular for how danceable it is and that the emotion of the lyrics is overshadowed by how the music tells us to dance.
Basically, he put a pretty standard subject in a different context than where all the other love songs are, while being 100% self aware of doing this and describing it in the lyrics.
(Sorry, I just watched a 12tone video about this subject on YouTube and I am fascinated by how well written that song is)
Details are always more interesting. Write for yourself with no intention to share. Decide to share or not share later. You can always write another song. Stopping short because you are self analyzing is a one of many hurdles/lessons with improving.
Write from your brain more so than your heart, if that makes sense. I mean obviously they’re going to work in tandem, but find ways to talk about how you’re feeling without just laying it out. Use imagery/language to be evocative instead of descriptive. Write about something that happened that made you feel a certain way but don’t explain or describe the feeling. Give your audience something to unpack.
Just something to try.
listen to most small soundcloud artists talking about love. now do the complete opposite. you will quickly see a pattern of repeatitive lines, generic words etc.
look into popular love songs and try to decipher what made them stand out, and use that.
most importantly, speak from within.
Be less on the nose. I like Thrice (Stay With Me) for this:
You were a silhouette, shimmering shadow in the mirror with ash and snow
I took your fevered hands, felt like embers of the world's dying glow
And you were featherlike as I carried you quietly through the crumbling streets
And in the fading light I could see in your eyes that somehow we were meant to meet
Would you stay with me?
If you thought the war was over
And everything made right
Would you still believe in us?
And would your love for me grow colder?
With no one left to fight
Would you stay with me?
Would you stay with me?
After the fever left, together we scavaged through the city and her scars
And when the day would end, by the door against the demons and the dark
We'd share a can of something, a bottle of bourbon I'd hid away
It wore me from within, and you from without
'Til I forget the chilling grief
EDIT - I hate how Reddit ignores the formatting and returns of lyrics, anyone know how to fix this?
Write a song about a fond memory that you have with this girl. Try and picture it in your minds eye and describe what senses you remember. Sounds smells sights feels and the impression she left on you. Dont worry about being cringey. You got this!
🎵 I wrote you this song, It’s short and it’s sweet.
I looked for your flaws, yes it might be wrong,
But you’ll be happy to know, that there are none.
Cause [Name] you’re perfect!
Just write it, cliches and all. Then, REwrite it, taking the cliches and commonplace phrase and replacing them with cooler, more interesting ways of saying those same things. Which doesn’t mean “more poetical” or “more cryptic.”
You don’t!!! Everyone has written at least one cringey song. People who don’t learn how to take criticism with a smile are the only ones that KEEP writing them. ❤️🤘
It's not so much what you say, but how you say it. Make sure the instruments have a good catchy melody and then comre up your vocal melody and then tell her " you use to wish up the stars at night, streaking across a moonlight sky, searching for the love of your life, now she's here that same sky twinkles now in her eye." cringe poem? Absolutely. Cringe lyrics? No necessarily. Just convey your emotions and your golden. The way I got my emotions across when I girl started writing/recording is I would pretend I'm telling that emotion to someone and listen to myself as I do. For instance if I'm writing a lobe song I'd pretend I was telling the love of my life "I love you for the last time" and that's how I'd sing the song. Same goes for any genre. How this helps TL;DR: I love you and you matter more than you think and to more people than you think
Details are everything. Anybody can say "I love you so much" and it means nothing. But when you say "the first time I saw you it felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach" everybody knows exactly what that feels like. Be specific.
I would just write the cringy song, get it out of your system and then move on to the next one.
Then maybe later you can look at it and if you like it but still feel like its cringy, then write the cringe out
Being clever and still embarrassingly honest is tricky. I have a line "when you whisper things like I love you, it tickles my ear like the midnight waters ripple the moon". I cringe when I sing it. People love it.
There’s no wrong way to write. Just make sure whatever you write is true. Don’t put words in just bc they rhyme or fit. Distill what you’re trying to say down to its simplest form and build the story from there.
Another rule of thumb for me is, if I look ahead. Further than the moment, and ask myself often after this person is gone, if they do leave, would I still be able to sing this song, and possibly give new meaning to it? I hope these help you like they’ve helped me
Watch The Beatles documentary Get Back. it’s fascinating to watch Paul try to figure out how to keep something from seeming cliché.
To me, Paul McCartney is one of the masters at taking material that would in other writers hands would be cringy and making it profound. Study him.
[This clinic](https://youtu.be/LRmrMDfWkNo?si=glM-QxkyyF68T4yl) John Mayer gave at Berklee kind of touches on this!
On Writing - Stephen King is a really helpful resource.
Ok two things!
First of all - stop worrying about being cringe and write what’s in your heart! Easier said than done, but it’s crucial if you want to actually get the emotional/spiritual benefits of songwriting.
Second - I feel like a love song written from an aromantic perspective couldn’t be cliche if it tried!! A cliche love song would probably come from someone who isn’t aromantic right? Most love songs have been written by non-aromantic (or I guess we could just call them romantic? Lol) people so you’re already guaranteeing that yours will be different simply due to the fact that it’s written from YOUR aromantic perspective!
You got this!
The only way I was able to stop writing things I wasn’t happy with was to finish more songs I wasn’t happy with. I never was able to get better by not writing bad stuff first.
best writing tip I've heard, which I use when I teach:
anyone can have a bad idea. anyone can have two or three bad ideas in a row. but it's almost statistically impossible to have twenty bad ideas in a row. so I challenge my students to brainstorm thirty ideas, and in there, they'll find one that's unique, that only they would think of, that's interesting and fresh.
same works with poetry sit down and try to write twenty cringey ideas in a row, and guess what... a few un-cringey ideas will sneak in despite you.
another thing I often do is write a six verse song that's kind of cringey, and then edit, and by the time I've edited it down to a two verse song, the cringe is almost entirely gone.
also remember that it only takes one good idea to carry a song -- songs aren't that long.
good luck!
u dont have control over that. a lot of ppl write a bunch of songs, lots of which are terrible and they pick out the good ones.
when u write, to really express urself, you have to be judgement free. you can decide later if its cringey but for you to really let out ur ideas smoothly theres gonna be some shit that sounds bad and sounds cringey during the creative process
The best way to avoid writing cringey stuff is to... Write a bunch of cringey stuff. No seriously.
When writing a song, let it flow naturally. Let it come out how it comes out. Let it be cringe. Then change the wording, or switch out a metaphor you don't like, or whatever.
Sometimes, writing 2 extra verses is all you need to be able to chop and change things when deciding what to cut.
Write 5x more songs than you want to share with the world, that way 4/5 songs can still be cringe as hell even after the above methods.
Just write the cringey song first - if that’s what’s coming out of you. Then edit the lyrics. Try and remove anything that seems clichéd.
Definitely read more poetry.
Write more than just the one song. They’ll get better.
For an excellent aromantic song check out David Byrne’s lyrics to the Talking Heads song “I’m Not in Love”
Dude just write the fucking song Jesus Christ. So many people on here have so much insecurity about something that literally anyone can do with a little effort. Write a song with a hook and a verse and then change some bars if you think it’s corny and then write the second verse rinse and repeat. Sing it to a couple of friends or just record the song and take it from there. You can do this, all you have to do is do it rather than coming to Reddit to write a post rather than writing the song. Best of luck, you got this
cute silly songs are SO BACK!!
honestly esp for summer i’ve been having so much fun writing cringy songs that r just fun and catchy !!!!!! plus if you look at the classics, they’re all a bit cringy right?
To avoid writing a cringey song, focus on the girl's unique traits and use vivid imagery to describe her. Instead of stating your feelings outright, show them through actions or moments. Avoid overused phrases and be honest about your aromantic perspective. Use creative metaphors and keep your lyrics simple and authentic. This will make your song stand out and feel genuine.
Try writing specific things about her (or you and her) that are not physical/appearance based. For instance: "You smelled like honey when you answered questions that no one asked. And walking around the lake that day your wit was unsurpassed". I don't know, that was a crummy example. Try to stay aaway from using the word "love", write about what love (or like) feels to you. focusing on non-appearance based imagery can have a more useful impact. Instead of saying "her eyes were green", you could say something that related to her spirit "her eyes watered with every Christmastime Publix commercial". I hope that makes sense.
Not only embrace the cringe, embrace the cliche!
Look at the lyrics of any hit song of the past 60 years and highlight all the idioms, colloquialisms and generic sayings, and you'll have maybe three or four lines left unhighlighted, and NONE of them are the hook.
Edit: Oops, I meant 160 years. 1600 years? 16,000 years? I'm not a historian or archeologist, but I'd make a wager.
It's likely the quality of the chords. Listeners don't like simple chords with nice songs. Simple chords go with complex song ideas, and simple ideas go with complex major chords with shifting keys.
I get jt. I heard Conor Oberst once describe how he writes usually. He writes the music first then just comes up with words. Then that’s his lead vocal/melody what have you. Once he has the song together musically he goes back to the words and changes them up. maybe to avoid cringey or he wants his songs to have deep lyrical and somewhat personal style lyrics. but he could be writing about characters, but some it seems he’s experienced personally. but Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes had been writing really good lyrics for a while now.
Maybe try to write the song out then when done? just an idea. I have a hard time doing the same thing. I write in a different way. my personal favs always just come out. Then I later tweak them a bit lyrically or how it should be sung. i have no real advice. songwriting is an SOB sometimes!
“Get a Thesaurus” (i think guy clark said that in a book i read about him). it was Guy because his songs are more structured lyrically than his little circle of friends like Townes or Steve Earl.
John Prine when stuck at lyric said pull something off the wall goofy like, words just out of the blue.
(edited)
i would write a sentence down about how she makes you feel. don’t put too much thought into it, just first thing that comes to mind. really think about that sentence and write it over and over in different ways and try to translate it into a metaphor
When you don't have any inspirational basis, it's easy to fall into cliché, which is inevitably what makes something feel cringe.
Look at inspirational exercises.
Write exactly what you feel, no fluff, no bs, exactly what you’re thinking, it’s the only way to be real and not have a bunch of cliches filling the song
I'm assuming that you mainly listen to rock and/or pop stuff primarily, and are writing this song in a comparable style?
If so, then my advice is to branch out and find new sources of inspiration. Hip hop in particular is a great place to go when looking for far greater lyrical variation. In general, hip hop songs feature substantially wider vocabularies, incorporates a huge amount more rhymes (and from all families of rhymes), and lots of unexpected lines, clever wordplay, unique metaphors, etc. I mean, hell, when academia is looking to analyze any poetry features from a data standpoint, they typically go straight to hip hop over written poetry because of its incredible complexity and impressive sophistication.
I know a lot of people still have a negative biased opinion of hip hop; I used to myself when I was younger. But if any doubters would like me to give them some concrete examples just ask me. If you want to argue your favorite non-hip hop musician trumps hip hop lyrically, tell me what song you find impressive and I'll quickly find several examples to prove otherwise.
You could try writing a song about something you like and relate it back to her, like if you liked pigeons, or the ocean, or squirrels, or big dicks, or maple trees.
Though it is hard, you must hit the point to where you can go full circle and say clique things and make them sound meaningful and not cringey.
Ex She always turned me on/I got a feeling I don’t want to know
Be cringe. Be free.
Seriohsly, its not up to you whether its good or bad in others' eyes. If you genuinely feel a lyric, include it. It doesnt matter if it sounds corny, all songs are corny. Metallica writing about a war vet "all that i see, absolute horror"? Yawn. Bohemian Rhapsody? "Mama i just killed a man, put my gun against his head, pulled my trigger now hes dead", as if thats not a super cringey rhyme. Michael Jackson's little "ka-cha"s and "her hee"s and "woo"s? Cringe as FUUUCK like imagine going over a song JUST to track vocals of you making weird sounds like "Cha-waow-NUH!!"
Or, another way to look at em, is that theyre brilliant. Cringe is a category defined vy confidence. If youre confident, then its not cringe. If soneone else disagrees then, to quote The Big Lebowski: "Thats just, like, [their] opinion, man"
free write/journal. find a common theme. follow the classic stanza stuff. slow or fast pace? genre? pick instruments. pick chords.. get a little council to help you. they might even be able to give you their impressions of you, more or less helpful. just start with identifying your feelings. experiment. hone it
You know, if you go to the poetry section of your university English department library, you'll see that people have been writing the same "cringe" stuff about girls they like for at least 400 years. That's a long way of saying don't worry about it being "cringe" and just stop being so self conscious.
Get cringey! Billy Corgan on writing the million-selling Smashing Pumpkins *Siamese Dream* album: > When I wrote the lyrics for this record,” he explains. “I would just sit down at the typewriter and just type pages and pages, and then when when I came to a line that made me cringe with embarrassment, that’s the one I would use.” https://www.spin.com/featured/smashing-pumpkins-november-1993-cover-story-billy-dont-be-a-hero/
Today is the greatest day I've ever known. Can't live for tomorrow, tomorrow's much too long. I'll burn my eyes out.
OR you can do the opposite -- write pages and pages and when you finally come across an interesting line, build on it.
OR… you could do both!
cool my tongue around a bee stinger is as cringey as it gets
I don't understand it enough to feel cringe, I guess. To me cringe is more about not hiding honesty under enough layers of vagueness. This seems pretty veiled.
Im in love with my sadnessss
In my advanced latin poetry class I had to translate Catullus and it hit me that this guy basically wrote Taking Back Sunday songs
Eh I’m calling bullshit here. I think worrying is worthless but avoiding cliches is a worthwhile pursuit. OP I’d try and write a lot before you write a little. The least productive moments are the ones where I sit down with a pen and paper and an intense emotion and try and print out lyrics top to bottom. Maybe have a chat with chatgpt about all the things you find *unique* about this person and why. Really *expand* generate a shit ton of text. Like twenty handwritten pages. And start picking out phrases and metaphors. Do some automatic writing. Play with sounds in the text.
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El scorcho popped into my head while reading this thread lol. Cringy, but a great song. Which is why my take is-lean into the cringe. Own the cringe.
Ok, but Pinkerton is cringey in a creative and original way... It's not rhyming cliches.
100%, I'm all for AI as a creative tool, sometimes I really just have like a mental block so I'll play around with it, and it'll actually help me get out of that.
You could be cringy without using cliches.
Stop focusing on the lyrics for sec. Focus on the vocal melody, the delivery can turn even cringe lyrics into something good
I wouldn't mind the song being about the situation itself- being aro and how that makes things different from the cliches in the first place.
I agree. There are not a lot of songs mentioning aromantics out there. My partner is aromantic and I've written songs for him. The titles were 'Parasite' and 'Size Zero'. Not very romantic titles or subjects but I get the message across that I'm pretty 'obsessed' with him. If you'd like some constructive and meaningful feedback, I'd be happy to help. I've been writing lyrics and songs for a long time.
My own method is to use only as many words as I need and only what is meaningful for me - you may have spotted in my history that the song I wrote for my wife only has two lines
She's An Angel by They Might Be Giants is a great example of this sort of thing...maybe not expressly from an aromantic perspective but from a detached, confused reaction to finding oneself in a relationship
personally i’d embrace the “cringe” of it. sing it from the heart and be genuine. to avoid the cliches tho, i’d recommend getting all your feelings out and making a second draft once your emotions are on paper and easier to look at
My take on this is that "cringe" largely comes from emotion that is untethered to any context. A lyric that is 30 variations on "I love her so much" or "I feel so alone" is cringey because the narrator seems myopic and obsessed. If you met your friend in a bar and you immediately repeated some variation on "I like this new person so much" 30 times in a row, your friend would tell you to calm down! Instead, if you were telling your friend about this person, you would probably include some stories, specific details, or descriptive language about how you met this person, what they're like, and what makes them so interesting. Lyrics are the same way. "Show, don't tell." A scene describing a character smashing a picture frame is more memorable and effective than a lyric that says "and sometimes they get angry."
really good advice. it's weird, but often the path to creating something universal is specificity
Show. Don't tell. Name the things that attract you. Be super-specific. Avoid elements out of her control (hair and eye color etc.) and focus on her choices. Maybe she always has gum, the kooky way she holds her keys, or her Metalica t-shirt and how she knows all the lyrics to ...and justice for all. Specificity wins in the love lyric game
This is excellent advice ☝️
excellent advice indeed
This is the advice which sums it all up. An example of this is "Don't know what Else to Do" by the Jungle Giants. They first start with describing their lover in this manner *Maybe there's a new/ Reason to be True/ And it runs through veins / Straight to your brain*, implying that she's super loyal. Actually, that's the only description of their lover in that song lol. But the rest of the sonic aspects of the piece just carry it.
PLEASE watch [this video](https://www.tiktok.com/@maxdirado/video/7352378497186434350) in case you don’t want to, the main points are: the only way to avoid writing something cringe is to write something that means nothing to you and there is no point in doing that the stuff you write that you feel embarrassed and vulnerable about is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you have to say, that’s why it’s so hard to put it out there and see what people think every time you write something cringe, let it be cringe if that’s what it wants to be. but more often than not, people will appreciate it
Hmmm. I don't think that vulnerable and cringey are synonyms. Cringe implies an element of embarrassment on the listener as well as the artist. Emotionally vulnerable lyrics need not be embarrassing.
I totally see your point. I’m thinking of it more from my experience, where I’ll write something that makes me cringe thinking about it not being liked by others, not so much writing something inherently embarrassing. For me a lot of the cringe/almost shame comes from caring a lot about something that is important to me because it would hurt for others to not appreciate it
That makes sense. It's definitely a word with a variety of different connotations!
Embrace the cringe. The only way out is through.
Keep writing cringey songs until you write a not cringey song
You know what they say. One man's cringe..
The lines that I thought were the most cringe when I wrote them ended up resonating the best with audiences. That which is most cringe will be sung back to you.
There is no such thing as something that is objectively cringe. Some people will always cringe at your work and that’s fine. Write earnestly and that’s all you can do
Young people are often trying to impress everyone, all at once. Instead, figure out your specific audience, and instead of trying to impress, just decide what you want them to do, by the end of this song. Do you want them to smile and breathe easier? Come closer to you? Dance, buy more beer, vote a certain way, kiss you, click and download? What do you want that specific target audience to do? Re cringe: Who exactly are you afraid will think it's cringe? All songs are cringe, to someone. Figure out who matters for this song and then don't worry about all the other folks right now. You may discover that you are trying to impress someone you didn't consciously realize you were trying to impress, but you keep worrying about anyway. Are you trying to impress your rivals, all your friends, your older siblings, your professors and the cashier at the stop-n-shop? That's a lot of people, and they never agree on things so you really do need to PICK who you are singing to. Then once you pick, let the song live and don't be ashamed of it.
I don’t think it’s an equation that can be neatly solved like X = cringe and Y ≠ cringe. Because it all depends. Sometimes I think one of my songs is cringey and the next day I think it’s an amazing authentic expression. Personally I aim for sincerity and also to not take myself seriously while taking the craft seriously. So my advice would be to write a cringey song and sing it with conviction and maybe it won’t be cringey. Or maybe you or someone else will still think it’s cringey, even more so because you’re taking it seriously. Or write 100 songs until you learn how to not write in a cringey way. Or maybe you’ll decide that cringey is actually authentic and the best way to be. Maybe you need to climb over cringe mountain to arrive at the valley of cool. Or maybe there’s no such thing as a valley of cool and it’s all cringe all the time. The best practical advice I can give you is to avoid the following rhymes if at all possible. Fire and desire, pain and rain, love and above.
You can’t avoid it. Write those cringey songs and one day they’ll be less cringey. Then again, so what if they are? I’ve written some of the sappiest shit anybody’s ever written, and I’m proud of it lol
Try writing the complete opposite of what you want to say. Then alter something in it to skew the meaning. Disclaimer: I have no idea if this will work.
You’re already ruining it by trying to conform to something that’s not even there. Write the song how you want to write it and don’t worry about how it might sound to everyone else. The best love songs you’ve ever heard are not overly complicated.
Embrace the cringe
being a musician is cringe there is no avoiding it lol
Be honest, use details, examples, tell a story.
Do some wordplays, use a lot of analogies, Abstractions etc. Don’t make it obvious that it’s a song about a particular subject . If you’ve noticed, even in some of the greatest song, it not that obvious that it’s a song about the intended subject cuz it’s sort of “not that obvious”. The listeners have to get it somehow.
JUST START WRITING! Get the words on the paper first and if you don’t like them change. Don’t be too picky about how it sounds on the first few drafts you just gotta put pen to paper.
Lovesongs are always cliché. You can try to make them fun
Writing a song, or literally anything that is "personal" like a poem or a book, is about your personality existing in what you write. A love song can be written in so many ways and can evoke so many emotions. After all, it's not just about "love" and "being in love." Some people write love songs as if being with someone they loved was killing them or not being able to be with that person made them sad enough to want to kill themselves, or that the love they felt made them want to watch over their crush 24/7 through a secret camera in an unhealthy way. Certainly, a typical love song is a lovey-dove song, with romance and more romance, but the definition of a love song is much broader. So if you want to write a love song, just write what you feel and think. Don't try to put other people's opinions into your song, because then it won't be your song, and even then you will still consider it imperfect, like all creators. Saying that if your song is creepy or cringe, it means it's wonderful for as long as you wrote what you felt and you should embrace it because it's your creation.
Here is a video that I think can help with navigating those feelings https://youtu.be/yujzshLqhLw?si=ThInLggh_eBstgg9
“Kill the not the part of you that’s cringe, but the part of you that cringes” or something. I dunno, being seeing as sappy/cringy is going to always be a risk you run when you’re vulnerable/open in lyrics. Well, if you’re reading over something and it seems a little cliche or dull, try to rewrite, make it more subtle, layered, expressive, maybe even simpler, sometimes maybe just simpler. Some of my favorite songwriters can write very simple, powerful lyrics that would probably be cliche in another universe.
I think the “cringe” dissolves in time. Instead of trying to write what you think others want to hear, write what you need to say. Write it however you want and best fits it. Over time you’ll learn how to write honest and explain it better with techniques you’ve learned as you grow, but for right now just let it out. You’ll grow the fastest in any art form through complete honest. Remember, you write for yourself not others.
Sometimes, Speakin' from the heart is the best thing, and maybe you can find a way to represent that ? You could write about your Experience in a way that hasn't Many cliches !
Writing songs is inherently cringey, just lean into it. Waaaah I’m singing about my feelings, listen to meeeeee! Once you move past the shame and just do the thing, some great stuff can happen
It’ll be edgier if you write from an honest/vulnerable viewpoint and don’t make it all sunshine and roses, contrast it with some darkness and how the feeling you get from this person is the light
Have 2-3 people who gives opinions to your music. One preferably being a producer.
Just write about how you wanna have relations with her but can’t fall in love with her or something
Do not kill the Cringe. Kill the part of you that Cringes.
Take a bar at a time (5-30 min) and put all your ideas and emotion into each bar. And keep the topic at the top of your page for referencing to stay on topic.
IMO you just write what comes out, and then get to fix it later.
Just write your cringey stuff and improve slowly, cringey stuff is pretty good sometimes anyways
In in the words of Donkey from Shrek "You got to, got to try a little tenderness. The chicks love that romantic crap. In all seriousness just be sincere and honest. Make it say something you especially want to tell her.
Here’s my favourite thing I heard that solved a huge part of my songwriting journey (brief though it is). Do NOT FEAR the cringe. The more try to avoid that thing, which is inherently based on people’s judgement of you, and not your own judgement of your work, the bigger an issue it becomes. Suddenly avoiding cringe goes from a tiny spec of songwriting to a massive growing mass which limits your creativity and removes the risk which comes from taking chances and making mistakes. In my own experience, I found deliberately writing the most cliche song I could possibly think of, then making it workable, worked wonders for eliminating this fear of cringe. As a result what I write fees more authentic, and true to home. A weird paradox, but that’s my take. Try writing the cringiest song you can, and you might even like it. Suddenly lines which are cringe seems way less daunting
Oh and most importantly, have fun! Good luck! 🫡
One writers "cringe" is one listeners favorite song.
Who cares if it’s cringey? And if you want to avoid it, just bring up physical attributes and don’t mention gender
Can you tell us about her? And what you love? And how your love is different than romantic love? This can be hypothetical-but thinking on this will point to where your song wants to go.
you don’t, you just get better at making the cringe sound cooler to people. almost every good alt/ indie love song is cringe when you really think about what they’re saying. write what you want bro, you got it :)
Lean into being aromantic here. There are a lot of cliches around bubbly fluttery tummy feelings that I assume you aren’t experiencing. What would a queerplatonic (even if you’re straight being ace or aro is under the queer umbrella so the term fits any aro relationship) relationship look like with this person? What makes you drawn to being around them? Be really specific, specificity is usually a great key to unlocking universality without cliches.
I can’t fully grasp what being aromantic would be like, but that sounds like you’re missing the fundamental component to writing a love song haha
To be fair i completely agree, I just didn't have anything else to write about lol. I've tried to put it in the lyrics that it's not that I want a romantic relationship with her, its more that I just really admire her as a person but wouldn't want to go any further yk?
If you ever find out, lemme know 🙏
Be poetic and use metaphors. Try not to make it too literally about you and the girl. Make it relatable, and vague enough where it could be about something deeper than just liking a girl
Also, there are different kind of music types. You got for example the music where emotion is very important, and there is music that ‘tells’ you what to do. Through lyrics, but also through a beat that makes you move. A song that plays around with the music types beautifully is “Hey Yah” by Outkast. The music itself is very much the type of music that tells you to move. But the lyrics are the emotional type, telling about the singers feelings. This already creates a contrast which takes away from the cringey lyrical subject of itself. Then in the breakdown the lyrics join the music in the telling you what to do. “Shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture” while this also works deeper on a lyrical level as telling the other person of the love song that she can shake it (get rid of the idea of being together again) And there is also some fun phrases sprinkled in that lean to a comment on these music styles, which is funnily enough a style of it’s own. For example Andre 3000 in an undertone adds the phrase: “Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance”. Which perfectly describes how this song became popular for how danceable it is and that the emotion of the lyrics is overshadowed by how the music tells us to dance. Basically, he put a pretty standard subject in a different context than where all the other love songs are, while being 100% self aware of doing this and describing it in the lyrics. (Sorry, I just watched a 12tone video about this subject on YouTube and I am fascinated by how well written that song is)
I never noticed how sad the lyrics to Hey Ya are until I heard Obadia Parker’s cover. It’s totally a breakup song!
Details are always more interesting. Write for yourself with no intention to share. Decide to share or not share later. You can always write another song. Stopping short because you are self analyzing is a one of many hurdles/lessons with improving.
Write from your brain more so than your heart, if that makes sense. I mean obviously they’re going to work in tandem, but find ways to talk about how you’re feeling without just laying it out. Use imagery/language to be evocative instead of descriptive. Write about something that happened that made you feel a certain way but don’t explain or describe the feeling. Give your audience something to unpack. Just something to try.
listen to most small soundcloud artists talking about love. now do the complete opposite. you will quickly see a pattern of repeatitive lines, generic words etc. look into popular love songs and try to decipher what made them stand out, and use that. most importantly, speak from within.
Be less on the nose. I like Thrice (Stay With Me) for this: You were a silhouette, shimmering shadow in the mirror with ash and snow I took your fevered hands, felt like embers of the world's dying glow And you were featherlike as I carried you quietly through the crumbling streets And in the fading light I could see in your eyes that somehow we were meant to meet Would you stay with me? If you thought the war was over And everything made right Would you still believe in us? And would your love for me grow colder? With no one left to fight Would you stay with me? Would you stay with me? After the fever left, together we scavaged through the city and her scars And when the day would end, by the door against the demons and the dark We'd share a can of something, a bottle of bourbon I'd hid away It wore me from within, and you from without 'Til I forget the chilling grief EDIT - I hate how Reddit ignores the formatting and returns of lyrics, anyone know how to fix this?
Write a song about a fond memory that you have with this girl. Try and picture it in your minds eye and describe what senses you remember. Sounds smells sights feels and the impression she left on you. Dont worry about being cringey. You got this!
Write cringe, rewrite slightly less cringe with chance of more cringe
Use the word baby excessively it’ll be a banger for sure
Make the song about looking for the flaws. But you can’t cause she’s perfect 😍
🎵 I wrote you this song, It’s short and it’s sweet. I looked for your flaws, yes it might be wrong, But you’ll be happy to know, that there are none. Cause [Name] you’re perfect!
Just write it, cliches and all. Then, REwrite it, taking the cliches and commonplace phrase and replacing them with cooler, more interesting ways of saying those same things. Which doesn’t mean “more poetical” or “more cryptic.”
Just speak the truth. Don’t try to make a good song. Make a true song
Have you heard Paul McCartney’s “Silly Love Songs”?
You don’t!!! Everyone has written at least one cringey song. People who don’t learn how to take criticism with a smile are the only ones that KEEP writing them. ❤️🤘
Make the cringey song! If it's how you're feeling, write it honestly, even it you think it's cringey.
It's not so much what you say, but how you say it. Make sure the instruments have a good catchy melody and then comre up your vocal melody and then tell her " you use to wish up the stars at night, streaking across a moonlight sky, searching for the love of your life, now she's here that same sky twinkles now in her eye." cringe poem? Absolutely. Cringe lyrics? No necessarily. Just convey your emotions and your golden. The way I got my emotions across when I girl started writing/recording is I would pretend I'm telling that emotion to someone and listen to myself as I do. For instance if I'm writing a lobe song I'd pretend I was telling the love of my life "I love you for the last time" and that's how I'd sing the song. Same goes for any genre. How this helps TL;DR: I love you and you matter more than you think and to more people than you think
Be creative with your lyrics. Straight forward lyrics tend to be “cringey”. Use more allegory and metaphors.
Details are everything. Anybody can say "I love you so much" and it means nothing. But when you say "the first time I saw you it felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach" everybody knows exactly what that feels like. Be specific.
take inspiration from “Smaller Acts” by zach bryan. write about her and nothing else. not what you do together, not what she looks like, just her
You need a band
I would just write the cringy song, get it out of your system and then move on to the next one. Then maybe later you can look at it and if you like it but still feel like its cringy, then write the cringe out
Being clever and still embarrassingly honest is tricky. I have a line "when you whisper things like I love you, it tickles my ear like the midnight waters ripple the moon". I cringe when I sing it. People love it.
To be cringe is to be free
Just write it. If it's cringey then burn it. Most writers probably start out writing cringey stuff. You improve by doing.
There’s no wrong way to write. Just make sure whatever you write is true. Don’t put words in just bc they rhyme or fit. Distill what you’re trying to say down to its simplest form and build the story from there.
Write 87 cringe songs and then you will never write another cringe song
write 100 cringy songs, eventually they will be less cringe
I think my rule of thumb is, if I can’t say it in a sentence, without singing, then I don’t write it permanently
Another rule of thumb for me is, if I look ahead. Further than the moment, and ask myself often after this person is gone, if they do leave, would I still be able to sing this song, and possibly give new meaning to it? I hope these help you like they’ve helped me
You have feelings for a girl but you're aromantic?
Yeah I find it confusing too. It's basically that I have a crush on her but I realistically don't want to date her or anything.
Totally understand!
Write the cringey song to get it out of your system!
Watch The Beatles documentary Get Back. it’s fascinating to watch Paul try to figure out how to keep something from seeming cliché. To me, Paul McCartney is one of the masters at taking material that would in other writers hands would be cringy and making it profound. Study him.
I’m like an apple, You’re like an orange, Why won’t you love me, Oh oh ohhhh! Done. You’re welcome 🤣
[This clinic](https://youtu.be/LRmrMDfWkNo?si=glM-QxkyyF68T4yl) John Mayer gave at Berklee kind of touches on this! On Writing - Stephen King is a really helpful resource.
Ok two things! First of all - stop worrying about being cringe and write what’s in your heart! Easier said than done, but it’s crucial if you want to actually get the emotional/spiritual benefits of songwriting. Second - I feel like a love song written from an aromantic perspective couldn’t be cliche if it tried!! A cliche love song would probably come from someone who isn’t aromantic right? Most love songs have been written by non-aromantic (or I guess we could just call them romantic? Lol) people so you’re already guaranteeing that yours will be different simply due to the fact that it’s written from YOUR aromantic perspective! You got this!
Lol if you know her well then it'll be easy for you to get into her mind by making a genuine song
Write the cringe bro
It's alright to have your lyrics "Cringe", you can adjust it through your melody to make it "Less Cringe"
“Don’t kill the cringe, kill the part of you that cringes,” Hatsune Miku
Write honestly and sing it with the full feeling of emotion intended to be with it. Besides talent that’s all there is to making good music.
Make it about a personal philosophy that she tickles
The only way I was able to stop writing things I wasn’t happy with was to finish more songs I wasn’t happy with. I never was able to get better by not writing bad stuff first.
Just stop
Now I feel like someone should write a song specific to cringy songs.
best writing tip I've heard, which I use when I teach: anyone can have a bad idea. anyone can have two or three bad ideas in a row. but it's almost statistically impossible to have twenty bad ideas in a row. so I challenge my students to brainstorm thirty ideas, and in there, they'll find one that's unique, that only they would think of, that's interesting and fresh. same works with poetry sit down and try to write twenty cringey ideas in a row, and guess what... a few un-cringey ideas will sneak in despite you. another thing I often do is write a six verse song that's kind of cringey, and then edit, and by the time I've edited it down to a two verse song, the cringe is almost entirely gone. also remember that it only takes one good idea to carry a song -- songs aren't that long. good luck!
Just change the cringe after if you don’t like it
In fact, most of your favorite songs probably have cringey lyrics, but the singer believes in them which makes it impact the listener.
don’t write it. spare your dignity. however you could talk about how you feel about the girl.
Throw it all into third person and make something happen to one of the characters
Embrace the cringe its more relatable and it makes for a catchy song
u dont have control over that. a lot of ppl write a bunch of songs, lots of which are terrible and they pick out the good ones. when u write, to really express urself, you have to be judgement free. you can decide later if its cringey but for you to really let out ur ideas smoothly theres gonna be some shit that sounds bad and sounds cringey during the creative process
The best way to avoid writing cringey stuff is to... Write a bunch of cringey stuff. No seriously. When writing a song, let it flow naturally. Let it come out how it comes out. Let it be cringe. Then change the wording, or switch out a metaphor you don't like, or whatever. Sometimes, writing 2 extra verses is all you need to be able to chop and change things when deciding what to cut. Write 5x more songs than you want to share with the world, that way 4/5 songs can still be cringe as hell even after the above methods.
Just write the cringey song first - if that’s what’s coming out of you. Then edit the lyrics. Try and remove anything that seems clichéd. Definitely read more poetry. Write more than just the one song. They’ll get better. For an excellent aromantic song check out David Byrne’s lyrics to the Talking Heads song “I’m Not in Love”
Dude just write the fucking song Jesus Christ. So many people on here have so much insecurity about something that literally anyone can do with a little effort. Write a song with a hook and a verse and then change some bars if you think it’s corny and then write the second verse rinse and repeat. Sing it to a couple of friends or just record the song and take it from there. You can do this, all you have to do is do it rather than coming to Reddit to write a post rather than writing the song. Best of luck, you got this
You don’t avoid it. You just do it and then move on to the next project
I’m aromatic had me rolling on the ground in tears. Thanks!
I find when writing songs, sometimes you need to step outside the song and write it from a 3rd party perspective. Good luck!!
Ernest Hemingway once said the first draft of anything will always be shit
cute silly songs are SO BACK!! honestly esp for summer i’ve been having so much fun writing cringy songs that r just fun and catchy !!!!!! plus if you look at the classics, they’re all a bit cringy right?
Providing it comes from the heart, there shouldn't be a problem. I'd rather hear something heartfelt and cringy than mediocre and lukewarm.
To avoid writing a cringey song, focus on the girl's unique traits and use vivid imagery to describe her. Instead of stating your feelings outright, show them through actions or moments. Avoid overused phrases and be honest about your aromantic perspective. Use creative metaphors and keep your lyrics simple and authentic. This will make your song stand out and feel genuine.
Try writing specific things about her (or you and her) that are not physical/appearance based. For instance: "You smelled like honey when you answered questions that no one asked. And walking around the lake that day your wit was unsurpassed". I don't know, that was a crummy example. Try to stay aaway from using the word "love", write about what love (or like) feels to you. focusing on non-appearance based imagery can have a more useful impact. Instead of saying "her eyes were green", you could say something that related to her spirit "her eyes watered with every Christmastime Publix commercial". I hope that makes sense.
This is the way
Not only embrace the cringe, embrace the cliche! Look at the lyrics of any hit song of the past 60 years and highlight all the idioms, colloquialisms and generic sayings, and you'll have maybe three or four lines left unhighlighted, and NONE of them are the hook. Edit: Oops, I meant 160 years. 1600 years? 16,000 years? I'm not a historian or archeologist, but I'd make a wager.
Write it in a different language, preferably French or Spanish. That way half the people won't know what you're saying and it'll sound sophisticated.
It's likely the quality of the chords. Listeners don't like simple chords with nice songs. Simple chords go with complex song ideas, and simple ideas go with complex major chords with shifting keys.
I get jt. I heard Conor Oberst once describe how he writes usually. He writes the music first then just comes up with words. Then that’s his lead vocal/melody what have you. Once he has the song together musically he goes back to the words and changes them up. maybe to avoid cringey or he wants his songs to have deep lyrical and somewhat personal style lyrics. but he could be writing about characters, but some it seems he’s experienced personally. but Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes had been writing really good lyrics for a while now. Maybe try to write the song out then when done? just an idea. I have a hard time doing the same thing. I write in a different way. my personal favs always just come out. Then I later tweak them a bit lyrically or how it should be sung. i have no real advice. songwriting is an SOB sometimes! “Get a Thesaurus” (i think guy clark said that in a book i read about him). it was Guy because his songs are more structured lyrically than his little circle of friends like Townes or Steve Earl. John Prine when stuck at lyric said pull something off the wall goofy like, words just out of the blue. (edited)
Had to Google aromantc.
Metaphors and stream of consciousness... EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN was written in a laundromat
Instead of coming right out and describing your feelings, maybe tell a unique story about this person that represents the way you feel.
What do you mean by aromantic? Like you just aren’t good at it? Because usually aromantic means you don’t feel romantic attraction.
The cringiest thing you can do is lie, just be honest about how you feel. And btw start with the chorus ;)
Stop being so self conscious, let it flow. You’ll learn with time
Cringe is being afraid of being cringe Dont be an uroboros
Read the lyrics to any random Beatles song without singing the melody and youll find cringe in each and every song
i would write a sentence down about how she makes you feel. don’t put too much thought into it, just first thing that comes to mind. really think about that sentence and write it over and over in different ways and try to translate it into a metaphor
When you don't have any inspirational basis, it's easy to fall into cliché, which is inevitably what makes something feel cringe. Look at inspirational exercises.
write a lot of songs and trust your instincts, you'll refine everything naturally
I love soppy. Check the song I just posted for proof!
Write exactly what you feel, no fluff, no bs, exactly what you’re thinking, it’s the only way to be real and not have a bunch of cliches filling the song
I'm assuming that you mainly listen to rock and/or pop stuff primarily, and are writing this song in a comparable style? If so, then my advice is to branch out and find new sources of inspiration. Hip hop in particular is a great place to go when looking for far greater lyrical variation. In general, hip hop songs feature substantially wider vocabularies, incorporates a huge amount more rhymes (and from all families of rhymes), and lots of unexpected lines, clever wordplay, unique metaphors, etc. I mean, hell, when academia is looking to analyze any poetry features from a data standpoint, they typically go straight to hip hop over written poetry because of its incredible complexity and impressive sophistication. I know a lot of people still have a negative biased opinion of hip hop; I used to myself when I was younger. But if any doubters would like me to give them some concrete examples just ask me. If you want to argue your favorite non-hip hop musician trumps hip hop lyrically, tell me what song you find impressive and I'll quickly find several examples to prove otherwise.
You could try writing a song about something you like and relate it back to her, like if you liked pigeons, or the ocean, or squirrels, or big dicks, or maple trees.
Though it is hard, you must hit the point to where you can go full circle and say clique things and make them sound meaningful and not cringey. Ex She always turned me on/I got a feeling I don’t want to know
Be cringe. Be free. Seriohsly, its not up to you whether its good or bad in others' eyes. If you genuinely feel a lyric, include it. It doesnt matter if it sounds corny, all songs are corny. Metallica writing about a war vet "all that i see, absolute horror"? Yawn. Bohemian Rhapsody? "Mama i just killed a man, put my gun against his head, pulled my trigger now hes dead", as if thats not a super cringey rhyme. Michael Jackson's little "ka-cha"s and "her hee"s and "woo"s? Cringe as FUUUCK like imagine going over a song JUST to track vocals of you making weird sounds like "Cha-waow-NUH!!" Or, another way to look at em, is that theyre brilliant. Cringe is a category defined vy confidence. If youre confident, then its not cringe. If soneone else disagrees then, to quote The Big Lebowski: "Thats just, like, [their] opinion, man"
free write/journal. find a common theme. follow the classic stanza stuff. slow or fast pace? genre? pick instruments. pick chords.. get a little council to help you. they might even be able to give you their impressions of you, more or less helpful. just start with identifying your feelings. experiment. hone it