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- Read Poetry, Lyrics and Prose Often. Find poets, lyricists and authors whose works inspire you. With careful study, realize the depth and scope of their work. (I would highly recommend the efforts of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Mark Knopfler, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Sting and the Beatles for lyrical ingenuity.)
- Write Often. Writing is a skill developed by concentrated practice. It should be done in a place with no distractions that is conducive to your best work.
- Learn About Life, the World and Yourself. Read newspapers, magazines; study environmental issues, sociology, psychology, economics and anything that can give you the knowledge, confidence and insight necessary to make you the source of something helpful to our society.
- Say What You Need to Say Without Saying It. Writing should occur because of a felt need. The reader or listener should have to do a little digging to be able to discover the hidden treasure beneath your rhetoric - only then can it become fully realized.
- Don't Sacrifice Accessibility for Profundity. Great words should move all minds, however shallow or deep.
- Be Aware. Life is the best teacher and the best source of subject matter in most writing. Be conscious in everyday affairs of any applicable experiences that could contribute to your work.
- Be Particular Rather Than General. One lover is more interesting than all lovers. Start from the focused and broaden out.
- Use All Helpful Tools. Dictionary, thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, etc.
- How Do You Make It Happen? You don't, but here are some things that might help inspiration find you:
- Visualize what you desire. To the extent that you can visualize what you want, you can attain it!
- Let everything in your mind and body fall, leaving only stillness and silence. This empty space is much more easily filled than a busy one.
- Concentrate on a question, problem or subject while going to sleep. Often the solution will be there upon awakening.
- Be Succinct, Simple. Less is more.
- Balance. There is very little integrity in safe, mundane work, and very little money in risky ideas that don't sell. A risky idea that does work will pay off greatly, so a balance must be maintained between artistic and commercial treatment.
- Speak From the Heart. Always be honest. Insincerity can end a career or seriously damage an artist's reputation.
- Finish Your Work. A thousand unfinished masterpieces aren't as valuable as one good complete work.
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