By using this mindmapping exercise a whole song will be laid out in front of you and all you have to do is follow the paths that you have created.
This exercise is very simple but very effective in fleshing out the body of a song from a single idea, phrase or a word.
Here's how I do it.
1.
Take your idea, phrase or word and write it in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it (eg.
Dog).
2.
From that circle branch out (up to) five lines and at the end of those lines write a word that is associated with the central word (eg.
labrador, walking, loyal, barking, golden).
These words could be the basis for your verses and choruses.
3.
From those five words start writing other words associated with them and so on.
By the time you have had enough you will see on your piece of paper the whole song mapped out in front of you and it all started from an idea, phrase or (in the example above) a single word.
Be careful not to have too many initial ideas springing out from your central theme as this may turn your song into a complicated mess of too many ideas pulling against each other.
You wouldn't want any more than five.
Start from the middle and work outwards and follow the word paths you have created and see what phrases you can come up with from doing that.
Remember you don't have to use all (or any) of the words you have written down, this is another way of opening your mind to new ways of generating ideas.
Most of us are visual people.
I access information the best this way and I can tell you having a whole song mapped out in front of me makes the job of formulating a song so much easier.
Give it a go and see what happens, you'll be amazed at some of the paths and tangents you create.