How to Write a Love Song Without Clichés

Most love songs fail because they are about love. The ones that work are about a mug, a route home, a habit. Shrink the subject and the clichés have nowhere to go.

The problem is the subject, not the vocabulary

Writers usually try to fix a clichéd love song by finding a better metaphor. That almost never works, because the metaphor is a symptom. The cause is that the song is about love in general, and love in general has already been described by everybody.

Shrink the subject instead. Not love, but the fact that they always take the long way home. Not devotion, but that they leave the light on. A song about one small true thing cannot reach for hearts and fire, because those do not fit.

The images to retire

Hearts, fire, stars, forever, falling, breathing, the ocean, an angel. These were vivid once and they are now the default output of anybody, human or otherwise, asked to write about love without thinking.

It is worth writing the list down before you start and treating it as unavailable. Almost every writer finds a better line within twenty minutes of that constraint, because the easy exits are closed.

Specific verses, universal chorus

The verse should be so specific that it could only be about these two people. The chorus should be general enough that a stranger can put themselves inside it. That contrast is the engine of every love song that travels.

If your chorus names a person or a street, try moving that into the verse. The chorus usually improves. If your verse contains no proper nouns at all, it probably needs one.

Write about the ordinary hour

Love songs default to the beginning or the end: meeting, falling, leaving. The middle is almost unwritten and it is where most of a relationship actually happens.

A song about a Tuesday, about doing the shopping, about somebody being ill and somebody else making tea, is much harder to write badly, because there is no existing template to fall into.

Say something that costs you

The strongest love songs admit something. That the narrator is difficult, that they nearly left, that they do not deserve it. Unqualified adoration reads as advertising.

This does not mean writing a sad song. It means the affection has weight because there is something on the other side of it.

Questions

How do I make a love song less cheesy?

Make the subject smaller. A song about one specific habit or object cannot reach for hearts and fire, because those images do not fit a small subject. The cliches disappear on their own.

What words should I avoid in a love song?

Hearts, fire, stars, forever, falling, angel, ocean. Write the list down before you start and treat it as unavailable, and you will find better lines within the hour.

Should a love song be specific or universal?

The verses specific, the chorus universal. The verse makes a listener believe it happened; the chorus lets them apply it to themselves. A song that is one or the other throughout rarely travels.