Who is the song for?

If a song doesn't seem to want to be what you are forcing upon it, perhaps it
would be happier coming from another angle.

Statements - Life sucks, love can be painful, sunshine is nice etc

Personal feelings from the writer to another - I really love you, I promise you
this, One day you'll know etc

Personal feelings from someone else apart from the writer either real or imaginary to another - I really love you, I promise you this, One day you'll know etc

Things you tell yourself - I'll be ok, things will get better, I can get through this etc

Listen to some songs you really like and have a think about who is telling who, what? Are they telling you, the listener? Or are you hearing the words of someone talking to themselves? Are you overhearing someone else's conversation, or listening to someone preaching to anyone who will listen?

All songs have this dynamic, they are coming and going, the listeners perspective changes depending on how the song was written. Many times songs are written with a twist or 'dual reality' - for example you think that the song is about 'lusting after a woman' and the last verse of the song makes you realize that the song is about a mans love for heroin. Sometimes dual reality songs let you make your own mind up as they are written in an open enough way to allude to several meanings or outcomes, and can mean many things to different people.

I was recently writing a song about missing someone who you knew would never come back. As I was writing it I realized that it was much more powerful if it was actually coming from the person you were missing, from THEIR take on it... this change of perspective helped me write a stronger chorus than I had imagined and let me keep the song slightly more ambiguous.

If you're stuck, try altering your mental relationship with the song - is this song something you'd find in the attic of a manic depressive, or a letter you may have found in a drawer written from your mother to your father? Perhaps the letter was never read - perhaps it was sent by email by accident to the wrong person....etc Try and look at your song in progress as if it were something entirely different to that which you had in mind. Create a broader story for the song itself. It may help.