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Jack Black in School of Rock (2003 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.)

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The process of writing lyrics, perhaps more than any other discipline in music, is very personal to the writer. Everyone has a different approach, and what will work well for one lyricist will not necessarily work for another. Some people can write a whole song in five minutes, for some people it can take months.

However you write, though, and whatever your style, we've put together some pointers that we hope will prove useful. Some of them are rules of thumb; others are ideas to help you get out of any creative rut. The main thing to remember is that as with any other art form, there is no right or wrong way to do it. Experiment with the tips, tricks, dos and don'ts below, but remember that in this case, the rules can sometimes be broken. If you like the tips below, there's a lyric-writing blog post with a few more thoughts on the subject.

1. Practice. Like any other creative process such as playing guitar or programming synth sounds, lyric-writing is a skill that can be learnt and improved upon.

2. Don't be disheartened if your lyrics aren't perfect on the first draft. Many professional writers will rewrite a song's lyrics dozens of times before they make it onto record.

3. Persevere. More often than not, songs aren't born, they're created and sculpted. Don't expect a song to arrive fully formed; they sometimes take time and you'll need to work at it.

4. If you can't quite figure out how to say what you want within a particular line, jot down the gist of it and move on to another part of the song - you can come back to it later. That way, you won't spend hours wrestling with one small line that might turn out to be insignificant in the wider context of the song.

5. Try to have a clear idea of what the song is about. You should be able to sum up the essence of the song in one sentence.

6. Analyse other songs. Try to pick out the differences in lyrics between your favourite songs and your own, and apply any lyrical techniques you learn to your own work.

7. Make sure the song has a clear structure and progression. This is particularly important in narrative songs (songs that tell a story). A quick test is to read the finished song through from start to finish, asking yourself "does this make sense?"

8. Use context. Adding a back-story to explain the situation (for example) can add interest, and can change the entire meaning of any lyrics following it.

9. Use perspective. For example, a classic songwriting trick is to describe an event in the first verse, and add perspective by describing how it affected you or made you feel in the second verse. Another viewpoint can put an interesting spin on an otherwise straightforward point.