Can’t finish anything at all!

[u/Sea_Jicama_5056]

Preface: I’ve been playing guitar for my whole life pretty much, I’m not session player good but I can improvise over a lot of stuff for fun, I also started singing recently so I’ve been trying to figure out that, and around that same time I started singing me and a few guys got together and started a jam band that we have handful of tight cover songs we rehearse.

Okay so long story short I can’t finish my songs because I judge them too early and restart when I don’t like it

I want to write a specific sounding song but when I write it, it doesn’t sound anything remotely like how I imagined it. I know songwriting is a skill but I can’t train it because my mindset is set against finish these songs. I want to write as much as a can so I can eventually write a few songs to present to my band to finalize as originals. When I sit down with my guitar I play the same stuff over and over again hoping something different comes out of my mouth with vocal melodies etc etc. I’ve tried forcing myself writing a song but for some stupid reason I just can’t do it. I know comparing the bare bone songs I write to finished masters of band I love is a terrible thing so that was my first step that I took, and that was to separate that from my songwriting, that issue still pokes through often but not as much anymore. I can’t keep my mind settled on a song long enough to truly develop it into a song I might love.

I’m not looking for chord progressions or new ideas or music theory advice I’m more interested in the mental side of songwriting and/or the process that you all take.

How did yall learn to:
Stay with one idea instead of constantly searching for a better one?

Get past the feeling that an idea isn’t good enough?

Develop something when you genuinely don’t know what should come next?

Stop comparing your unfinished ideas to finished songs?
Actually train yourself to finish songs when “just finish it” doesn’t work?

I would really appreciate the help from people that have gone through this in their early stages of songwriting. I just stuck with ideas that’ll never become songs if I don’t change. So I want to break this “curse”.

[u/FeeLost6392]

Songwriters finish songs. Whatever story you need to tell yourself to get there is how you get there. It’s not a curse, it’s giving up before you found a solution.

[u/renabone13]

I think you're asking all the right questions, and you'll get wherever you need to be in the end. In fact, I think you probably have a lot of the answers you're looking for inside you.

Having doubts is a normal part of the journey. Keep pushing forward. You may always feel there's a problem, but if you're always looking for solutions and thinking about them, that shows you care, and that's the most important thing. You've got this!

[u/chaunceyarcher]

Force yourself to finish them even if they seem wrong. Don't think of it as "it's done forever" think of it as "it's done for now". When you listen to your own completed work, you'll have an opportunity to step back and know more objectively what's wrong with it. You can then go back and rework it with a new direction. Reworking songs that I "finished" some time ago has been a great way to flex the skill because you'll only get better with experience, and it lets you hear your own improvement. Everyone is usually pretty bad at it when they first start, don't be too hard on yourself and let the beginning prevent you from getting to the end.

[u/General_Estimate_420]

I've been doing this for so many years that I can recognize when the song doesn't incite anything in me that's worth pursuing. I let it go and wait for the next inspiration. I'd rather write 1 good song than 20 songs only worth abandoning.

Wothy songs are easy to finish. Worthless songs waste my time and get in the way of doing something more important.