The Cut-Up Technique

An article by Jack Lhasa as part of the Building Realities newsletter.

Hello dear readers!

Today we’re going to talk about an exercise in creativity that many incredibly famous and skilled musicians use, poets too.

It’s called the Cut-Up Technique or découpé in French. First, I’m going to explain it the way a textbook might. Then I’ll tell you my system, which I prefer and I think you will too.

Just below this divider is a system that I’d recommend more for inspiration, because I just don’t like “luck” being part of my process.

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Cut-Up Technique

It is a semi-chanced based literary technique(according to some) where you take a written text, cut it into individual words or phrases, and rearrange them to form entirely new, often surreal, combinations.

How It Works

1. Gather Source Material: You take a page of text, this could be lyrics or poetry you’re writing, the text of a journal or any of your own material. Certain people teach that using magazines and newspapers is okay, but it’s not to me.

2. Cut It Up: You literally cut the text into fragments (sometimes word by word, other times in short phrases).

3. Rearrange: You shake them up and lay them out randomly, rearranging them until a striking or unexpected line emerges.

Famous Practitioners

While the technique was originally popularized in the 1920s by Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara and later refined in the 1950s by writer William S. Burroughs, it became a massive tool for legendary songwriters:

• David Bowie: Perhaps the most famous musical adopter of the method, Bowie used it extensively in the 1970s (most notably on albums like Diamond Dogs) to break through writer's block and find brilliant, non-linear imagery.

• Thom Yorke (Radiohead): Yorke famously used the cut-up technique for the album Kid A, pulling chopped-up lines out of a hat to assemble lyrics for songs like "Everything in Its Right Place."

• Kurt Cobain (Nirvana): Cobain frequently wrote poetry and cut it up, rearranging the lines to create the abstract, emotionally raw lyrics found on In Utero.

The "Fold-In" Variation: A closely related sibling of this method is the fold-in technique, where you fold two different pages of linear text vertically down the middle and paste them together to read across the newly joined, hybrid page.* (source at the bottom).

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Jack’s technique

This is the short and simple version. I’ll post a step-by-step after it. By the way, the method above was mostly popular in literary circles. My version is better for music and poetry(IMHO).

Take a blank piece of paper and just write the things you want to say, or whatever comes to mind. Make each non-pronoun BIG. when you’re finished, rip out each large print word.

Now mix them up until they fit.

Ripping the words out is so that you can rearrange them to fit a beat. The idea behind leaving the pronouns and prepositions separate from the BIG words is simple: they simply aren’t useful in the moving around of BIG words. Pronouns and prepositions are stuff you can slide into the big words, so that the structure makes sense. The idea is to do that part last.

That’s why I recommend writing your pronouns and prepositions in small writing, while making the other words bigger. It removes a potential problem. That being that you’ve written it all the same, and end up tearing off pieces of words you want. There’s not some hidden meaning in doing things this way, it’s designed to be easy, and straightforward.

That was my natural language directions.

After this, I’ll address a few caveats in my technique.

Here’s my step-by-step:

Step 1: Decide what you want the song to be about. This can be strict, or loose.

Step 2: Start writing about that subject on paper. Use thought flow if you loose motivation. Just write out what you’d like the song to say, along with any symbolism, etc.

Step 2.5: try to write words that aren’t pronouns or prepositions in bigger text. That’s just a trick I use to make it easier to rip or cut.

Step 3: Rip or cut out the BIG words.

Step 4: Rearrange your words them until you find what you’re looking for. I recommend keeping your guitar in your lap for this part, so you can kinda build your chord progressions as you go.

Step 5: Type it, or write it on paper so people don’t think you’re loony! lol

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That’s it!

My directions are geared towards the lyricist, but work equally well for poets, or anyone that needs a creativity puzzle(like me. Always).

I say rip it. Cutting it feels too sterilized. Good lyrics and poetry are raw. I find my creativity is at its peak when I’m using my hands.

My version involves a few more steps because I include the original writing as part of the system. I’d never use magazines or anything like that for writing. It needs to be mine.

I recommend keeping your pronouns and prepositions in normal size, while your nouns, verbs, etc should be written with more boldness. This is purely pragmatic. Getting the words you want in the pile is easier if you can ID them on quick glance.

So, BIG words are everything except pronouns and prepositions. The idea here is that while you’re mixing the words around, you’ll probably say pronouns aloud. That’s before you finish though. I recommend arranging your BIG words into something you like, then adding in the pronouns and prepositions at the very end for linking material.

Along with the musicians listed earlier, Bob Dylan used this method, as did William S. Burroughs. Lots of people use it.

It’s also great if you’re having trouble getting inspired. As a young writer, I tried tons of things people said would make me more creative. Only a handful were worth keeping, and this is one.

I should thank @mattromagna for digging this out of me, lol. Seriously, I hope this helps, man.

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I’m Jack Lhasa

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First steps credited to:

Heal, B. J. (2023). Cut-Up Transmediality: From Text to Image. In The Intermediality of Contemporary Visual Arts. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111441