The key to writing a good song for Stephen Schwartz is thinking like an actor, he said Saturday after a performance of his latest musical, “Snapshots,” at the Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City.

“I tend to do method writing,” Schwartz said. “[I try] to find the part of me that is this character. I base all [the characters] on me — on parts of me. I can’t write from the outside.”

Schwartz, composer of the musicals “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked,” as well as the music for the films “Pocahontas,” “The Prince of Egypt” and “Enchanted,” is in Oklahoma to continue developing “Snapshots,” a new musical formed around songs from nearly a dozen of his past shows.

Along with director Richard Maltby Jr., who has directed and composed musicals such as “Baby” and “Miss Saigon,” Schwartz took questions from theater students and explained his writing process.

“I like to find the title [first],” Schwartz said. “It helps me limit the parameters of the song. Music has its own emotional logic and makes its own demands. In some strange way, you want to stay out of the way of the music.”

As for writing songs for films, it often requires more energy than the subtleties you can get away with in theater, he said.

“If you’re going to have a ballad in a movie, the character better be going over a waterfall,” Schwartz said jokingly, referring to a memorable scene from “Pocahontas.”

For Maltby, the performances of “Snapshots” at Lyric Theatre are helping to continue to develop the musical, he said.

“This is a rather deceptively simple show,” Maltby said. “The thing about a musical is you can’t really judge it until all the elements are there.”

The clarifying and defining process that “Snapshots” is undergoing now is the bulk of work in putting together a new musical, he said.

The show — which has undergone fairly extensive changes since its inception in 2005 — is almost through with that process, Schwartz said.

“I think we’re pretty close,” he said. “We’ve seen a few productions now and [have] been informed by each one. We’ve come to pretty clear conclusions.”

The plan is to take “Snapshots” to one more regional theater for development before premiering it in an established theater town where it can run for some time and eventually go on tour, Schwartz said.

Revisiting old songs that were story-specific and trying to incorporate them into one cogent storyline was challenging, Schwartz said.

“This is a very tricky form,” he said. “It’s hard for me to think of successful examples [of a show like this].”

Working on it felt just like working on a new piece though, as some songs were completely rewritten to fit the new story, Schwartz said. His only rule for himself was that the title had to stay the same.

For now, Schwartz plans on taking a break from composing for the time being, but has several projects in the works for the future. When he returns to writing and composing, his goal will likely be the same as it’s always been.

“My impulse is always to tell a story,” Schwartz said.