JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Ande's Lyric Writing Tips

tony on songramp
http://www.songramp.com/homepage.php?userid=13425
posted this

instead of sharing your lyric ideas,
SET THE DAMN LYRIC ASIDE
and talk to each other and come to an agreement on
WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
in each part of the song...
keep it simple...
you have to decide:

First: what is the general storyline?...
just sum up the what you want to happen in the song from beginning to end -
NO LYRICS PLEASE...
here is where you should decide where you let the listener in on the twist, if there is one...

verse
decide what you want to say here to set things up? ...
don't share the lyric, just decide what part of the story you want to tell here...you might talk about how you lead into the chorus (no lyric!)

chorus:
what is the central idea you want to drive home here - you might discuss possible working hooks at this time

verse 2:
how do you use this verse to move the song through time and/or to share some completely different angle on what started in the first verse...whenever possible you want to use the last line of this verse or a lift to give a new reason to repeat the chorus - it's cool when it's a little different type of lead in than you used at the end of the first verse...you can discuss that in general terms...

chorus
whenever possible, you want the second singing of the chorus to provide a little more insight into the central idea - you do this by the way you choose to lead into it - you can talk about that here...

bridge:
how can you use this to say something that hasn't been said elsewhere in the song - often this is the place to put the twist and really send the listener off into the last chorus with an "aha!" - and a complete understanding of the song...

all of this discussion can take place without sharing ideas for a single line in the lyric - one of the problems you've been having is that in your posts, many of you are sharing valid ideas for the song WITH maybe a so-so lyric idea to accomplish it (or vice versa) and that's where you lose each other i think these should be kept separate - especially when trying to coordinate so many people's opinions on one write...

my advice at this point: i would get together even now and agree on these issues - then go back to all the stuff you've accumulated lyrically, and see what accomplishes what you want it to...don't force it!...write new stuff if it doesn't fit with your vision for the story in each part of the song...

hope this helps...
tony