Is this better?

[Richard Watashi]

All that i ever wrote was either honest writting, or it just reflected something important, or it was a lot of times naive pretending, or a game on saying something i didnt understand. 

 

I mean i can put lyrics that i know are not shit at least for me, cause i can understand what i say - and i say what i mean and i mean it if its figured out. 

 

is it better to.. write more natural, or cover it in nice clothes, i mean to play with words just for it to looks better..   but i think when you write, its more important to think of the meaning. And to get to the center of the whatever. 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Richard Watashi

[MikeRobinson]

There have been threads before which "argued" this point, but I really do believe that a good songwriter needs to be a good fiction writer.  You can start with "yourself," or with a real situation that really happened to you, or ... something that is "absolutely made-up."  But you want to write in such a way that it connects with your audience.  Whatever you intend "your audience" to be.

 

To me, a good fiction writer is, foremost, a good storyteller.  In a song, you don't have hundreds of pages to make your point.  The lyrics of the world's great songs usually fit easily on one page.  And yet, you won't "get it just-right the first time."  Good writing is a lot harder than it looks.

Edited December 16, 2020 by MikeRobinson

[arty]

For me, the real story is sometimes not possible to write or meaningful for others. 

 

This real story though has an emotional backdrop and it is using this backdrop to make the fictional a relatable story to the audience. You can change all aspects of the real story, gender, time frames, fist person second person etc. 

 

I find this emotional backdrop can come from watching movies, the news etc. Each time that a scene or action evokes an emotional response, there is a good chance that this can make a lyric.

 

For instance the death of a sibling could be changed over to death of a pet, a lot more relatable to an audience in that is the more common experience of an audience. 

[MikeRobinson]

Oddly enough, Arty, when you "watch a movie," or these days even when you "watch the news," you are reacting in-part to the very deliberate actions of a [fiction ...] writer.

 

Also:  I firmly believe that you can write about anything – even the death of a sibling, child abuse.  Even: "selling your child into prostitution in order to save her."  ("Fancy" – as "knocked out of the park" by Reba McEntire.)  There are literally no limits to what "a simple song" can do or say.

Edited January 20, 2021 by MikeRobinson

[MikeRobinson]

Something else to think about ...

 

Every newspaper, and every criminal investigative unit, keeps a so-called "morgue file."

 

This is, quite literally, "where everything that we have ever produced 'goes to die,' precisely so that it doesn't."

 

On your hard-drive, create a "Not-Trash" folder.  Instead of actually "sending it to the digital nether-regions," shove it there instead.  (Then "fuhgeddaboudit," as you had planned.)  One day you will open that folder again . . . and therein you will find what you are looking for.

[GregB]

On 12/16/2020 at 12:08 PM, MikeRobinson said:

I really do believe that a good songwriter needs to be a good fiction writer.

 

Definitely!

 

I recently had an album reviewed and the guy said, in effect, "I'm sorry that Greg has had so many relationship problems and depressive episodes".

 

On one hand I thought "what an IDIOT"!  Does the guy believe that all authors of thrillers and murder mysteries are actually, in real life, psychopaths and killers???   On the other I thought "wow, my words/music must have sounded authentic".

 

For me, songwriting is about imagination.  Form an idea, spin a story, and finally hone/edit/crystallise the words to work well with the music.

 

Greg

 

 

[Glammerocity]

Having something to say which comes from truth is helpful if you want to connect to an audience. It doesn't always have to be that way, poppa ooma mow mow a poppa ooh mow mow, but it can help. As Bruce Springsteen once wrote, "It's how the audience knows you're not kidding."

 

My songwriting partner and I have a guitarist friend who tried to write but wasn't making it. Firstly, he was trying to show off his guitar abilities rather than writing for the song. Secondly, he'd had a string of one night stands and short-term dalliances but had never been in love, so had never felt that pain of loss we mined for gems, as we walked the streets in solitary misery, wondering where it all went wrong. And love songs are still the biggest sellers. Dylan's Blood on the Tracks is still his most popular album.

 

Playing with words isn't just to make it look better; literary devices have endured because they work. Knowing them is helpful. Referring to the senses, adding alliteration, or metaphor are all guided missiles designed to rocket into a listener's mind. (See what I did there?) The Beatles deliberately used pronouns in their early material - I want to hold your hand, please please me, love me do, tell me why, she loves you, etc.

 

So play away, p-l-a-y play awayawayplay play away. (Older viewers may remember that one.)

Edited April 11, 2022 by Glammerocity