Music and Lyrics

Hey guys. Quick update. I'm not dead or in an emotional coma yet. Which is good. (My roommate and I may or may not have gone through almost two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but that's a different thing. Maybe). Anyway. School has officially started, and we've made it through the killer first two weeks of a move. And I think it's going much better than expected. I'll be honest, I've felt too weird and frazzled and delicate and nervous and excited and confused and more weird lately to be in the right place for normal blogging/social media life. I've barely made progress on editing, and that's really sad, although I'm pretty darn close to submission ready for novel two. Which I guess I haven't told you guys the title of yet, have I? Point is, I'm still here, and hopefully a rhythm will get in place very soon and we'll be off to the races faster and better than ever.

Blech. Boring update over. For today, here's a cool thing to try.

Take a song. One with lyrics you could submit as poetry, and a beautiful melody. Play it and close your eyes and find the character who is telling you these things, the person in this story. But the thing is, pay attention to what is being said over and above the actual words. What is the emotion, the music, telling you?

Here's the song I used in my class.

One student said she thought of a mother and daughter after an argument. Genius, right? And totally separate from the actual lyrics. Its the story she heard in the music.

Now try it with a song with no words.

I think the best writing is like this Rachmoninoff piece. What it says most powerfully, it says without words. What songs would you try with this?

Keep on!

Sarah Allen