The Seriousness of Comedy

Comedy is an important part of storytelling, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Beyond pure comedies, careful insertion of humour can be good for many other stories.

"But Sketchley," I hear you hypothetically say, "My story is far too serious and deep to include anything that might make someone laugh!"

Fair enough! Comedy is not for every story. I couldn't see books like 1984 or Lord of the Flies being improved by humour, but still, there are interesting and useful applications which should at least be considered.

The main appeal of comedy in otherwise serious situations is that of 'comic relief,' the concept that too much emotionally heavy material will weigh down on the audience, and that comedic breaks can help combat this. As well, a bit of comedy can help make writing more believable. After all, comedy occurs in real life. People make jokes. Funny things happen. That being said, one should always be careful not to overdo comedy, insert it into inappropriate situations, or make it obnoxious.

In her article, Kay Reynolds suggests three main forms of comedic relief: situations, dialogue, and recurring jokes. While all three are viable options, the main form I personally think requires the most focus is dialogue, as it presents many choices in method.

There are a few ways to go about comedy through dialogue. You can give the bulk of the cast a sense of humour (as seen in Firefly or Homestuck), have a smaller group of characters prone to joking around who still fill vital roles in the plot (as seen in Game of Thrones or The Avengers), or include one or two characters whose primary role in the story is that of comic relief. While comic relief characters are often despised in principle, and for good reason, when done properly, they can actually serve to further serious narratives.

Please don't think this is what I'm advocating

An excellent example of an effective comic relief character in such a manner is Cabaret's Emcee for a highly specific reason: what happens when he stops being funny. The Emcee is the flamboyant, gaudy host of the titular cabaret in Weimar Germany, whose dialogue is rife with innuendo and flirtation towards anyone he sees (including the audience). At the beginning of the play, he is a cheery, colourful character, but as the story gets progressively darker, so does he. With the subtle rise of the Nazis, the Emcee follows the story's more serious, depressing turn. In his single appearance outside of the cabaret, he reveals how devoid of hope he has become, and his final appearance, in harsh parallel to his first, is as bitter and defeated as the rest of the cast. This transition, the most powerful moment of the play, drives home the message of the play's bleak ending. While one might argue that this makes the Emcee ineffective as comic relief in the second act, I would say instead that he has gone beyond his basic role, using his previous comedy and present tragedy to strengthen the play as a whole.

Author Websites

As the Information Age spews more technology into everyday life, websites become more of a necessity than a want for authors to promote themselves and their work. Many big name authors have their websites developed and managed by their publishers or other companies. Unfortunately, most author don't gets those services. If you're one of the latter and slightly neo-Luddite/technologically challenged like me, making an author website like Jonathan Stroud's, Kim Harrison's or Stephen King's seems daunting.

Luckily, author websites are easy to do and have standard elements. Many companies offer services where you can create your own website with little hassle like Weebly, Wix, Webs or Yola. Often, if you pay some fees, you can get more/better services; if you can't afford to pay, their free services are sufficient to make a professional looking site, and not something that looks like this: the worst author website I've ever seen. The only drawback of using free services is that the companies will usually place a small advertisement on your site, but it's unobtrusive and typically at the bottom of your site's pages.

Buying your site's domain name, though, is an expense that should be taken. Domain names can be purchased for a set amount of time from the company you use to create your site (usually for one, three, five or ten years), and these purchases can be renewed once expired. If you choose not to buy it, your domain name is made an extension of the hosting company's website, for example: johndoe.weebly.com if you use Weebly. This can become confusing if another author, organisation, etc. publishes a site with your domain name that is not subsumed under another company's site, for example: just johndoe.com (someone else's) instead of johndoe.weebly.com (yours). Readers and prospective readers may be led to a site for a freelance plumber instead of yours. If you buy your domain name, no one can use it for the set amount of time that you own it, getting rid of this problem.

However you choose to arrange your site, it should include the following things/pages:

Author Biography

This can be the same one printed on or in your book(s), but can be more informal, incorporating more personal information that may have nothing/little to do with what you write. This could include things like clubs, sports or other organisations in which you are a member, your pets, interests in gardening, etc. Just don't get too personal, use foul language, tell your whole life story or include things that are very unprofessional like where all your birth marks are.

Author Photograph

While this is not an absolute necessity, it is a fact that books which include author photos sell more copies. Why? Because reader like to be able to put a human face to the writer. For the same reason, including an author photo on your website is a good idea.

 If you've published traditionally with a publishing house:



Example of a good author photo.
(Janice Y.K. Lee, author of The Piano Teacher)



You may have gotten the chance to have a professional photo taken for the back cover or inside paratext of your book at your own or the publisher's expense; if so, use that one. If the photo was contracted and paid for by the publisher, you may have to ask permission to use it, but it's unlikely that a publisher would not allow it's use on an author website.



If you've not had this chance or you've self-published:

Having photos professionally taken is a good expense and can be relatively cheap if the photographer will sell you a digital copy. Then, you can upload it the the site with no problems. If not, purchasing one small photo print also does not cost very much and you can then scan it and upload the image to your site.

If you really can't afford to have photos professionally done:

Doing them yourself is an option, but you have to be careful. Bad author photos will hinder your reputation and your book sales; this damage can be permanent depending on how bad the photo is, how many people have seen it, and who has seen it. Keep the following in mind if you choose to take you own author photo or get a friend to do it:



This would make a bad author photo.



1. Make sure you wear appropriate, non-offensive clothing that is clean. Even if you write erotica, it's not a good idea to wear sexually explicit clothing. You're trying to promote your work, not apply for a job at Playboy. Likewise, clothing with offensive language or anti-whatever messages are also a bad idea.



 2. Be aware of the background. Don't photograph yourself in incongruous places, for example: if you write law textbooks, don't have a Teletubbies poster on the wall in the background. Bad locations can really hurt your credibility as a writer.

3. Don't emulate poses from fashion magazines. Unless you are also a model, these poses will make you look ridiculous and add nothing to your authorial identity.

See?

4. Make sure that it's not blurry, and that you don't have closed or red eyes (even if you write horror novels, this last one does not make you look scary or cool; it just looks bad).

5. Be the only person in the photo. Otherwise, how is the reader supposed to know who you are?

If you're leery about putting your photo on the internet:

There are many reasons authors don't want their images available on the web. Maybe because buddy and her/his dog can do anything with it, including stalk them? Or because they publish under multiple names and don't want anyone to know that each name refers to the same author? You can have photos done that cover your face and still look professional. Kim Harrison did this for many years to keep her work under her other name, Dawn Cook, separate from her adult and young adult urban fantasy novels.



Kim Harrison author photo that
appeared on the backs of
The Good, the Bad and the Undead,
For a Few Demons More and
The Outlaw Demon Wails.





Kim Harrison author photo, which
appeared on the back of
A Fistful of Charms.



Bibliography

Having a list of all your published works makes it easy for new readers who like one of your books to find others by you. It also allows long-term readers to see when new books are published. Besides the titles of your books, you should also include their cover images (all of them if there is more than one cover for a given book), the publisher information, date of publication (or projected date if a book isn't available yet), and short synopses (which can be taken from the back covers), and price(s) from different sales channels. Sophie Kelly (aka Darlene Ryan) has a good bibliography on her site.

Events and Announcements



Book signing with Jonathan Stroud.
(St. Louis County Library)

 Any public or virtual events in or at which you will be appearing, including book signings, book launches, readings, awards ceremonies, school visits, interviews, etc. should be listed in this section. Major announcements like award short-listings and achievements, book publications, etc. should also be included. If you have no or few events or announcements, adding community literary events or news about co-authors of your books (or illustrators) can also be added to this section.

Blog

Sometimes author blogs and announcements are incorporated, so that events have their own section. Blogs should be narrowed to professional or literary subjects, but can include personal postings as well. These should not be too personal, for example: while it's okay to mention that you spent Christmas with your parents, reporting a fight with your mother over said holiday is too much. Even if little is going on with your literary or personal life, adding something to an author blog at least once a week shows your readers that you are interested in staying connected with them and in your writing career.

Author Contact Information

This could just include an e-mail address or a way to send physical mail to you through publishing houses or agents.

Breaking the Rut, aka Hey, Look, Resources!

The scenario is all too familiar. You're a couple thousand words into a writing project – or a few paragraphs into a term paper, maybe – and suddenly, you run out of steam. Or, even more difficult, you're sitting at your computer, staring at a blinking cursor on a pristine white screen that fairly screams I AM NOT BEING PRODUCTIVE! Maybe you've thought too far ahead and you've scared yourself out of your writing groove, so to speak, or maybe the concept of actually having to do the work behind the writing is preemptively dragging you down. Maybe you just genuinely have no idea where to begin. The fact of the matter is that you are stuck, stressed, and may or may not be facing a time limit at present.

S'okay, dude, we're gonna save you from your Twitter feed.

Fear not. You are living in an age of technology, my friend. Where there's a will, there's a way, and if people can use the likes of Twitter to inform the people of the internet that they have just made a sandwich, then there's sure as hell got to be a few programs out there that will get all draconian on your procrastinating self. My personal favorite (I use the term lightly) is Cold Turkey. Fairly straightforward – you blacklist whatever sites you want and enter up to a week's worth of block time, and presto. No more Facebook time you until you get your paper done. (Or NaNoWriMo novel, or fanfiction, or... insert other neglected project here.)

But wait, there's more!

[INSERT OVERENTHUSIASTIC SHRIEKING HERE]

There's also a ton of awesome story generators online. These range from random prompts (try Creative Writing Prompts or Ink Provoking) to actual assignment generators like Language Is A Virus and Archetype Writing. Archetype's is particularly handy – it sort of troubleshoots common problems you might encounter while writing via different generators.

Need a pep talk more than a starting point? No problem. This is the internet. People never shut up. There are pep talks galore! Granted, not all of them are good ones, but you can pick up some handy tips from Scott Young, The Renegade Writer, and Timothy Hallinan. (Just remember that pep talks and reading up are great, but you should probably avoid letting Pep Talk Time segue back into Tumblr Time. I know – that place is like Hotel California. How do you think I wound up downloading Cold Turkey?)

Just pretend this is all you'll see if you try to "just quickly" check your dashboard.

With any luck (and maybe a little of trial and error), you'll make it over the hurdle you currently find yourself facing. You'll finish the chapter you meant to write last week, or you'll get through the rest of your term paper, or you'll finally find the muse that sets your pen in motion. Maybe – hopefully – something from the above list might even give you a new way to approach your writing from now on!

And unless you're one of the poor suckers who overestimated their Cold Turkey time limit, then you can go brag about your latest writing accomplishment online.

Or you can tell the Twitter People about your sandwich! (Image by Allie Brosh at Hyperbole and a Half.)

Cabin Fever - A Writing Process

 Don't you just hate staring at an empty page? It's like all the blank space is taunting you, and telling you that you don't know what you're doing. Everyone has a different way of getting out of that 'writers block' head-space, and they are all worth a try if you are constantly finding yourself with your fingers poised half a centimeter from the keys, yet nary a twitch or inkling of what to write about.

Look around where you usually write. Is it your desk? Or maybe it's your bed, your couch, or your kitchen table. Now I want you to pack up your laptop or your pad and pen and leave. I don't want you to go to your usual coffee shop or park. I want you to go somewhere new, somewhere uncomfortable. I want you to nestle yourself safely in an alleyway, squeeze yourself under your friends desk, or go to a new restaurant with food that you can't pronounce. What we need is a change of scenery, and along with it often comes a change in perspective. Spending too much time in the same space can drive you up the wall, ever heard of Cabin Fever?

Okay, are we all uncomfortable and ready to get the pen to the paper? If you are a prose writer it is often best to start with a character. A writer should know their character inside and out, almost like another personality living inside of you. Start with the basics. What is their gender (if they have one)? Their name? What do they look like? Write down at least five adjectives that express their personality. Now let that character loose. Let them drive the story. We don't want hollow vessels that carry out our plot we want believable people getting through their lives. Just write, don't stop. Let the character find the trouble, let the climax come naturally. Don't force your character into something they wouldn't do just because you think it would be a cool part in the story. If your characters and what they are doing aren't believable then your entire narrative falls apart.

If you are a poet just let your mind run rampant. Lay down a stream of conciousness and see where it takes you. Poetry doesn't have to be structured as you write it. The structure will come through when you edit later.

My final piece of advice to you is to avoid your editorial instincts, suppress the editor within. If you begin to edit your work as you write it you will get discouraged and end up with it unfini-

The Map to Fictional Worlds

Writing about fictional worlds can be time consuming and full of behind the scenes work.  It can also be frustrating when the "insignificant details" don't work out the way they're supposed to.  The truth of it is, though, every detail is crucial when you are writing about a world that doesn't actually exist.

As this wonderful article from Writing-World.com will tell you, the first thing that you need to do is define your world: what it looks like, the time period, the kinds of people that live there, local animals, etc.  You may be sitting there thinking "Why do I have to include animals?  No one cares about that!" But, if your character is being stalked by a dark shadow in the bushes is it going to be a rabbit?  A bear?  Maybe even a tiger squirel!?

Cute, but vicious!

The stalker makes a difference whether or not your character makes it back alive, so it plays a role.

The second most important part about writing within a fictional world is to keep in consistent.  If the people's moods fluctuate that's fine, but if the world is attacked by a monster and three hours later everyone's dead except your protagonist- that's not so good.  It's a huge jump to make, and you may lose a few readers.

Personally, I find the hardest part of creating a fictional world is making sure your characters stay constant.  By that I mean your protagonist is from our world and lives in our society.   When s/he goes into the new world that's set in an alternate universe where cavemen and dinosaurs exist, their lifestyles are going to be different.  Once your characters from each world meet each other, sometimes those important differences blur together too quickly for the reader to believe it's character development, and it's confusing from that point on.

In my opinion, fantasy writing is harder than realistic fiction because you have to consider creating a world that is unique, but not so different that it alienates the reader.  The goal to a believable world is to have a handful of noticeable differences, but bring enough of our world into it so that readers find familiarity and safety.

A movie that does this well is Gabor Csupo's "Bridge to Terabithia" based off the book of the same name by Katherine Paterson.  It's about two ten-year-old neighbours who create a fictional world and vanquish monsters that resemble their school bullies.  The most impressive part about this movie is the believability of Terabithia.  See for yourself!

We've all day-dreamed about overcoming our fears and ruling over those that push us down, and this movie allows us to see ourselves in the characters.  Fantasy writing is frustrating and hard on the imagination, but if it's done right, the results are well worth the struggles. 

Choose Your Own Adventure: Canadian Writing Groups

Please watch this first!

 

Let's Begin.
FIRST QUESTION: Poetry, Prose, Script, Journalism, or Translating?

Poetry:  Please Skip down to section One and continue.

Prose: Please skip down to section Two and continue.

Script: Please skip down to section Three and continue.

Journalism: Please skip down to section Four and continue.

Translating: Please skip down to section Five and continue.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

SECTION ONE: Poetry
Hello poets.  From here you're at your ending.  That's right, no more questions.  Poets have their own groups usually, it's sort of hard to divide up from there.

For you I would encourage you to check out the 'League of Canadian Poets' here: http://poets.ca/wordpress/

They are a group focused on getting poets equal opportunities in the literary world.  They are all for the poets.
Please head on down to Section 6.

 

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SECTION TWO: Prose
Well, hello, writers.  You've got a couple of options moving on from here so let's get to the next question:

Do you write about science?  If the answer is yes, please jump down to Section 2.A.

Not science? Do you write children stories?  If so please, move on to Section 2.B.

Still nothing? Do you write crime stories?  Section 2.C is for you then.

Are you published? Section 2.D please and thank you.

If you answer no to these questions, have no fear  ̶  there's still a place for you.  Some associations just have a broader spectrum which includes all forms of writing.  Those are likely for you.  Please head on down to Section 6.

 

 

SECTION 2.A: Science Writers
That's right!  There is a Canadian group for writers focusing on science called the 'Canadian Science Writers' Associtation'.  Go on and check it out here: http://www.sciencewriters.ca/

They are out to increase public attention to science in Canadian culture and you can help! Please head on down to Section 6.

 

 

SECTION 2.B: Children's Literature
Yes, children's authors have a place in the Canadian association sea too.  In fact it's right here, the' Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators, and Performers': http://www.canscaip.org/

People who illustrate children's books and performers are also welcome here.  It's all about bringing attention to the section of Canadian culture focused around children.
Please head on down to Section 6.

 

 

SECTION 2.C: Crime Writers
Are you surprised you have your own group?  Well don't be, it's right around the corner, the 'Crime Writers of Canada': http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/

They are out to raise the profile of Canadian crime writers through everything from libraries to the media.
Please head on down to Section 6.

 

 

SECTION 2.D: Published Writers
So you're doing awesome so far and have already published.  Good for you.  You've now got a group to help encourage you to keep going and help you work through the tough places! 'Writer's Union of Canada':  http://www.writersunion.ca/

Keep going and don't give up!
Please head on down to Section 6.

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SECTION THREE: Script
Hello, playwrights.  You have gone as far as you can go.  It's difficult to divide script up anymore so you're done with silly questions.

 

Your group, or should I say guild, is here: the 'Playwrights Guild of Canada:  http://www.playwrightsguild.ca/

 

This group is here to advance your rights and interests not only on a national level but an international one, too.
Please head on down to Section 6.

SECTION FOUR: Journalism
You've reached the end of the journey, no more questions, just an association.

 

Journalism is a great profession and it's even better knowing that you've got others on your side.  Am I right?  Well, look no further than here:  the 'Canadian Association of Journalism: http://www.caj.ca/

 

This group acts like your voice in hard times when the media gets challenged.  You're not in it alone!
Please head on down to Section 6.

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SECTION FIVE: Translating
All questions are done for you.  You get your answer here and now.  Whoot!

You've got a group:   the 'Literary Translators' Association of Canada';  http://www.attlc-ltac.org/node

They're out to promote the art of literary translations.  Nice to have some help right?
Please head on down to Section 6.

 

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SECTION SIX
You're near the end. 

 

You might have noticed that I wasn't lying when I said there were a lot of Canadian groups and associations for writers.  Above are the more specific ones depending on the genre and style you write in, but there are some general groups.  I would suggest you check them out as well.

 

There's the 'Writer's Guild of Canada': http://www.writersguildofcanada.com/
They help with international rights for Canadian writers.

 

There's the 'CWILA' (Canadian Women in the Literary Arts): http://www.cwila.com/
They're working on equal rights for all in the Canadian Literary field.

 

AND THERE'S EVEN MORE:

French Writers: http://www.alcq-acql.ca/
Italian Canadian Writers: http://www.aicw.ca/
and
Christian Writers: http://www.inscribe.org/  and   http://www.thewordguild.com/

 

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So, believe me when I say there is a place for everyone.

Hope this helped you at least narrow it all down.

 

 



 

Hope that helps you all!

Writers in Work-boots

I used to read fun articles on how a writer should live, or what daily schedule inspires the most creativity. These articles usually feature a successful dead author who has figured out the perfect lifestyle for authors in the twenty-first century. After finding out what Steinbeck and Fitzgerald had to say about avoiding 3am pizza, I found this article:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/22/henry-miller-on-writing/

This is a very typical article, showing exactly how Henry Miller would have you live, while you're working on your next best-seller. Of course, Miller provides a daily writer's schedule. If you're too busy (or lazy) to check out the link, I'll sum it up:

1. Mornings: write.
2. Afternoons: write some more.
3. Evenings: meet with friends, read leisurely, drink coffee, walk in the rain, paint.

It is important to note that this is not a weekend schedule. No, this is apparently how writers are supposed to live, but Miller's forgetting something, something pretty integral to a writer's life... general survival.

“Oh really? I thought I put on weight...”

Writers – like most human beings – need food, clean water, shelter, and clothes. Usually the best way to get these things is to have some source of income — something Miller forgot in his list.

So, to solve the survival problem, a good bunch of writers try to get a writer-ish day job, like a bookstore clerk, or coffee-shop barista, or any other place where writers enjoy spending free time. The general idea is “If I surround myself with paper and caffeine, I will be constantly inspired and fueled to write the most awesome epic ever!!” However, the reality is a lot different, since any amount of inspiration gained from books and tea will be immediately destroyed by the stresses of working customer service. You will waste hours trying to find the right edition of The Golden Bough for that snooty Eliot scholar who'll end up looking elsewhere anyway. You'll craft the most beautiful Caramel Macchiato, then be forced to pour it down the sink because your customer forgot to say “I don't like Nutmeg.” At 5 o'clock, you'll get home, exhausted. By the time food is in your stomach and the kitchen is cleaned up, it'll be 7 o'clock. Then you go to the gym, or yoga, or whatever you do for physical health. Afterward, it's late and you're way to tired to write or think or do anything that requires the least bit of brain power, so you watch an easy T.V. Show until you fall asleep. Wake up, rinse, repeat, except this time, murder somebody. Not a productive daily schedule for the aspiring writer.

“Got it! No nutmeg. Could I interest you in some poison?”

Okay. So, what if you try to pull a Hunter S. Thompson, and just be a journalist? That way you get to do what you love, then go home and do it some more. While such jobs can be great instruction on deadlines and writing within creative restrictions, journalism is very time consuming, so if you're looking to publish something creative, you won't have a lot of spare time to work on it.

The ideal jobs have nothing to do with writing. Jobs like security guards, hotel desk clerks, and tollbooth operators have anywhere between 10 and 90 percent free time. During this time, you can hone your writing skills by doing online exercises, you can figure out the math for that complicated plot you're assembling, or you can do anything at all that'll help the progress of your writing. And you get paid while you're doing it. Before you know it, you're quitting your day job, living off of the royalties from your bestseller, while you work on your next big hit.

If these jobs are not available (writers aren't the only people who wish to get away with murder), then a simple labour job is also a great way to earn a living without killing your writing career. Get a spot with a landscaping company, or planting trees, or holding a stop/slow sign for a civil engineering project. These jobs usually pay better than minimum wage and require little head-work, so you can think about whatever you want while you're working. The gym is no longer very necessary, because you get great exercise on-the-job. You also spend lots of time outside, which is scientifically proven to grant you the most creative inspiration.

"There is an 83% chance these plants give off more creative juices than indoorsy things."

After work, you get home, eat, then take a shower. Refreshed, you can write down everything you thought of during your shift, then get some work done on your novel. The labour job makes the writing process a bit slower than a hotel desk clerk position would, but unlike coffee-shop baristas, you're not ending the workday wanting to hurt something.

Research. DO IT.

                Writing is a great pass time, we can all agree. We can let our imaginations flow and even make up new words. Our worlds know no bounds... In our minds. If you’re going to write to get published, or even for other people to read, you want to make sure you’re not saying something that you don't mean. This is where research comes in.

                Research can be as simple as looking up a word in the dictionary to find the spelling or definition of it. Want to include some weird animal? Describe it onto the mighty power that is Google, and see what comes up. That weird animal you were cooking up in your mind may actually exist!

                Next up is your plot. It’s 2 AM and you've just figured out how you’re going to twist your plot to keep readers hooked. You write it without a single hitch and it goes along perfectly. Sounds ideal right? Well, tough news. If it was that easy, someone has likely already done it. In fact, it’s highly likely that, even if it wasn't done before, it’s not nearly as good as you thought it was. Always make sure that you’re not copying from other people’s ideas. If you draw motivation from multiple sources, that’s fine and dandy, but you need to be careful that you don’t turn your work of art into a compilation of other people’s work.

                Research doesn't just mean to look up definitions and make sure you’re not copying though. Something I hear very few people ever mention is researching your own work. If something worked for one of your other pieces, you may be tempted to do it again. Don’t do this if you can help it though. A twist or grip only works so long, and people who enjoy your work will easily spot laziness. Proofreading your own work could even be considered research too. Hunt for contradictions in your work, and gut them before they ever make it to the editor. It saves you embarrassment, and your editor trouble.

                I can tell you with confidence that I've only touched on some of the things an author should research before writing. Senses such as smell and sight are important to understand, the emotion behind a scene is also important to understand. There is a ton of material to understand before one can really understand their own writing. Make sure you know what you’re doing, before you publish. 

We Can Change the World

They say that the pen is mightier than the sword. When it comes to a physical battle I’m sure that most of us would prefer a sword to face our foes with, but on a larger scale - say, forging or fighting a reputation - words have proven to be one of the most efficient weapons a person can wield. Sometimes weapons are used to maintain a state, but more often than not they are used to aid change.

Turn on the news or open a newspaper and you have proof that writing can change the world, and that it does so every day. Think back to a time you were actually enraged about something on a larger scale than just your hometown or university. The event took place and you heard of it through newspapers, broadcasts, and your friends’ posts on Facebook. The news of this event spread rapidly and, almost out of no where, everyone is charged with energy from what they’ve been hearing.

Hearing.

You did not see it for yourself. You heard about it. People wrote things down and sent it to friends, posted it in blogs such as these, and slowly but surely everyone knew what happened and nobody likes it.

That’s when the change begins.

When word gets out about a scandal, the person involved is shamed. When a company’s evil deeds are discovered, it is boycotted. When a tragic event happens, the people involved gather together and demand change.

All of this is possible through the power of writing. 

An Unorthodox Songwriter's Handbook

            Though I have only become serious about music in the last few years, I have always been exposed to it. Songwriting is something that find incredibly strange, but even stranger, it comes rather naturally to me. Stranger still, I work best at night when I'm exhausted and usually, I can sit down and write a song in thirty minutes. (I once wrote lyrics for a song that I was due to perform the next day).

Jack White at this year's Grammy's

            I have a lot of musical idols and influences (Jim Morrison, Dave Grohl, David Gilmour, Joshua Homme, Robert Plant and the incomparable Jack White), but none of these idols really “influence” the way I write songs. They more just influence me to MAKE music.

            Each song that I write, I treat a little bit differently. With some, I simply write what comes to mind and others I create a specific format that I try to fill with the best lyrics I can come up with.

           For example, for a blues song that I wrote once, I decided on the title of the song and I wanted to fit that line in every verse. So, I made it so that line would be the first line in the first verse, the second line in the second verse, third in the third and fourth in the fourth. It made coming up with the lines to surround that one line rather difficult.

          It’s easy writing whatever comes to you; boxing yourself into a specific format is much more difficult. It’s something I like to subject myself to just for the challenge. Plus, writing whatever just comes to you can be pretty cheesy sometimes. Emotions. Who needs ‘em, right?

            A lot of artists these days write songs in a very predictable pattern: intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-outro. I prefer to stay away from that, though I do use variations of that simple format from time to time. However, I prefer to write my choruses differently. That is, the same ‘chorus melody’, but with different words. I am not a fan of repetition, unless where it is required, useful, or makes the song a little more interesting.

            One thing that I do is keep a notebook of really nice, poetic, great lines I hear people say around me and use them in songs. Or, I come up with certain themes from those lines. However, sometimes I come up with a theme on my own. Most of the time I just start with one line and see where it takes me. Keeping a notebook is helpful for any kind of writing because you never know when you will have a good idea, or you’ll never know where that good idea may fit in perfectly with a piece of work you are writing. I keep a notebook for other things (dialogue ideas, hilarious occurrences, etc) as well, not just lyrical content.

           The song I’m going to use as an example is entitled “Shoulders”, which I wrote last semester. I started by sitting for a while and then somehow coming up with this single line:

A sparrow calls

           which brought with it:

Rustling of wings

And a feather falls.

           And, so began “Shoulders” (though it didn’t have a title, yet). From there, I decided to go with the bird theme and came up with the next two stanzas:

A response from the crow

It wants to fly

But doesn’t know where to go.

The raven replies

Into the night

Toward the graveyard it flies.

            At this point I had established a working melody in my head and 3-line-3-stanza became the format I would write all the verses.

            Just because I’m an unorthodox songwriter and like to work oddly, I then jumped to the last verse, which I started with the first line and went from there. I then wrote, I believe, the first chorus, which created the format for all of the other choruses. I then wrote the last chorus, where the name of the song was found. Then, having finished the bookends of the song, I wrote the middle section. This is the final product:

Shoulders

Lyrics: N. Thomas Hanson

The sparrow calls

Rustling of wings

And a feather falls.

A response from the crow

It wants to fly

But doesn’t know where to go.

The raven replies

Into the night

Toward the graveyard it flies.

And deep beneath the

Grass, soil and dirt.

Trapped underneath all

The sorrow and hurt.

Lying below the

Cold, lifeless stone

The bones rest uneasy.

The bones rest uneasy.

The spider crawls

Across its web

To wrap its prey in a ball.

The hyena laughs

Dressed in a suit

About to show next quarter’s graphs.

And the monkey screams,

“I could’ve sworn

All of this was a dream!”

And the crowd scatters

After the opening shot.

Fear and adrenaline

Replace rational thought

And through oppression

Their minds are crushed

By the weight of the world.

By the weight of the world.

A baby cries

Newborn life

To find out that it dies.

And its dad ain’t home

Talking less frequently

Over the phone.

Its mom don’t care

She don’t believe

The cards dealt to her were fair.

And so it’ll just lie there

And bawl and weep.

Staring up at

All the spinning sheep.

While the mother sits in the kitchen

With her head in her hands.

And her shoulders ache now.

And her shoulders ache now.

And deep beneath the

Grass, soil and dirt.

Trapped underneath all

The sorrow and hurt.

Lying below the

Cold, lifeless stone.

The bones rest uneasy.

The bones rest uneasy.

            I then took the lyrics to my friend Cameron (the main musical-brains in our outfit) and he showed me a guitar-riff he had come up with. Amazingly, the two fit together perfectly and we put the song together in one day. So, here is the final-final product (though it is just a demo, so I guess it isn't FINAL):

             Side-note: you can download Shoulders fo' free from Bandcamp. Or, if you want to give us some of your money for it, that's cool with us, too. If you like it, you should totally share it with all of your friends. Because sharing is, in fact, caring.

            So, songwriting is an interesting discipline, that's for sure. I see it as poetry, and that's how I look at my songs. Some poems rhyme, some don't; some of my songs rhyme, some don't. Poems use imagery; my songs use imagery. And, you know, other things that are similar.

            I'd like to reiterate that I find it important to not let your idols and influences actually influence YOUR work. The most original form of originality is when you write in your own way. A homage is one thing, but I truly believe that one shouldn't try to write like another.