Lyrically Speaking

I'm enjoying this discussion showing the different sides. I can't exactly say I'm a lyricist. Guess I'm a bird of a different color because I write lyrics but only to include in my novels. (If you're writing about a band that writes its own music, you need lyrics for it that aren't copyrighted.) I've been questioning whether or not to put them in my port to see if anyone thinks they actually sound like usable songs, without music. Like Elisa, I would love to learn to write music, but at this point am kind of off and on learning the piano.

Anyway, I definitely see both sides. I had a writing instructor once who fussed about my use of dialect in a novel! He said it wasn't necessary and was a distraction. Well... but if it helps define the character, I think it is necessary, so I've left it in and have had some very nice comments about it. I would suppose it would be the same thing with lyrics: it depends what your intentions are. If you're trying to be successfully salable, I think I'd really take Amelia's advice. Let's face it, artists are very interested in their own style, as she mentioned, and many are not willing to touch anything they can't make their own. Makes sense, I guess. And if you're selling them, you would have to expect that.

However, if art is your main goal, you should do it the way you want it, regardless of whether or not it's easily salable. Just like in novel writing, you have to decide whether to stick with easier to sell genres or try to buck the tide and follow your art, risking less opportunity to sell.

Oh, and I do respect musicians more when they also write their own music, because it truly is their own music that way. But thank goodness for good writers for those who can sing but can't write!!


"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" HD Thoreau