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Rachel in Brisbane,<br />
Australia, asks: I've<br />
noticed a lot of writers<br />
coming through with poor<br />
spelling and grammar. Not so<br />
bad if they're just learning<br />
English, but many seem to just<br />
throw things together. How polished<br />
should one’s work be?<br />
Rachel -- As with so many questions,<br />
the answer is, “it<br />
depends.” If I’m just playing<br />
with ideas, they’re usually more<br />
or less like sketches that a<br />
painter might make, and as<br />
such I’m not too worried about<br />
spelling and grammar. Those<br />
can be fixed later. But if I’m presenting<br />
the song, it makes<br />
sense for things to be spelled<br />
correctly (unless the misspellings<br />
would be in character<br />
for the protagonist). Of course,<br />
a song is meant to be heard,<br />
not read, so it’s sometimes hard<br />
to say whether spelling mistakes<br />
would be in character or<br />
not, but I do try to use spellings<br />
that reflect the way that the protagonist<br />
would say or sing the<br />
line.<br />
A finished song should make<br />
sense in the voice of the singer<br />
or main character. With that in<br />
mind, my songs often include<br />
“ain’t” or “gonna” or double<br />
negatives (“I don’t need no<br />
part-time love”). I sometimes<br />
speak that way, but only in certain<br />
situations. And when I do<br />
use those words in a song, they<br />
fit the character or narrator.<br />
You want your song to feel real<br />
within the context of the lives<br />
and situations it describes,<br />
even if that’s not the way you<br />
would normally talk. And to get<br />
to that point, the real work is<br />
often in the rewriting. I typically<br />
rework lines in my songs for<br />
weeks or months (sometimes<br />
years) before I feel they really<br />
reflect the voice of the character<br />
or the nuance of the situation<br />
while also having the formal<br />
structure (rhythm, rhymes,<br />
alliteration, etc.) needed for a<br />
song.<br />
Happy SongwRxiting!<br />
The Lyrics Doctor<br />
The Lyrics Doctor is the songwriter,<br />
singer, and guitarist for<br />
the bands The Gincident<br />
(www.thegincident.com) and<br />
Her Dog Henry (www.herdoghenry.com)<br />
If you have a question you’d like<br />
to ask our lyrics doctor, please<br />
email it to me.<br />
jane@writeawaymagazine.co.uk<br />
04 www.writeawaymagazine.co.uk
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