Now that you have a list of contrasting and similar phrases, its time to mold these into verses. With these verses you can now tell a story with Questions answered by your lyrics.
For example, let’s say our title is “your love is like a rocket ride to the moon”. The questions we would want answer would be: why is your love like a rocket ride to the Moon, what happens when you feel this rocket ride, where does it take you, Etc.
To tell our story we will first create a contrasting set of phrases and words. And lets use imagery to really make these words and phrases tangible. For example: feeling sad like a lonely boy, bored and tired with my head in my hand, stuck on earth with my feet in cement, etc. Now we could start with a verse that tells us what it is like when were not on the rocket ride, which would give contrast to what it is like when we are on the rocket ride.
So the 1st verse could be something like, “without your love in my life the earth is standing still, I’m stuck in cement and sitting sad and lonely like a little boy with head in my hand.”
Now we’ll head to the chorus where we will use our related word list. Again using imagery, a related word list could be words such as: hair blowing in my face, smiling a mile wide, my heart is beating faster than a speeding bullet, etc.
So our chorus for instance could be something like “your love is like a rocket ride to the Moon, my heart is beating faster than a speeding bullet.”
In the next verse we will start to build the story. Since we’ve already created contrast to what it isn’t like when were on a rocket ride to the Moon, we can now say what it is like on a rocket ride to the moon and other things about this feeling of love and this person you’re in love with. Are you starting to get the picture? Go ahead and write a 2nd verse, which brings the listener in to experience more details about this person you’re in love with and the feelings you feel when you’re with them.
Consider using situations and imagery for your story. For instance, the image of a speeding bullet is very pronounced and clear. Perhaps you are on a date somewhere and she smiled at you and the moon was reflecting off of your glass of water and it made the experience even more profound. Think about including this type of imagery into your verse.
In our next blog we will dive even deeper into structure and how you can really suck a listener in to become fully engaged in your song… to the point where they want to purchase it and share it.
Until then, write out your 1st verses. chorus and second verse.
See you soon, Chad Scott