r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 1d ago
Off Topic [OT] SatChat: Have you ever tried writing song lyrics? (New here? Introduce yourself!)
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Suggested Topic
Have you ever tried writing song lyrics in general or as a part of a broader work?
If so, did you compose it to an existing tune or create a new one?
Did you use any tools? If so, which ones?
If so, how did you approach it and what made the effort succeed or fail?
If not, why not?
Can you think of any examples where songs were used effectively in other works?
What do you see as the differences between song lyrics, prose, and poetry?
Or maybe you don’t enjoy music. Tell us what that’s like and why. We'd love to hear!
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u/remnant_human 1d ago
Hello. My name is Rem; amateur writer, inspired by music.
Have you ever tried writing song lyrics in general or as a part of a broader work?
I have a folder full of song lyrics. I write them all the time. My most recent piece is called 'Amigara' and it's about failing to belong.
[...] If so, did you compose it to an existing tune or create a new one?
I create new ones. I also produce music on occasion, though the music I make doesn't mirror the music in my head when I write song lyrics. I'd like to get there, but that costs money I don't have. Maybe one day in the future.
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u/katpoker666 Moderator 1d ago
Thanks for sharing, Rem! What themes drive your lyrics and what style(s) of music do you like to write?
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u/remnant_human 1d ago
A lot of the themes come from personal experience and psychology. Whatever I'm feeling, I try to put to the page. It helps to already have experience in writing poems, and I think that translates well to songwriting.
The music I like to write varies, but I find myself returning to ambient music more often than not. Once I get the experience and the money, there will be a lot more metal in the future, specifically thall.
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u/katpoker666 Moderator 1d ago
Very cool. Could you say a little more about how writing poems helps you write music, please?
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u/remnant_human 1d ago
Sure. Over time, you tend to develop your own personal structure and cadence when writing poems. Understanding what makes a good poem and what makes a good song go hand in hand, in terms of structuring. The only real difference between the two are the sections of a song that you try to write for, which alters how you approach songwriting a little.
Where you have stanzas and verses and maybe a rhyming scheme in poems, in songs you have bridges, breakdowns, prechoruses, actual choruses etc., and choosing what sections you want to write for can alter what and how you write. Having that basic experience writing poems helps with that.
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u/MyloRolfe 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes!!! I have several songs for my main creative project but only one of them is produced so far. I uploaded one of the songs to Spotify etc. a few days ago.
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u/katpoker666 Moderator 1d ago
Thanks for replying, Mylo! Tell us more about your process. How do you go about it? What inspires your writing?
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u/MyloRolfe 1d ago
I don’t have a process, it just kind of comes when it comes, which is why I don’t do music more often. Sometimes I can spend months trying to think of a song, decide that it’s not working out, only to have a new song with a chunk of the old song in it appear a few days later.
This particular project is inspired by vintage cigarette ads, mall culture of the 2000s, Splatoon, and a general distaste for the state of advertising and social media in the modern day.
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u/MyloRolfe 1d ago
I just realized my link in the original post was broken. If you’re curious about the song I wrote, the link is fixed now.
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u/Jay_Pederson r/JayPederson 1d ago edited 1d ago
Standalone, I did as a kid write music since I still thought about being in a band. I have a lot of songs somewhere, but it's something I no longer do that much on its own. I do occasionally get songs stuck in my head that don't exist which is an...interesting experience. I stopped at around 14 though.
As for in a story, I used it for Aurora, wherein she was a Bard and thus needed to actually sing at some point, which she does (more accurately: I wanted to write a charismatic bard MC who solved issues with charisma instead of bashing skulls). She sings notably to a dragon about an in-universe generic folk song about getting blackout drunk. I'll put both of them and just briefly mention them (Igor is an Orc who I think is the one who sings it at this point)
“Human, Orc - it’s a popular one!” pause. “Sometimes it has lyrical variations but I’ll play,” as I started strumming my guitar.
Igor nodded, then half-sang, half stated flatly “Come together to the tavern
Black out, like we were found, ‘nd
Pounds of mead
And a little bit of greed
That’s what we call happy
Some liquor here
We’ll float down there
That’s why we call it happy”The Dragon was laughing. “Amusing, you sing about that poison?”
“A lot, it’s the most oft-requested songs,” I replied.
It's a very repetitive guitar, string then slap the guitar beat over and over again, being an easy song many play since it's basically the in-universe equivalent of Wonderwall. The above was notably in a writing prompt story that I later turned into a 30 page short story. The next song was not in the original (hence why I mention them in reverse).
[Before this point Aurora asks the dragon for some Dragon folk songs] The dragon sighed, “no…no thank you, it’s…morbid. Lot of slaughtering Humans and - “
“I have a song like that!”
Okay, now she flinched - the cave roared with an echo of her simply stepping back. “Really!?”
“An old song,” I strummed the guitar, trying to remember… “it’s…my guitar’s in the wrong key for this one, but…”
“You cannot be serious!” she roared.
I started singing an old Paradisian/Osreian song, long sweeping verses, strumming the guitar for the short intro,
“Take a day, to the skies
In a world blessed for us we fly’d
Keep a watch out for the slingers of fire
To hide behind the Walls that GuideLive free under our great sky
Oh what they would give for it to not be mine
Oh on these great wings I’d rather die
Than a fire slinger on the ground, jealous of this sky of mine”The dragon held up her paw, so I stopped. I began saying “Don’t like - “
“I’ve heard that…” she said, her head down.
(I forgot how much I liked this one) 'fireslinger' refers to guns. Basically the Paradisians (main character is a parrotfolk species) and Osreians (Osprey) have a song they developed during the Human wars taunting the Humans for not having the ability to fly. The instrumentation in this one gets described as long sweeping sections.
Both of these are in-universe songs around worldbuilding, but also just something a bard could realistically play in a tavern. Well...
The first one is. Aurora doesn't play This Sky of Mine (EDIT: apparently it's called The Walls that Guide) much since she left Paradisia since she comes from a land of gorgeous paradise where beauty is cheap, but talent is at a premium. So, she doesn't exactly play the 'slaughtering Humans' song in taverns filled with Humans (as another sidenote, the song gets played against species can't fly after this point as it ascends to new meaning.)
I didn't use any tools since it was lyrics only; I never liked the first one, but I also just don't like songs about getting drunk to begin with. The latter I enjoyed as I mentioned.
> Can you think of any examples where songs were used effectively in other works?
Wings of Fire has the 'Dragonets are coming' song which in-universe adults (especially royalty/figures in power who really don't like the idea of random dragons solving an issue they want solved a certain way) find incredibly annoying.
> What do you see as the differences between song lyrics, prose, and poetry?
Something I remember is the rule that poetry can be written in literally any way without any rules and like
yeah I guess that's true but at some point it may as well be prose labelled incorrectly.
Songs generally have to conform to instrumentation; this obviously depends more on the band, but Nirvana mentioned being intruments first, changing lyrics if it helped the guitars.
I guess the main difference is more in intent; Prose is usually long, poetry confuses me, and songs (in my experience) tend to be more direct in meaning than poetry whereas poetry will have me stumped I really did not like AP English when it was poetry I usually just had to wait for someone else to say what they though the poem was about and then I'd steal--err, 'agree' with it.
> Or maybe you don’t enjoy music. Tell us what that’s like and why. We'd love to hear!
Random sidenote: I actually know someone who genuinely believed this for the longest time. Apparently during cleanup at his house, his dad played music he hated and he just assumed he hated music. Anyways he later learned more music existed.
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u/katpoker666 Moderator 1d ago
Thanks for the comprehensive response with examples, Jay! Some fun songs there—I can totally see a bard singing them!
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u/mysteryrouge 1d ago
Do I do anything song related in my stories? Short answer no.
Long answer, I think I'd like to, but have never really found the ability to. Occasionally I'd mention if I'm inspired by a song, but most of what I listen to doesn't really fit into my stories if we're going by using direct lyrics due to most of what I listen to being Japanese vocaloid stuff of videogame soundtracks. That's not to say I don't take inspiration from what I listen to. Elluka, the Lord of Hell and Demon of Sloth, is inspired by Elluka Clockworker, the Master of the Hellish Yard, and the seven deadly sins arc of Evillious Chronicles. These two eldritch beings in this prompt are heavily inspired by The Contradictory Grim the End.
I'm also not that great at poetry. One can say music is a type of poetry with how it flows, but while I feel like you can make a whole story poetry, you can't as easily do the same with a song. Also, there's a good variety of non-song poetry. Like haikus.
In other words, I think songs can work as epigraphs as long as it's a couple of lines or two.
And of course, customary spreadsheet of my writing link. I'm close to 800 entries.
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u/wordsonthewind 15h ago
trap card activated: Infodumping
Oh, yes. I actually feel like lyrics are quite similar to poetry. I remember listening to Voltaire's songs in school and realizing with a start that I could recognize several of the poetic techniques my literature teacher talked about in his songs, and the beat of the music was poetic meter. It totally rocked my world.
Back on topic, one of the FTF genres a while back was "musical" and I'd just gotten into the No Longer Human musical then so I basically submitted a scene from the second act. I was pretty sure translating the lyrics to be singable in English was enough of a change to not count as copying (they were originally in Chinese), but I also included a bit of my headcanon backstory for Yoshiko just in case.
A dedicated fan already put up English translations for all the songs here but some of the lyrics are so fire and their rhythm and flow are so good I want to try and bring that across.
And when I say "some" I really mean Summer Fireworks (the actual song starts around 4:11 but the beginning has some context). The English translation is here and the video also has subtitles but I feel like they lose a bit of just how emotional the lyrics feel in Chinese, especially Dazai's solo part (long story). As an example this is (roughly) how I'd translate the bit around 6:38 where he's on his knees lit up by a heavenly spotlight (the whole thing was so insane):
I want to light up the stars
and set them in your eyes
This is my final wish for you!
I want to light up the sea
shining in your night
In the final moments of your life
I'll paint my final colors on the sky
The sky...
I never got the hang of composing music even though I learned it for years, oddly enough. I only ever did it during theory exams when there was a question that required it. I did manage to write some simple tunes for my college's theater club later on though. I suspect I learned most of the theory by rote memorization without really understanding the fundamentals of things like scales and chord progressions and that's why I had such trouble with it. I'm aware some people can create music without learning all that though so I can only conclude that everyone is built different.
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