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Book Description

The Must-Have Guide for Songwriters

Writing Better Lyrics has been a staple for songwriters for nearly two decades. Now this revised and updated 2nd Edition provides effective tools for everything from generating ideas, to understanding the form and function of a song, to fine-tuning lyrics.

Perfect for new and experienced songwriters alike, this time-tested classic covers the basics in addition to more advanced techniques.

Songwriters will discover:
  • How to use sense-bound imagery to enhance a song's emotional impact on listeners
  • Techniques for avoiding clichés and creating imaginative metaphors and similes
  • Ways to use repetition as an asset
  • How to successfully manipulate meter
  • Instruction for matching lyrics with music
  • Ways to build on ideas and generate effective titles
  • Advice for working with a co-writer
  • And much more

Featuring updated and expanded chapters, 50 fun songwriting exercises, and examples from more than 20 chart-toppings songs, Writing Better Lyrics gives you all of the professional and creative insight you need to write powerful lyrics and put your songs in the spotlight where they belong.

Table of Contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. TABLE OF CONTENTS
  5. Foreword
  6. Introduction
  7. CHAPTER 1: Object Writing: The Art of the Diver
  8. CHAPTER 2: Rusty's Collar: A Lesson in Showing and Telling
  9. CHAPTER 3: Making Metaphors
  10. CHAPTER 4: Learning to Say No: Building Worksheets
  11. CHAPTER 5: Clichés: The Sleeping Puppy (A Case Study)
  12. CHAPTER 6: Productive Repetition
  13. CHAPTER 7: Verse Development and Power Positions
  14. CHAPTER 8: Travelogues: Verse Continuity
  15. CHAPTER 9: Stripping Your Repetition for Repainting
  16. CHAPTER 10: Perspectives
  17. CHAPTER 11: Point of View: Second Person and the Hangman
  18. CHAPTER 12: Point of View: Second Person as Narrative
  19. CHAPTER 13: Dialogue and Point of View
  20. CHAPTER 14: Meter: Something in Common
  21. CHAPTER 15: Spotlighting With Common Meter
  22. CHAPTER 16: Meter: Two by Two
  23. CHAPTER 17: Managing Couplets
  24. CHAPTER 18: Prosody: Structure as Film Score
  25. CHAPTER 19: Understanding Motion
  26. CHAPTER 20: Form Follows Function: Building the Perfect Beast
  27. CHAPTER 21: The Great Balancing Act: Courting Danger on the High Wire
  28. CHAPTER 22: Song Forms: (Im) Potent Packages
  29. CHAPTER 23: Song Forms: (Im) Potent Packages II
  30. CHAPTER 24: Process
  31. Appendix: Co-Writing: The “No”-Free Zone
  32. Permissions
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