STRATEGY TWENTY
The Letter as Framing Device

The Function

Like the framing device of the phone call, the letter (or note left behind) serves to make the message both more effective and the song more memorable. The two strategies, though similar in function, have attributes which may make one preferable to the other–depending on your plot. As always, content dictates form.

Phone Call Vs. Letter: Some Subtleties

As you saw in the previous section, phone calls are generally made to those we know and thus tend to frame lyric plots of an intimate nature. Another potential plus for a phone call over a letter is the ability that exists to show, through the singer's responses, what the person on the other end may have said. (It's this feature of the phone call that Harry Chapin developed so effectively in “W*O*L*D”.) In a letter device the listener can get only the singer's feeling, not the recipient's reaction. The letter device, on the other hand, vastly expands the possible plot lines.

The wide-ranging subject matter, style and tone of the letter frame are exemplified by two of the fresher treatments of the device, “Dear Mr. Jesus,” an abused child's plaintive letter to God, and “Hello Mudduh, Hello Faddah!” a camper's comic letter home.

Prewriting Suggestion

If you haven't a plot idea ready to go, run down in your mind the roster of people in your life, past or present: family members, employers, co-workers, lovers, neighbors, etc. to whom you might like to express some thoughts or feelings. You could use the letter strategy to frame your concern about a social issue on which you'd like to be heard. For example, you might write to your mayor, your congressman, the Governor, and so on.

Small Craft Warning

Just as a phone call has one “hello” and one “goodbye,” a letter has but one salutation, “Dear So and So,” one closing, and maybe a P.S. The best-crafted lyrics reflect that reality. Though recorded songs exist that repeat the unrepeated, construct your lyric so as to avoid such lapses in logic.

Letter: Example No. 1 (AABA/Tag)
DEAR ABBY

DEAR ABBY, please help me.
By now I'm getting frantic!
I'm what you would call
An incurable romantic:
I've been seeking Mr. Right.
Now, is that so very wrong?
And I wonder if he'll ever come along?

I was always so sure
He'd be suave and debonairish,
His chin would have a dimple
And his shoulders would be squarish.
He'd be charming, he'd be dashing,
He'd be muscular and strong.…
But I wonder if he'll ever come along.

Now there's this guy named Joe
I've known a year or so,
Who's not at all the type I had in mind:
His hairline has receded
And his waistline has expanded.
A Greek god he's not,
Not by a long shot,
(To be absolutely candid).

Still, he's always around
To be warm and reassuring.
He's gentle, he's funny,
He's solid and enduring.
Being with him is like listening
To some sweet, familiar song,
'Cause that's the way that Joe is.
So, what I'd like to know is,
Have I been blind somehow
To have missed what I see now?

Has Mr. Right been right here right along?
Signed, Puzzled.
Has Mr. Right been right here right along?
© 1988 Rebecca Holtzman. Used with permission.

Comment

Rebecca's lyric makes evident how a series of appropriate devices unite to convey a playful tone: antonyms (right/wrong, receded/expanded); multisyllabic rhyme (frantic/romantic, expanded/candid, reassuring/enduring); stretching (squarish/ debonarish); and a closing pun (right here/right along). Another small point worth pointing out: When naming your characters, streets, towns, etc., make sure your name sounds like the quality you want to convey: Joe, for example, appropriately suggests a simple “good guy.” Using the frame of a “Dear Abby” letter enabled the writer to draw upon a universal truth of the human condition: In asking a question, we sometimes find our own answer.

Here's a letter in a more serious vein. To fully experience the lyric you need to know that each verse is sung by a different person–first a man, then two different women; the refrain is sung by a mixed group.

Letter: Example No. 2 (AAA w/Outside Refrain)
DEAR MR. TAYLOR

DEAR MR. TAYLOR,
We've left this note unsigned:
But there are times when neighbors
Have to speak what's on their mind.
The walls are thin; We often hear
The angry things you say.
And we won't stand aside and let you
Treat your child that way.

Someone noticed. Someone listened.
Someone found the time to care–
Took a step to touch a life
And make a difference there.

DEAR MR. TAYLOR,
I thought you should know
Maria's not the student
That she was a month ago.
When she turns her homework in,
I see her arms are bruised.
Will you come to school next week
To talk the matter through.

(repeat refrain)

DEAR MR. TAYLOR,
I plan to pay a call.
The hospital informed me
Of Maria's second fall.
When I hear your explanation
I'll tell you what I see;
I think that we can work things out
If you will work with me.

(repeat refrain)
©1991 Diane B. Engel. Used with permission.

Comment

Creating discrete characters–a neighbor, a teacher, and a social worker–and shaping her letter into the AAA form, enabled Diane Engel to treat the difficult subject of child abuse. With metonymic subtlety, each verse shows the effects (anger, bruises, a “fall”) for the cause. And perhaps most significant of all, without judgments or preachiness, the refrain sends the message that with caring concern one person can make a difference.

WrapUp

These role-model lyrics illustrate that, by choosing the ideal approach, any subject is treatable. As you weigh the appropriateness of a framing device for a particular concept, you'll want to factor in another plot feature–the setting–coming up next.