I did it. I said last week that I would write a song, and I did happened.

I knew I could only do it if I had the right story. I knew I was looking for something short and simple and full of emotion. Then suddenly a story popped into my head that seemed to be just what I was looking for.

Now anyone who knows me well would think I could easily write a song. I’m a singer. I know my way around a song as well as I do my own house. I’ve dissected many-a-song trying to find every nuance possible to create the best interpretation. But let me tell you, it was a lot of work.

Mind you, I just wrote the lyrics. I’m still a writer. I didn’t suddenly develop special composing talents. Of course, snippets of melody come into my head while writing, but never the full song. Someone else will need to come in and add the music.

How did I do it with no experience? I cheated a little. I thought of songs that I liked and modeled some of my lines off of those; an intro from one song, a refrain from another song, a verse from another. Then I changed them to make them my own.

I noticed that there are some ways in which writing a story song are the same as writing any other story and some ways it is a bit different.

How it’s the same:

-Its all about the story first. Tell a good story!
-Read it over and over again out loud. Songs like picture books are meant to be heard.
-Keep it short. Economy of writing is a must.
-You still need strong characters and plot.
-A complete arch for story and character are important.

How it’s different:

-You can be more repetitive with the text. Words sentences and even full verses can be used again to send a message home.
-I found myself being more creative with rhythmic patterns like internal rhyming.
-Emotion has a higher importance. In performing musical theater, we say that a character starts to sing because emotion has taken them to a point where their thoughts can no longer be expressed with simple words.
-Mood has a higher importance.
-The writer needs to think about the music genre. Whether it’s rock, country, ballad, comic, etc. will affect the lyrics and the way the story is told.
-I found I could get a bit more flowery with my wording. Sometimes it was even necessary to get the rhythms to work.

This was fun. I don’t think my aim will be to write song stories in the future, but if the right story comes along…
There is a long history of songs being turned into picture books and picture books being turned into song. For the most complete list available go to Emily Leatha Everson Gleichenhaus’ blog Sing Books with Emily. She is an amazing resource if you are interested in these types of books. Also, as a side note, Emily is an amazing performer. She lives in the Washington, DC area and might be available for presentations at schools, libraries, and other events with kids.

Maybe someday with a little (I really mean a lot of) work, my newest song will make it to Emily’s list.