This week’s assignment from Mitchell:

""And he never once made you explain or talk
About all of the little details"

But then I had to come along and ask you to do just that. Last week, we looked at basic song structure and the point of that exercise was to think a bit about how you were putting your words together - from simply knowing where your line breaks actually are to the power of rhythm and meter. Once you understand and learn to use those tools, they can do wonders for your work. It's my hope some of you did learn something and will continue to explore those concepts as we go on. Keep those lessons in mind, as everything that follows will build on them.

Anyway, I hope I didn't scare anyone off with all that work last week. Stick with me, folks!

"Don't say goodbye to me, describe the sky to me"

Week Two: Write a narrative song, any style. Be descriptive in your lyrics.

Now that we've looked at the foundation of a song, we're going to dip into the content itself. Sometimes, simplicity in your lines is key. Sometimes, it's better to say less and put it across as direct and colourless as you can, but this week, I want you to write a narrative song and try and be as descriptive as possible.
For example, say that somewhere in your song, you want to describe some folks who are broken-hearted. There are, of course, endless ways to convey this sentiment. You could say something like, "There's heartbreak everywhere," or "I've known so many broken-hearted folks," or even more simply, "He was heartbroken."
But let's look at how Bob Dylan approached it in "Shelter from the Storm":

"I've heard newborn babies wailin' like a mournin' dove | And old men with broken teeth stranded without love."

"Old men with broken teeth stranded without love"- now that's an image! But wait a tick - is he describing having seen heartbroken folks? Notice in the preceding line, that he's "heard. . .wailin'." Does this indicate that the, "Old men with broken teeth" are meant to further describe the wailing of the babies? Or is this a just a separate image? I don't know, but either way, it's gold. If it is to be taken just as a description of heartbreak, then it's a great way to say it, but as a simile, it really adds a layer of depth to the lyric. If you were to look at it as a simile, then he's saying that he's, "HEARD newborn babies WAILIN' LIKE a mournin' dove," and also wailing as if they were, "old men with broken teeth stranded without love." Holy smokes - now we have compound simile that details the crying of newborns while also vividly describing some men suffering from heartbreak. How fantastic is that?
Now, dig how he's also presented the cycle of life from birth to death by linking "Newborn babies" to "Old men." One could argue that the connection he's making is that all life ends in some sort of heartbreak. If taken that way, beyond the similes describing the sound of crying, the lines actually are doing what I proposed in the query above - they describe folks who are broken-hearted and those folks are actually everyone. Jeez, there's a lot going on across those two lines. Sure, I could be reading too much into it, but the fact that you can read too much into it is what makes it so damned fantastic.

So, be descriptive and be creative in your descriptions. As always, be careful to avoid cliche.

A few things you may want to consider:

Your Senses
1. Sight
2. Hearing
3. Touch
4. Smell
5. Taste
I find that Smell and, to an even greater extent, Taste are the two senses most often neglected in song. It seems that when they are mentioned, they usually present as cliches.
It has been argued that we actually possess more than the classic five senses. Additionally, there are concepts such as Proprioception and Vestibular Sensation. There are arguably more still, but I leave it to you to decide if they are worth exploring.

Metaphor and Simile
Beware of mixed metaphors. Even if they are kinda fun: "If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. . . Checkmate."

How's everyone doing with the daily, timed writing? Is anyone keeping up with it?”