Lyric Publishing — Just how to Turn Motto Phrases In to New A few ideas

Little
3 min readFeb 18, 2021

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The utilization of metaphors is an very strong tool in lyric writing. Terry Pattison features a great description of metaphors in his guide Writing Greater Lyrics. He says “In its simplest sort, a metaphor is really a collision between ideas that don’t belong together.” This is actually the simplified description of a metaphor your English teacher is definitely seeking for.

Put simply, excellent metaphors wrap together the quality of two usually split ideas. Like, in the Bravery’s track, “Feel” they start the track with the line “The looks all around me they do not smile they only crack.” The notion of somebody whose face is indeed firm, that actually if they attempted to smile, their face could start to crumble is a good new way of considering this. It is a collision of two ideas that don’t usually belong together: 1. those who don’t smile, and 2. the cracking of something rigid. It found their frequent surface and attached them together nicely. Consequently, we get a really visible line, which can be essential when publishing words, because it’s an audible-only medium.

Another line that is effective in this same manner is from the track “Shake it Out” by Florence + the Machine. The track starts with the line “Misgivings obtain like old friends.” I’ll allow fresh prince of bel air lyrics you to do your own examination of the one.

Being Unique vs. Being Cliche

What’s cool about these lines is that they are offering us a fresh way of considering something which we’d have never considered before. Some metaphors are so excellent, they end up being overused by everyone. Consequently, they eliminate their meaning. Most likely the mom of all motto metaphors in songwriting is the expression “damaged heart.” We all understand what it means, because we’ve heard it therefore often, but since it’s therefore familiar to us, we don’t end to think about the metaphor that is there. The notion of a real heart being split by 50 percent will be a very cool visible if it was not therefore darn familiar.

Occasionally we just can not ignore applying motto phrases. Heck, I simply applied the expression “the mom of all…” within the last few paragraph. So, I’m responsible of it often too. However when publishing tracks, you intend to include new ideas to keep your listeners enthusiastic about what you’re saying.

Think about the movie Inception. [*Spoiler Alert* — skip the rest with this section in the event that you haven’t observed the movie] Watching a movie wherever you will find out the conclusion could be a desire is obviously a motto by now. The idea has been performed numerous times in films. But you may fight that Inception created a complete movie around making the thought of a possible dream stopping totally work. It set a very good angle on an old idea.

Similarly in songwriting, if you’re required to make use of motto phrases in your words, I’d recommend providing them with new meaning. “Properly how do I do that?” you ask. Let’s search at how it’s been handled in popular song.

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