-- Posted by barnabas at 8:46 pm on Dec. 31, 2008 This a compilation of several different writing guides, helps and tools that have been provided in this forum to better improve your writing. Various topics are listed here, and then the tips are posted in subsequent posts in this topic, so that you may browse through them in a variety of ways. Good luck and happy writing! A Guide to Writing A Guide to Writing Short Stories A Guide to Writing Song Lyrics A Guide to Writing Poetry -- Posted by barnabas at 8:49 pm on Dec. 31, 2008 A Guide to Writing By: Chalkboard Sonata This board is unfortunately flooded with hordes of godawful, no-talent hacks who wouldn't know good writing if it hit them in the mouth and stole their wallets. Page after page of trite, juvenile garbage; a perennial infestation of bad poetry, puerile rants and narratives replete with netspeak and grammatical holes. Reading these physical manifestations of word-vomit and literary acne cause me pain. I'm not talking about an intellectual pain either; I'm referring to an actual physical pain over my sternum that feels a little like heartburn. It's not heartburn though, no no - it's the feeling you get when you die a little bit inside.   So I'm here to help. This isn't going to improve your grammar, your punctuation or your body odour (if you're still struggling with the first two, it's probably time to resurrect the crayons and Little Mermaid colouring book), but it will help you to create work with complexity and subtext - two things that are sorely lacking in the vast majority of the literary output of teeny-boppers and maladjusted adolescents.   This is a diagram based upon the literary theories of a certain Sloan (a large version can be found here) that was drawn for me by my old English teacher at the end of year eleven (at the time of writing, I am in my second year of university). I was already a fairly accomplished writer at the time, beginning to discover the joys of competent phraseology and other such textual flourishes that make a work not only competent, but memorable. At any rate, I found it to be useful, and I would hope that you do too, once I have explained it.   You will notice that the dichotomous relationship between Innocence and Experience dominates the diagram, and it is a schema by which all narrative texts may be interpreted. Associated with Innocence are positive concepts such as comedy and romance, culminating in the societal model of the utopia - itself a marker for the Promised Land/Heaven/Paradise/idealised past (id est: The Garden of Eden, the Golden Age of Man, Atlantis, Satya Yuga etcetera). These markers (comedy, romance, utopia) operate as exemplars, bereft of subtextual complexity. Texts that correlate to these exemplars include I Love Lucy (comedy), Sonnet XVII (romance) and Island (utopia).   Conversely, associated with Experience are the negative aspects of those aforementioned exemplars - irony, tragedy and dystopia (with associated symbols). Once again, these operate as idealised metatexts, into which other texts slot into (completely or not). Examples include Variations on a theme by William Carlos Williams (irony), most of the bullshit on this forum (tragedy) and Brave New World (dystopia).   However, the texts I have mentioned, though all classics of television, literature or poetry (with one notable exception), lack something crucial. Subtext.   I'm sure a lot of people are going to have apoplexy at the suggestion that such hallowed and exalted texts are one-dimensional, but it is true. But there is a secret to complexity. To write something that has elements of complex and ambiguity, one must traverse the canyon that separates Innocence from Experience. Truly (and I mean truly) great pieces of literature blend genre and form, thereby giving substance and weight to otherwise rather yeastless narratives hopelessly bound by genre.   And thus were born the tragicomedy, the black comedy, the tragic romance and the ironic romance.   I have little doubt that scores of you little munchkins eternally lament why your work is never quite as good as equivalent work in the public sphere - and I can guarantee you, that this is a factor (along with being functionally illiterate, of course). Life is not diced nicely into discrete units, so there is no reason why art should not be a similar goulash of genre and form. Don't be afraid to take risks. Remember Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap) when writing - it's okay to write garbage. Just make sure no one sees it. Learn the rhythms and sighs of the language. Have an affair with words. Be creative.   Finally, I must advise you to read and write, read write read write read write readwritereadread writewrite read (and I don't mean reading Goosebumps and The Baby-Sitters Club either. I mean meaty texts with taste and extra gravy - Hemingway, Tolstoy, Heller, Grass, Marquez, Camus, Mann. Go crazy). Down the right hand side of the schema is a list of texts, each with a very distinct voice and tone. Learn to emulate and ape these styles. Make them giggle. Tweak their nipples occasionally. Write 100 000 words of your own, then burn them.   -- Posted by barnabas at 8:51 pm on Dec. 31, 2008 A Guide to Writing Short Stories By: Noraa Writing is a hard thing to do. There are thousands of words in the English language and even more slang. Writing a short story can be like finding a needle in a haystack. So many ways to tell it! So many different things to take into account! So many beginnings, middles, and ends. Harnessing these can be incredibly challenging. I hope that this guide helps you write your story. It will not write your story for you. This is just something to refer back to when you're stuck. So without further ado, I'll get started.   Getting Started   Getting started, in many ways, is the most difficult part of writing the story. You may say that getting started consists simply of writing the beginning of a story. Quite frankly, you're wrong. Before you can even think about getting started, you have to do a few things. Firstly, you have to make a plot.   Making a Plot   To make a plot, think of something that interests you, whether it is baseball, politics, or dragons. Next, try and get down a beginning, middle, and an end. Make it very vague, you don't have to be specific yet. Make something like: A boy is a baseball player, he doesn't make the team, he moves on." That's the kind of thing that you should make. But there isn't a plot without characters, is there? Never fear, you are about to design your very own characters!   Making Quality Characters   Bored by the plot section? I was too. But now you get to do the fun part, like painting the picture once you have the guidelines set down. Making characters is really fun.   To help you design pretty interesting characters, I've pulled up a character sheet for you to use. It's helped me quite well over the past few stories I've written, and I hope that it does the same for you. I didn't write this, by the way.   Name:   Age:   Height:   Weight:   Hair color and style:   Eye color:   Complexion and skin tone:   Character's body build: Character back story:   Identifying marks:   Facial features:   Hand features:   Scent:   Mannerisms or gestures:   Weakest personality traits:   Strongest personality trait:   Needs of the character:   Ambitions:   Father's name:   Age:   Physical appearance:   Mother's name:   Age:   Physical appearance:   Sibling's names and descriptions:   Favorite sayings:   Interests and hobbies:   Favorite foods:   Favorite colors:   Pets:   Education:   Religion:   Financial situation:   Future plans:   Possessions this character values most:   What drives your character:   How does your character handle conflict:   What is standing in your character's way:   What is their favorite room and why:   What vehicle do they drive:   Favorite sport(s):   What are your character's prejudices:   How does your character feel about love:   About crime:   What is their neighborhood like:   What is your character's philosophy on life:   What is your character's family life like:   Fill this out, but not all of it if you don't want to or if it doesn't apply to the character.   Another thing you can do is play something I like to call the letter game. Write letters from one character to another. Don't use them for the story, just to get to know your character. Once you feel as if they're a close friend of yours, like somebody you understand, you are done. After you're finished, you're ready to move on to the most fun part of the process—the writing.   Introduction   The introduction of the story is one of the most difficult parts. How do you start off a story without giving too much away, but without making it too mysterious? How do you draw the reader in and get them interested in the story? Well the first way to start off is a good opening sentence.   Opening Sentence   In a way, the most important part of the story is the opening sentence. You rely heavily on it because it is what the reader will first get a taste of while flipping through it. Without a good opening sentence, it's like starting a song with no first word, or beginning to run when you couldn't even crawl. The opening sentence is—well—everything.   When you make your opening sentence, you have to remember that it shouldn't be boring. For example if you wrote for your opening: "Sandra went to class and when she got out she went out to lunch and then she went back to school and then she went home." That's way to boring. Try and spice it up a little bit, like this: "Wet and bedraggled and in tears, Sandra hurried home after class had been let out, shivering as she ran down the sodden streets feeling the rain pound on her back." Now that's more like it!   Another factor that you have to take into account is relevance. The opening sentence doesn't have to be way too relevant to the story. For example if you were to put, "Todd found a secret door which led him to believe that his house had been a home for runaway slaves a long time ago and he was very surprised," it would give away WAY too much information and as a result readers wouldn't be drawn in. However if you put, "Todd's hand trembled on the doorknob of what he had always thought to be a hall closet," it can lead to a much more interesting opening but with the same plot.   A third factor that you have to take into account is quality of writing. Even if the rest of your short story isn't, you should definitely make the opening sentence well written, if not poetic. For example if you put the sentence, "The skier was falling down to the ground from the jump and he didn't look happy," you could put "All the viewers could see was a scramble of orange skis, which they know to be Jerald's, as he fell towards a sodden, white, snow encrusted ground like a rag doll falling from a child's grip." It just takes choice of words, order of words, and phrasing. Read it to yourself and think "is this really good sounding?"   There you have your opening sentence. But you can't have an opening sentence without connecting it to something, right? Read the next paragraph to find out how to write a good story beginning!   Beginning   The beginning of the story, after the opening sentence, really depends on the opening sentence's type. If it was a more suspenseful sentence, then the beginning of your story will probably be more action-filled, whereas if it's a quiet, rational opening sentence, the more likely path the story will take is a calm one. For example if your opening sentence is, "Tanya didn't know how she fell, it just sort of happened that way," you could continue it by saying "One minute she was on solid ground, the next she was hurtling towards a grass covered ground, at least 30 feet beneath the cliff. She wondered briefly how she should land, she had read about people falling in books. She adjusted herself so that her body was parallel to the earth to minimize impact. This would be a cinch as lon gas she kept in position, she thought to herself as she hurtled towards the earth and fell with a resounding thump on the wet soil." Or if you started with a calmer scene, you could take something like, "She didn't know how she failed that test," and continue it with, "It wasn't so much that she hadn't studied, because she definitely had. It was more of something with the teacher. Mrs. Palmer just plain hated adopted students. She would always be caught muttering to herself about how silly it was to take a child who wasn't yours, and how strange it was for somebody of no relation to the parents to live with them. She thought that it should be illegal. So the day that Liz got that quiz grade, it would be obvious that she was angry. She should have aced that quiz. She would have aced that quiz, if it hadn't been for that stupid Mrs. Palmer." See, that's a more tame start.   And from your start, just keep going. Don't give the middle of the story until you're ready for middle. That means that you have to take the time to get to know the characters that are in the story, but giving little personality tidbits. For example, if Adrienne was very quiet, you could show that by saying, "The others began excitedly chattering, while Adrienne amused herself by reading a book. 'What do you think of this skirt on me?' Claire asked Natalie, 'does it look good?' A few girls clumped around Claire, making various comments about the skirt. Adrienne happily read glad that she was not included in the conversation." See? Just from that little tiny segment of a story, you were able to tell so much about that character. And that is exactly what we are aiming for. The introduction is where you get to know little things about the characters—you learn more in the next section: the middle.   The Middle   You could call it the middle. You could call it rising action. You could call it building suspense. Any way you put it, the middle is the most exciting part of the story.   In the middle, you've given the conflict some time to simmer. Now it's getting to a boiling point. Like popcorn when you don't hold the lid down, it's going to pop out. That's what happens in the middle. The conflict shows itself. Not it's whole self, mind you, just some of it. The ending is really where it comes out.   In the middle of the story, you've got a lot of things happening, things changing. For example, here could be a section of the middle: "Sophia clung to the railing of the steep stairs, cursing under her breath every few minutes. It was so difficult, having to walk carrying a heavy pack all the way. She breathed a sigh of relief when the reached the top of the stairs. Setting the parcel down, she relaxed for a minute or two and let her guard down. Her eyelids drooped, her breathing marked the seconds between being awake and being asleep. Just as she was about to drift off, she heard footsteps behind her. She stood up and whirled around. It was Xavier. 'Xavier, what are you doing here?' Sophia asked her eyes wide with confusion. 'You said you'd died.' 'I've come to help you get out of this mess.' Xavier replied. 'Believe me, it wasn't my idea.'"   As you can see in this scene, the characters relationships are changing, and you're starting to see the nature of each. Although Xavier obviously doesn't like Sophia that much, he still came to help her. That's really important for the middle of a story.   The End   The end of a story is when all sides clash. It's when good meets bad, when the largest crisis in the story takes place. Somewhere in the middle of this, the crisis ends and things get back to normal. Either that or you have a suspenseful ending. In the ending, something you have to make sure is that you have a powerful closing.   For example, if you wrote, "They both apologized and lived happily ever after," or something of that effect, change it to something like this: "Ben and Clara stood under the silvery haze of an incandescent moon, looking out over the ocean. There were so many words unspoken, so many ties healed, so many things going on between the two as Ben's hand brushed Clara's. In that one gesture, Ben was saying everything, and Clara listened. In her mind the words rang out: 'I'm sorry, Clara. I'm sorry.'"   The ending really has to convey a moral, basically the meaning of the book. If the book was saying, "Stick with your team, don't leave when things get bad," make an ending where the characters learn that! That's basically the end section for you. Don't make the rest of it too long, 3 or 4 pages are plenty. You don't want too much of the suspenseful scene or it will just get pretty old. The chaos can only last so long.     Well, my guide is done. I hope that this helped you.   Now get writing!   -- Posted by barnabas at 8:53 pm on Dec. 31, 2008 A Guide to Writing Song Lyrics By: Tri Argentum Okay, the reason why I post this is because I know there are people on this forum who are interested in music. Some of those are in a band or solo-artists who want to make music.   For the lyricists it will be handy, to have a kind of tutorial to make professional song lyrics. If you use this structure it will definite benefit the impression you leave.   NOTE: This will not work for rap lyrics   NOTE 2: Tutorial song will be a love song   ---------------------------------------------------------   Subject matter   Most people have the most difficulty to find a good topic to address. A good topic is half of a good song. So what makes a topic good and what makes a topic bad?   - Originality   How often have you heard a song about love.. about problems. I've heard them always. On the TV, on the radio. But almost none of the songs sound the same. None of the lyrics are the same. (Outside of covers)   So originality is definitely in play. For this tutorial we'll make yet another love song. But saying "I love you" seems dull if you do it constantly. So think of a good way to say it.   - Working it out   For example, I love a very special every day of the year. I definitely want to be with her, though the bad-side is that we're apart from now. So I want to go to her, who can blame me? A way to get to her is through a plane. What does a plane do? It flies. It flies heading West, in my case. So I'll be flying on the eastern-wind.   There we have it, a good subject... the eastern-wind flying me to my love.   Chorus   A chorus is the thing people will remember, and is broken down in a few things: title-line, hooklines and filler.   - Title-line   This is that special line, which gives you the title of your song. For our topic, the line "I let the eastern-wind take me away towards you" would be good. Don't worry about it's length, we'll work this out later.   - Hooklines   These are the lines which will be stuck your listeners ears, the thing which makes the song catchy. But how do you make it catchy? Relating and repeating, the double "R". Love is a subject which people can relate to. So all we have to do is repeating it.   "I want to be there, I want to be with you"   That may work. Again, we'll work this out later.   - Filler   This is basically everything else in the chorus. Which makes it sound good. For example the words between the title-line and the hooklines are filler. They're not important, but they make it sound better.   - Laying the pieces in the puzzle   Okay, we now have a title-line and a hookline.   "I let the eastern-wind take me away to you" and "I want to be there, I want to be with you".   Now how do we make a good chorus out of this? By puzzling.   First thing we do is breaking out the most important words and parts.   For the title-line those are "Eastern-wind", "take me" and "away with you".   For the hookline, they are "There", "With you" and "want to".   Now just play around with until you find a good chorus, that you like. Here are a few examples for this one:   Version 1:     Eastern-wind, won't you take me away....   I want to be there, I wanna be there with you...   I want to be there, I wanna be there with you...     Version 2:     I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, together with you, my love...   Owh Eastern-wind, why won't you take me away..     Version 3:     I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...     In my opinion, I like the third version the most. So I'll keep that one in mind.   Pre-chorus   Beside the chorus, a pre-chorus is also important. These take the listener from the verses to the chorus, without any loss of sense and building up the tension.   A best thing to address in the pre-chorus, is the main reason why the person singing wants to do what is said in the chorus.   So in our example, why do I want the eastern-wind to take me to my love? Because I love her, I want to spend time with her and because we're too far apart.   That contains three examples which are all useful. Now keeping in mind that the verses usually are examples or filler, and sometimes showcasing, we have to build it like it starts from scratch.   So we firstly need something to introduce the topic.   "I guess you all know how I feel   Seeing as we all have some love"   Then we need the next lines to address the desire.   "And all I want in this lifespan   Is to be with the girl I love"   And the last lines to run up to the chorus.   "But we're an entire ocean apart   Owh, eastern-wind take me away" (!!! Note the repeat of the title-line)   Now we have 6 lines, which is the normal pre-chorus length. But it doesn't rhyme too well. Let's make it rhyme well.   This is mostly hard for a lot of people, but let's think of what a rhyme is. A rhyme is not the same letters in the last syllable. A rhyme is making the last syllable(s) sound similar. Think of the pronouncing of words, both in general and in your accent.   Note: Disregard the rules of grammar here. If it sounds good, it sounds good. Don't let yourself be limited by grammar.   (Before rhymes)     I guess you all know how I feel   Seeing as we all have some love   And all I want in this lifespan   Is to be with the girl I love   But we're an entire ocean apart   Owh, eastern-wind, take me away     (With rhymes and grammar disregard)     I suppose you all know how it goes   Boy loves girl |\-------- (means length the last syllable)   My one wish in this life I chose   Is to share my world |\--------   We're so far, lay me up the nose   Of the |\------ eastern-wind     Notice all those "|\-------" signs? They are a reminder to lengthen that syllable. Because of the last line, it's smart to insert it, otherwise I might forget it.   Verse 1   The first verse has one very special purpose. It's to build up the entire feeling for the song. It's the first thing people will hear you singing, so you have to make sure this sounds good.   Like the pre-chorus, it needs to build up the tension. Together with the pre-chorus is assures a climax on the chorus and make people be enstrangled by the song. That makes an amazing song and possible singing, because it has profitable potential.   But, let's get back to the verse. We have to start from nothing. From silence we have to make a climax. So we have to grab the attention of the listener with 8 lines. Remember that song from Eminem "When I'm Gone" and "Mockingbird"? They are a good example of the building up and grabbing the listener. The both start with expressing the feeling of love. And they immediately expose the problem the topic is.   Those are the two things you need; expressing the feeling and exposing the problem. You have 8 lines for that, so I strongly advice you to use the MC way for it. Use half of the 8 lines for the first thing, and the remaining lines for the second thing. So that means 4 lines for each. Let's get started.   Firstly, the draft..     Have you ever felt so strong for a person   That you want to be with her day and night   From dusk until dawn, just the two of you   Beyond this superficial earth   How would you feel if space devides you then   And all you have is the daydreams   You think of it at night, but it doesn't come true   So you're stuck with the longing for her     Now, we'll disregard the rules of grammar. Together with that we make it rhyme and show why you're such a good lyricist.     You've ever felt to relate to this portret   Two people in love with one another   Beyond defined love, never to reword it   Through all the days and nights   But then suddenly the image is ripped   And alive only when I close my eyes   I think of it at night and when I've tipped   My mind for longing to be with her     Now that looks way better, doesn't it?   Verse 2   The second verse has a lot less to worry about. All you have to mind, is keep up with the level of the song. So make it as good as you can. The best way to do this is to go in more deeply in the feeling of the song, in this case the desire to be with the one you love.   So how we do that? We can say how bad we want it, but we can do better. Keeping in mind it's a love song, we can go into a more sappy verse. By saying what you'd do if you were with her.   Things that come to my mind are the practical things, so I'll go with that. With whatever you get in your mind, you can work.   So, again, let's start with a draft.. Let's list a few things I want to do then.     If I'm there, I want to walk the sandy beaches with you   I want to have a candle dinner   I want to kiss that very special girl   I want to fullfill all your wishes   I'm I'm together with you, I want it to last forever   I want us to have a good time   I want to lay with you at night   I want to put your dreams to reality.     That's got a lot of potential, so let's work it out. A good idea would to give as much detail as possible. So that you can kind of see that image in your mind.   It's okay to leave out a few things, as long as the overal seems good. You can leave grammar out of this, if you want, just make sure the rhyming works.     Just want to walk in the branding of the ocean   Under the pale moon, together with you   Just want to share my food and moisture   Right before our lips meet in the candle light   I want to share those moments through time   Just to be able to always see you smile   And as we're laying down, together interwined   I want to make all your dreams real     I think we have a good second verse here.   Verse 3   - Verse or instrumental?   Not all songs have a third verse, some songs have a guitar solo or an instrumental part instead. Or have another vocalist on it.   So how do I know what will be best? I suppose that depends on having a band or being a solo artist. If you're in a band, it might be nice to have an instrumenal solo from the guitarist, the drummer or bassguitarist. Just let them do their thing.   But assuming not all songs are done by bands, I'll explain the third verse as well.   - Third verse   The third verse should be independant, so having a total new perspective. On happy songs, a more sadder part works best. The reason why it should be a different perspective, is because it should be able to be put out easily, without wrecking the song.   So think of the titlelines and the hooklines of the chorus again. Then think either a bit of a sad point of view for it, an acknowledgement for it, or something similar.   For this one, we'll keep it to the perspective that it isn't reality as of yet. So it's basically a dream.   Just remember to make the thought pattern go back to the pre-chorus in the last lines.   And as ussual, we start with a draft...     Yet as I lay here in my bed   After just signing out of MSN   I'm left without you close by   Missing you next to my side   As the hours get late and I miss you more   I somehow find myself with a smile   Knowing what time will bring   Knowing the wind will bring me to you     So now we have a draft, we can make it a verse. Same routine as normal; forget grammar, make it good and make it rhyme.     Yet as I lay with the pillow under my head   And your memory fresh inside me   I miss your pressence so very bad- |\------ ly   Missing you so close, so next to me   My clock shows the hours getting later   And I'm partial able to fall asleep   Knowing what time has in her cradle   Knowing the eastern-wind will bring you     Bridge   If you choose to have a third verse, you must have a bridge. This holds the sole intent to "bridge" the gap between the third verse and the rest of the song.   So from   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   To   Yet as I lay with the pillow under my head   And your memory fresh inside me   I miss your pressence so very bad- |\------ ly   Missing you so close, so next to me   Knowing that we have 4 lines to do this, makes the bridge the hardest part. I personally, do a 2 line outroduction for the chorus and a 2 line introduction for the third verse. While doing this, I use the whole pattern of the chorus.   So, this is how it'll be then:     I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, but alas I know it's a dream   (I want to...)But somehow I find myself blue   Sad from being so far apart from love     Assembling the song   We now have all the pieces, so it's simply putting them in the right sequence.   Which is very simple, here's the blueprint for it...   [Chorus] (Optional, depending on the introduction)   [Verse 1]   [Pre-chorus]   [Chorus]   [Chorus]   [Verse 2]   [Pre-chorus]   [Chorus]   [Chorus]   [Bridge] (Optional, depending if there's a third verse)   [Verse 3] (Optional)   [Pre-chorus]   [Chorus]   [Chorus]   [Chorus]   [Chorus]   How the song goes   [Chorus]   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   [Verse]:[1]   You've ever felt to relate to this portret   Two people in love with one another   Beyond defined love, never to reword it   Through all the days and nights   But then suddenly the image is ripped   And alive only when I close my eyes   I think of it at night and when I've tipped   My mind for longing to be with her   [Pre-chorus]   I suppose you all know how it goes   Boy loves girl |\-------- (means length the last syllable)   My one wish in this life I chose   Is to share my world |\--------   We're so far, lay me up the nose   Of the |\------ eastern-wind   [Chorus]   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   [Verse]:[2]   Just want to walk in the branding of the ocean   Under the pale moon, together with you   Just want to share my food and moisture   Right before our lips meet in the candle light   I want to share those moments through time   Just to be able to always see you smile   And as we're laying down, together interwined   I want to make all your dreams real   [Pre-chorus]   I suppose you all know how it goes   Boy loves girl |\-------- (means length the last syllable)   My one wish in this life I chose   Is to share my world |\--------   We're so far, lay me up the nose   Of the |\------ eastern-wind   [Chorus]   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   [Bridge]   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, but alas I know it's a dream   (I want to...)But somehow I find myself blue   Sad from being so far apart from love   [Verse]:[3]   Yet as I lay with the pillow under my head   And your memory fresh inside me   I miss your pressence so very bad- |\------ ly   Missing you so close, so next to me   My clock shows the hours getting later   And I'm partial able to fall asleep   Knowing what time has in her cradle   Knowing the eastern-wind will bring you   [Pre-chorus]   I suppose you all know how it goes   Boy loves girl |\-------- (means length the last syllable)   My one wish in this life I chose   Is to share my world |\--------   We're so far, lay me up the nose   Of the |\------ eastern-wind   [Chorus]   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   I want to be there, I want to be there with you...   (I want to...)   I want the Eastern-wind to take me away...   Finishing it   All you have to do now, is give it a small introduction and outroduction. This I leave up to you. You have your own style for that.   And all that remains now is practice it a couple of times and you have a good song. -- Posted by barnabas at 8:55 pm on Dec. 31, 2008 Poetry Writing Guidelines By: Anonymousss *All information courtesy of Writing Poems:  Sixth Edition, The Poetry of Robert Frost, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry:  Vol.1, 2 and my ol' noodle.  Other additions provided by:  Katerie. It has come to my attention that this particular forum yields a multitude of writers, and more specifically, poets.  It has also come to my attention that many of you...need help.  I can see a lot of potential in quite a few of you, but I think, perhaps, you need some guidance and instruction.  So...voila. Key Definitions Writing Taboos -Clichés -Mixed Metaphors -Obscurity/Abstractions -Forced/Altering rhyme schemes -Redundancy -Applying Angst Effectively -Ambiguous/Redundant Wording Writing Essentials -Titling a Poem -Line breaking/Form -Imagery -Metaphors/Similes -Assonance/Internal Rhyme/Alliteration -Tone -Spelling/Grammar/Punctuation -Theme -Originality -Revision Common Types of Poems I. Acrostic II. Ballad III. Blank Verse IV. Cinquain V. Clerihew VI. Diamante VII. Epitaph VIII. Free Verse IX. Haiku X. Heroic Couplet XI. Limerick XII. Monody XIII. Monorhyme XIV. Ode XV. Palindrome XVI. Quatrain XVII. Sonnet XVIII. Tanka XIX. Villanelle