Blog Post: Can Songs Teach Us Something About Writing Novels?

[From Our Blog]

New blog post by Claire G – discussions in this thread, please
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Rules and Commonalities

I’m not a musician but even I know that songs have a structure, verses and a chorus, that they often have a beginning, middle and end, that they can build to a crescendo, explore a narrative, evoke deep emotion and stay in our hearts forever. But just what is the magic ingredient that sets a great song apart from a merely good one?

Like novels, it seems there are ‘rules’ to follow – but do all songs conform to them? Do all books?

Of course not.

Yes, we need to understand the rules of each, but I think that’s so that we can make the right choices when we want to break them for impact.

I recently listened to I’m Ready by Bryan Adams. It’s a beautiful song and I love it, but as I listened, I realised that some people could consider it boring. It’s repetitive, it doesn’t build to a huge climax, it’s pretty quiet from start to finish. But the combination of the music and lyrics resonates with me. Is this a case where breaking the ‘rules’ works? For me, yes. What do you think?

In terms of books, it can be fun to experiment with the ‘rules’. I’ve tried writing using lots of points of view – which some authors, like Bernadine Evaristo, do really well, but which has its limitations. Some writers experiment with timelines, style and blending genres. Some handle transgressive subjects. Risk can be daunting, but it can be rewarding.



Emotional Aftertaste

Agent Pete used this phrase once and it stuck with me. It’s debatably the most important aspect of a song or novel. An example I can think of off the top of my head which evoked such emotion in me was the story Fractured by Dani Atkins (called Then and Always in the USA). I was an emotional wreck by the end of it! Likewise, The Giver by Lois Lowry totally flawed me. There are many songs which leave me experiencing strong feeling by the end of them – too many to list them all but one that immediately stands out is Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen. Gets me every time.



Experience

I’ve written an experimental novel (in terms of style and structure and its difficult subject matter) which is currently on submission to publishers. I think it’s unlikely to sell and I’ve been working on more traditionally-crafted books. But, it’s the one that a literary agent took notice of, so I don’t regret taking a risk in the writing of it. Also, it’s a book which has personal meaning to me, and it was cathartic to write it. I learned a lot from it. No writing is ever wasted.



Final Thoughts

If you’re a musician, can you expand on my simplistic understanding using your knowledge of songs and their structure?

Which songs/books left you with an emotional aftertaste?

Which songs can you think of that can teach us about writing – in a good way or bad?

Which books/songs ‘conform’ in your opinion and which break the ‘rules’? Are they effective? Why/why not?

What are the ‘magic ingredients’ of song writing and novel writing? How do they overlap/differ?
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By @Claire G
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…

 

[Mel L]

Songwriting marries my two favourite creative activities. Unfortunately I have no formal musical training so am unable to put notes on paper; also, I dislike applying rules to the process (even though I know they are necessary). Still, I often write and sing songs in my head.
When I hear a song that makes me thrill, most of the emotional response comes from the music -- although when the lyrics echo lived experience, that's what makes it so memorable.
I guess like with any art form, you have to learn the rules in order to break them successfully.

 

[Sedayne]

Wow @Claire G lots to think about here.

I was a prolific songwriter back in the 90s. I had a short burst of intense creativity over a few years when melancholy inspiration was abundant.
I also played and sang solo and as part of two duos at different times in my life. But music took a backseat when I was doing my MSc, and I never went back to it as a serious pursuit.

But I listen to the music I love every day, and my main characters are in a band together. I listen to music as I write. It drives emotion like nothing else.

For me, songwriting and novel writing are very different not just in the obvious way – a song can be written in an afternoon; a novel can take years – but in terms of tradition, convention and what might be considered 'rules' and the deviation from rules.
It's easy to deviate from rules of literature either by design or through ignorance, but you have to really go out of your way to break the rules in music because they are embedded whether the musician is aware of them or not. Chords, keys, modes and intervals have a feeling to them which we interpret as emotional, but it's as mathematical as any law of physics. I did learn music from a young age, but my understanding of music didn't come from lessons, it's more innate than that. Paul McCartney famously can't read music; John Lennon never had a music lesson in his life – it didn't hold them back.

I don't have to understand how gravity works to keep my feet on the ground, and I don't have to count the rhythm or plot the melody to write a song.
Writing is different. Most people (not all) are taught to read and write. It's not hard to understand, but it's still easy to get it wrong.
Music, particularly in popular traditions, is the opposite – harder to understand, but easier to have a go at and produce something half-way listenable or even bloody brilliant.

I think I am more consciously aware of structure when I am writing. Some of it is instinctive. But the craft of the rewrite brings as much joy as the freewheeling first draft. Music isn't like that. The first take is often the best and overworking will more than likely ruin it.

Emotionally, songwriting and story writing are the same. A micro and macro version of the same feeling. The emotional aftertaste is the same.

That feeling I had as a child on hearing David Bowie for the first time was not so different from how I felt when I read Rebecca's World (Terry Nation).
The feeling I get from listening to a Neil Young album is not so different from reading a John Irving novel. Just perhaps on a different scale.

Sorry for rambling on, but your post really struck something in me.

 

[Claire G]

Wow @Claire G lots to think about here.

I was a prolific songwriter back in the 90s. I had a short burst of intense creativity over a few years when melancholy inspiration was abundant.
I also played and sang solo and as part of two duos at different times in my life. But music took a backseat when I was doing my MSc, and I never went back to it as a serious pursuit.

But I listen to the music I love every day, and my main characters are in a band together. I listen to music as I write. It drives emotion like nothing else.

For me, songwriting and novel writing are very different not just in the obvious way – a song can be written in an afternoon; a novel can take years – but in terms of tradition, convention and what might be considered 'rules' and the deviation from rules.
It's easy to deviate from rules of literature either by design or through ignorance, but you have to really go out of your way to break the rules in music because they are embedded whether the musician is aware of them or not. Chords, keys, modes and intervals have a feeling to them which we interpret as emotional, but it's as mathematical as any law of physics. I did learn music from a young age, but my understanding of music didn't come from lessons, it's more innate than that. Paul McCartney famously can't read music; John Lennon never had a music lesson in his life – it didn't hold them back.

I don't have to understand how gravity works to keep my feet on the ground, and I don't have to count the rhythm or plot the melody to write a song.
Writing is different. Most people (not all) are taught to read and write. It's not hard to understand, but it's still easy to get it wrong.
Music, particularly in popular traditions, is the opposite – harder to understand, but easier to have a go at and produce something half-way listenable or even bloody brilliant.

I think I am more consciously aware of structure when I am writing. Some of it is instinctive. But the craft of the rewrite brings as much joy as the freewheeling first draft. Music isn't like that. The first take is often the best and overworking will more than likely ruin it.

Emotionally, songwriting and story writing are the same. A micro and macro version of the same feeling. The emotional aftertaste is the same.

That feeling I had as a child on hearing David Bowie for the first time was not so different from how I felt when I read Rebecca's World (Terry Nation).
The feeling I get from listening to a Neil Young album is not so different from reading a John Irving novel. Just perhaps on a different scale.

Sorry for rambling on, but your post really struck something in me.

So interesting!

 

[Jonny]

Very interesting post, Claire, and what @Sedayne says resonates really strongly with me.

Before novel writing I played guitar in bands of different styles. From Prog Rock to Country Rock and still do play a bit. Have written some music and the occasional song and have heard lots of artists talk on the subject in interviews.

There are definitely many similarities between writing a novel and a song. There are also many differences as Sedayne mentions. Music is less forgiving in rule breaking and yet it can be done. For example Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (stylistically) broke every accepted norm regarding what a pop song should have been in the early 70s.

But to break the rules of music - scales, keys and chord structures, rhythm etc. - will more often than not be particularly unappealing to the ear, not unless you're a fan of the avantgarde.

Lyrics are almost a musical blurb because of the nature of their brevity, yet they can tell a complete story in 3 verses & choruses and a bridge. The bridge being less common these days in mainstream pop where so much of the 'song' is production techniques and hooks.

Often, when we listen to a song that hits home to us, we do a lot of subconsciously joining the dots by what lyrics infer. But in a well written song characters, situations, stakes and emotions are brought to life just as they are in books.

A great lyricist and novelist are, in my view, two branches of the one tree.

 

[Barbara]

Lyrics are almost a musical blurb because of the nature of their brevity, yet they can tell a complete story in 3 verses & choruses and a bridge

This.

Good lyrics can evoke emotion and mood in hardly any words at all. A bit like poetry, I guess, only, more of a stream of consciousness or more cryptic, maybe.