The must-have guide for songwriters, revised and updated with expanded chapters, 50 fun songwriting exercises, and examples from more than 20 chart-toppings songs.

A staple for songwriters for nearly two decades, Writing Better Lyrics provides effective tools for everything from generating ideas, to understanding the form and function of a song, to fine-tuning lyrics.

Perfect for new and experienced songwriters alike, this time-tested classic covers the basics in addition to more advanced techniques. Songwriters will discover:

• How to use sense-bound imagery to enhance a song's emotional impact on listeners
• Techniques for avoiding clichés and creating imaginative metaphors and similes
• Ways to use repetition as an asset
• How to successfully manipulate meter
• Instruction for matching lyrics with music
• Ways to build on ideas and generate effective titles
• Advice for working with a co-writer

Writing Better Lyrics gives you all of the professional and creative insight you need to write powerful lyrics and put your songs in the spotlight where they belong.
INTRODUCTION

I'm very happy that songwriters have found Writing Better Lyrics helpful, and I'm grateful to be writing an introduction to a second edition. It's been a while since the first publication in 1995, and I've learned a lot since then, thanks to m y students at Berklee College of Music and the m any songwriters I've m et and worked with both in m y traveling seminars and m y online courses. Each tim e I teach, I learn something new from them — a real blessing in m y life to be on such a journey.

This edition has added alm ost one hundred new pages and has INTRODUCTION expanded and revised som e of the existing chapters.

I've enlarged the opening chapter on object writing with new (and, I think, m ore helpful) exam ples. Over the years, this exercise has proved to be a mainstay for m any successful songwriters, including Gram m y winners John Mayer and Gillian Welch. The additional m aterial in this chapter incorporates som e new and interesting ways to approach object writing, making it an even m ore useful way to brainstorm , open your senses, and discover unique ideas for your songs.

The chapters on verse development add examples and new material, introducing the concept of “boxes,” which students over the years have found helpful. I think you will, too.

I've found an interesting and, I hope, helpful way of thinking about rhymes, treating them the way you treat chords in a song.

It provides a clearer view of rhym e's function and will help you choose rhyme types for a reason.

The chapters on point of view also have a new look and suggest som e interesting ways to approach the process of finding the right perspective for your song.

I've added several new chapters that reflect work I've been doing since the first publication of Writing Better Lyrics. There's a chapter on the productive use of repetition, a chapter on showing and telling, and several “in the trenches” chapters on structure to help you m ake m ore inform ed decisions while in the heat of writing.

There are two new chapters on handling couplets and common meter. Each will take you through a series of expansions and manipulations of these structures to show you some new options and possibilities, while still keeping to familiar territory.

I've also added a chapter on prosody, the most fundamental principle of songwriting and, indeed, of art in general: the concept that all the elements of a song — chords, melody, rhythm , words, and lyric structure — should work together for a common purpose.

The centerpiece of this new material is the chapter called “Understanding Motion, ” which explores the intersections of rhythm , rhyme, and phrase length, and their use in creating prosody, which is support for the ideas and emotion of the lyric.

Motion creates emotion; knowing how to make structures m ove allows you to support your ideas on a whole new level. The chapter can also be used as a reference guide to stable and unstable structures.

I hope this edition will be helpful in m aking your lyrics work harder and better.

Write fearlessly. Have fun.

Pat Pattison, February 2009