My Tips for Better Poetry and Lyrics: As Seen in the Fourms

[BG Painter]

Heyo everyone! I'm paintbrushguitar. You may have seen my lyrics/poetry on the Lyrics and Poetry Forum. I've been writing for a long time and wanted to write some helpful tips I use to help you guys. Enjoy! *These aren't in any order of importance*

• Carry a Journal Everywhere You Go Carrying a journal or notepad or stickynotes helps you be able to jot down any one-liners or themes you may want to capture. If you hear something you think would sound good write it down.
• Its Okay to Use Rhyming Dictionaries I've heard it so many times, "A good poet or lyricist doesn't need a rhyming dictionary; that would be cheating." It's not cheating. It's using the resources around you to your advantage. I mean, I don't have every single word that rhymes together memorized. I'm human!
• A Poem/Song is Never Done Until it's Done Sounds weird I know. Personally, I will write a song in about 4 or so minutes. The words just flow out of me and then its done. I know most people aren't like that. But after I write it, I don't look at it again for awhile. When I come back to it, I take a different colored pen or pencil and edit it. I use standard proofreading marks. If you don't know what those are here's a good website for you: here. Its a printable too!
• Use Metaphors and Descriptive Language If by any chance you saw my comment on kurlman's post "Sixty Years Caged". You would know I told him a few pointers about this. Descriptive language includes metaphors, smilies, personification, hyperboles, onomatopoeia, adjectives, adverbs, themes, emotions, etc. All of these play a part in trying to reach a broader audience. If you write about a personal experience, chances are some might not connect because its too specific. Here's an example of my own work that is too specific:

VERSE 1

Let's take a drive at night
To that place we like
Watch the stars light up the sky
As they shine
Far away wonders
Unlike any other
While I'm by your side
Let's stay here awhile
3 o'clock in the morning
We should get going
So our parents won't know
But after some time
No signs of goodbye

CHORUS

When we got to my place
I felt my heart race
This is something I can't erase
At home. in my room
I danced around like a fool
My little piece of heaven
At 3:27

... (BRIDGE)

... At the park
In the dark
It's just you and me
And it just turned 3

This song is about a time my boyfriend and I were supposed to be seeing a school play but instead we went to the park above our school and hung out. It happened March 27 therefore the song is called 3:27. In this case referencing the time 3:27 AM. Here's another example of a song I wrote before and after I changed it:

VERSE 1
You probably don't know me
and if you do
I'd be shocked
Because you've been empty
doubt you realize how it hurts me
Every time you walk away

CHORUS
Don't you see
Why
I'm standing here
Can't you see
That
t's not an illusion
I know I
Can't
Latch on to you baby
Why do I
Have to love you?

VERSE 2
Ineed to leave and stop caring
It makes life harder on me
We made a
Promise that you broke
Do you now how you're hurting me
Every time you walk away

CHORUS
Don't you see
Why
I'm standing here
Can't you see
That
It's not an illusion
I know I
Can't
Latch on to you baby
Why do I
Have to love you?

---

VERSE 1
You probably don't know me
but if you did
I'd be surprised
Because the last few months
I've been watching you
Block me out of your life
Do you know how much it hurt me
To see you leave me

CHORUS
Can't you see me
Standing in front of you
Dont you know why
I came back
I can't hold on to you
No not anymore
Why do you make me love you
love you

VERSE 2
I need to
Fly away and stop turning back
It's the sound of
Your heartbeat bringing me back
Life is
A neverending path
Through the darkness
I thought you light could help me out
But the string attaching our hearts
is frrayed
But I didn't notice
Until you walked away

CHORUS
Can't you see me
Standing in front of you
Dont you know why
I came back
I can't hold on to you
No not anymore
Why do you make me love you
love you

BRIDGE
So now it's been a year
I stitched my heart closed
I built a tower
And chained it up
But then he came along
It took me some time
Before I gave him the key
Because

CHORUS
Did you know I've
Been standing in front of you
No, because you made me a ghost
Dont you know why
I came back
No, you left when I needed you most
I can't hold on to you
No I can't hold on to you
I've found someone whos stayed true
So why do you keep on trying to make me love you
Oh to love you
to love you

• Rhyme Scheme People seem to have the most difficulty with this. They think every line has to rhyme with the last. In the above songs I've written you'll see that's not the case. The first song had more rhyming in it. That's mostly because it is newer than the second one. I used to use no rhyming at all. And that's okay! Personally, it doesn't flow as well. Making a song rhyme is difficult believe me. Usually, when I write a song, I end up changing the wording of some lines so they rhyme and flow better. If I don't have access to a rhyming dictionary, I go through the alphabet and try making words with the given sound. For example:the words is Cat. Aat, Bat, Cat, Dat, Eat, Fat, Gat, Hat, Iat, Jat, Kat, Lat, Mat, (G)Nat, Oat, Pat, Qat, Rat, Sat, Tat, Uat, Vat, Wat, Xat, Yat, Zat. Like That

Now Here's the whole process with a song of mine.

If the given lines are

"Watching / Waiting / Seeking the victims / Ready to rip your heart out / Gazing eyes / To detect the lies / Which are all piled up"

These don't really rhyme or flow. Sure they sound pretty creepy, but it isn't portray what I want it to. This song is about a boy who acts differently around different people trying to please everyone, but isn't being himself. This is the opening lines of the song. They are about the people such as paparazzi, kids at school or whomever who want to bring you down. They try looking for the lies. That's why I chose this as the beginning of the song about a boy who pretends to be so many people to please everyone.
So I look at the first part, "Watching / Waiting / Seeking the victims". The -ing verbs have a nice flow that isn't too obvious like saying the cat wears a hat. Moving on to the next part, "Ready to rip your heart out". This doesn't work at all with the previous line "Seeking the victims". So first I look up words that rhyme with victims because I like that word in this context. I can't find anything so I move on to out. Still nothing. Then I use a thesaurus and look up words related to victims. I find the word prey. Hmmm. I like this one. So then I look up words that rhyme with prey. I find entree. Since originally I was going for a menacing monster that would eat a heart, I put together this: "Watching / Waiting / Seeking the prey / Serve the heart as the entree". See the difference? Plus it really captures more of a fear aspect.
Moving on to the next set, "Gazing eyes / to detect the lies / Which are all piled up". One thing you should know in songwriting or poetry but mostly songwriting, is that you can't have too many syllables in one line. Otherwise it doesn't flow properly. Imagine a favorite song of yours, you know, the one you change the words to. Usually when you change the words, what happens? It doesn't match the beat. There's always a beat to a song or poem whether you know of it or not. "Gazing eyes /To detect the lies" sounds a bit rushed to me. De-tect being 2 syllables needs to be replaced by a 1-syllable word. Here's the hard thing about it. Detect is a stronger word. It really shows what you are trying to say. However, because of two reasons, I can change it: 1. Surrounding that word is a lot of other strong words and metaphors. It's almost too much and needs a weaker word there. and 2. This isn't an elementary school essay. You know when you learned strong and weak verbs. Like mad is weaker than enraged. And happy is weaker than overjoyed. Not every verb needs to be a strong one.
So I look through a thesaurus for words that are synonyms to detect or related to. Remember I'm only looking for 1-syllable words. I find words like find, spot, notice, uncover, see, etc. I try working in different words, maybe even changing the wording a bit, of all of them except the simplest ones like see, find etc. But nothing works. I do this so that way I still capture what I'm trying to say. I don't want to say someone was sad when really they were distraught. Finally, I'll use the simple words. I find that "see" works the best.
The next part, "Which are all piled up" doesn't flow with "eyes" or "lies". I mean you could look up rhymes but personally, I know that high rhymes with these two. And it is related to up.
So all together the opening lines will be:

"Watching / Waiting / Seeking the prey / Serve the heart as the entree / Gazing eyes / To see the lies / Which are all piled high"

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments, reply to this thread! Good luck writing!!

[BG Painter]

https://g.page/r/CWhJHTX6DgClEAE

[Semijo89]

Most of us do not like the poetry that much and many of us ignore it not to tell everyone though so I helped the people to understand it better in a different way as other websites do such as https://www.campusrelief.org/tellald...ldi-us-survey/ where you can win 100 gift card at a survey that helps to make your life easier.

[annft]

I like this part

Did you know I've
Been standing in front of you
No, because you made me a ghost
Dont you know why
I came back

https://an-nft.com/