United Kingdom

Now, George, don't mix em up. Hordes are not whores.. well, some of em are .. but generally speaking.. no.

My Pa told me to stay away from hordes and save my money.

I can see that facepalming here is going to be common practice.

Aw, it's not so bad.
All you need is some patience.
mmm - of course, only doctors have patients . . .
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Mmm . . .
And - if tennis players get "Tennis Elbow" . . .
then do golfers get "Golf-balls?"
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Damn, that was funny!

My appologies ladies and gents, you know I cant pass on a good pun.

Hello everyone,
I have a lined pad in my travelling bag, but I rarely write songs on it, just verse and odd thoughts (which I suppose might later spawn a song?); for me the computer is god: write a line and look at it, then punch in different words or write it again underneath and delete the first one... it gives so much freedom and space to think.

I find that once you have got a few key words and ideas on the screen the song will grow from it... often it is on seeing my first lines that I see the action growing ahead and the second verse grows from that.
And put it up in 14 point Tahoma... works well for me, or something else big and clear but with a style to it, and with the screen at 150%; this also seems to strangely have some bearing on how easily words come... avoid Times new Roman like the plague, I know I cannot think in it, and find it leads nowhere!

If I can visualise what is happening in the action of the song then I can write it; for me the hardest bit is seeing the story or action in my mind's eye... and those elusive handles? How do people think up those lines that your mind's eyes grabs hold of... "There must be five million bicycles in Beijing"... what a first line; then: "That's a fact!" Though I bet no one has ever gone out and counted them!
That's the art of it in a way I think... that line that leaves everyone saying, yes I think I believe that, when it was actually just the first thing that entered the writer's mind.

If you really find it impossible to get started at all; go out in somewhere like London, and sit on a bridge... start making lists of things you can see; then describe some people walking past; and write what you think they could be thinking, or what appears maybe to have happened to them... then back home to the computer, but remember, not Times New Roman!

I saw Mark Knopfler saying that he felt, that being able to devote his life to writing songs was such a great privilage... to have the time and money to just do that.
If I get rich I will go to a little fishing village on an island in Greece, and spend the winter writing songs and books... if only life could be like that!
Mark.....................

Hello everyone,
I have a lined pad in my travelling bag, but I rarely write songs on it, just verse and odd thoughts (which I suppose might later spawn a song?); for me the computer is god: write a line and look at it, then punch in different words or write it again underneath and delete the first one... it gives so much freedom and space to think.

I find that once you have got a few key words and ideas on the screen the song will grow from it... often it is on seeing my first lines that I see the action growing ahead and the second verse grows from that.
And put it up in 14 point Tahoma... works well for me, or something else big and clear but with a style to it, and with the screen at 150%; this also seems to strangely have some bearing on how easily words come... avoid Times new Roman like the plague, I know I cannot think in it, and find it leads nowhere!

If I can visualise what is happening in the action of the song then I can write it; for me the hardest bit is seeing the story or action in my mind's eye... and those elusive handles? How do people think up those lines that your mind's eyes grabs hold of... "There must be five million bicycles in Beijing"... what a first line; then: "That's a fact!" Though I bet no one has ever gone out and counted them!
That's the art of it in a way I think... that line that leaves everyone saying, yes I think I believe that, when it was actually just the first thing that entered the writer's mind.

If you really find it impossible to get started at all; go out in somewhere like London, and sit on a bridge... start making lists of things you can see; then describe some people walking past; and write what you think they could be thinking, or what appears maybe to have happened to them... then back home to the computer, but remember, not Times New Roman!

I saw Mark Knopfler saying that he felt, that being able to devote his life to writing songs was such a great privilage... to have the time and money to just do that.
If I get rich I will go to a little fishing village on an island in Greece, and spend the winter writing songs and books... if only life could be like that!
Mark.....................

I can dig it. Although in Greece the Oozo may affect my comprehension.

The Oozo lol
Yes.. good times

That bit about the font size and type just seems way weird to me.
I make a window and just size it so I can see the part(s) of the song I'm working on.
The typeface doesn't make any difference. None.
As to thinking in"Times New Roman?" What're you talking about?
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I put myself in the setting of the song, and then I mentally look around.
What do I see? What emotions do I feel? What emotions is the person in the song feeling? What do I hear, see, feel, smell? What events might be coming up in the lives of the characters in the song? What do they want to happen, as opposed to what IS happening for them . . .
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'Thinking in a font-type' just seems weird. I just get the ideas, and type them in.
Don't try to make a simple process sound complicated.

What do you think?

Hello Rythmn Man,
I wasn't being emtirely serious when I said I always avoided Times New Roman font, though having said that I do try to avoid it as I find it the least artistically interesting font.
I was trying more to sell the idea of letting yourself get into the setting and mood of something... in fact almost to a detail what you have said yourself below Rythmn Man!
I have tried to write novels over the previous 10 years, all have bombed totally, but my only published book is a little flying training manual published in the States... anyway, I was going to add that when I write a book I feel completely tongue-tied in Times New Roman, and am completely a Tahoma man these days!

I agree in one sense that it is a simple process, but in another sense I find the reasons that seperate days it works from days it dies a death, hellishly complex.
I still believe getting the writing medium you will be looking at right, is a big factor, for some... others it would not effect.
For me for example, if I use a small font size I need to wear my reading glasses to write, and as I like to write with my guitar round my neck so I can wander round the room twanging now and then, with my reading glasses on the room and view outside is just a blur... and if I wander twanging into the garden I fall over things!

True that writing a song can be as simple as you like, but the finer points are sometimes effected by more subtle factors than we are aware of I think.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Mark D Phillips.....................


"That bit about the font size and type just seems way weird to me.
I make a window and just size it so I can see the part(s) of the song I'm working on.
The typeface doesn't make any difference. None.
As to thinking in"Times New Roman?" What're you talking about?
.
I put myself in the setting of the song, and then I mentally look around.
What do I see? What emotions do I feel? What emotions is the person in the song feeling? What do I hear, see, feel, smell? What events might be coming up in the lives of the characters in the song? What do they want to happen, as opposed to what IS happening for them . . .
.
'Thinking in a font-type' just seems weird. I just get the ideas, and type them in.
Don't try to make a simple process sound complicated.

What do you think?"

First, let me say this:
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A writer's best friend is the wastebasket.
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I spent years and years writing music with a pencil and paper.
And - my handwriting's pretty unique - when I write fast, no one but me can read it.
And - it takes me a lot longer to read my handwriting than any printed typeface.
As a result, I spent much more time thinking about every single word of the song.
And - that's good. I got the sentence down with my ideas, right away.
Then I was forced to think about what I just said, reading it as if for the first time, word by word.
If you can read a whole sentence in a rush - you're not putting as much thought into it as you are able to.
Change just one word - and you'll change the meaning of a sentence . . .
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I've since formed the habit of first getting the meaning, and then putting that into words. But without handwriting it.
I try use the words that get my meaning across best. Not just words that are 'good enough.'
I'll change words for ones that better get my meaning across. And in the process, sometimes I find it's better to erase entire sentences.
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A writer's best friend is the wastebasket. Remember that, and you'll become a better writer.
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I know some writers start writing, and hope to discover meaning by doing so.
But to me, writing is not a 'process of writing,' but a process of thinking.
Writing only comes afterwards, for me . . . sometimes simulataneously.
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When one doesn't know what to write about, one can just start writing off the top of one's head. You might be even babbling about what you ate for breakfast or something, but by the 3rd or 4th sentence, your writing will change direction towards something more meaningful.
That process is different than what I was talking about. It's just a way to find a topic to write about.
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But once we have the topic, you'll get better prose by going slow. Anthing that slows you from putting the word down will also force you into more thinking time about exactly, specifically - what meaning you want to get across.
If you feel blocked 1/2 way through a sentence - then you're probably not saying exactly what you were thinking.
If we find ourselves stopped, thinking of the best way to end a particular sentence; then sometimes it's because the thought behind the sentence was taking the wrong direction.
It's better to erase than to write something you may not entirely agree with.
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Heck - did I mention something about babbling earlier?

Hi Don,
Yes I agree with everything you say there... and the waste bin for me is the delete button on the keyboard.
I love the freedom my computer gives me to write a bit, and another bit, then thinking of something that might go well between them I can shunt some space in between and write in another bit.
And as I write with the guitar round my neck I can bash in some extra line spaces to write some chords into as the music forms.

Before I tried writing novels I always wrote songs on paper, but it was certainly after I started the novel writing process that I took to song writing on screen.

Interesting to hear the angle other people take on writing.
Mark.......................

Thanks SP,
I will take a look at Magneto... I sometimes finish just for fun in one of those kind of joined up fonts: Bookman or something I think, but mostly I am a dyed in the wool Tahoma man!

I think many will be effected by the font: if you are artistic, and remember that music is a creative artistic process, then it is quite likely that what you are looking at as you write will effect how easily your ideas flow... as apparently soon in the UK small chlidren may be learning to write in joined up writing because it creates a natural mental flow.

As Mark Knopfler said, we are privilaged to be making songs and should feel lucky talking about it... how dull life might be without that distillation!
Mark..............

Hi all,
It was a bit obscure, but I meant the distillation of life into song.
Mark................