Ballad writing tips? Anyone?

Subject: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: JennR85
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 12:55 PM

I have to write a ballad for my British Literature class. I've had two weeks to work on it and my time is quickly running out. Does anyone have any advice on how to write a ballad? I keep trying to write but nothing productive is coming out of it. I've tried using tunes from other songs, writing in different places, laying out what I want to write about, it all comes out as bs. I'm at the point I'm ready to plagiarize something, which is the last thing I want to do. I'm desperate - can anyone help

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 01:28 PM

What story do you want to tell?

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 01:39 PM

Have you looked at the "plot lines" of ballads? Lots at The Contemplator Site There are several common themes, and several common formats, all of which you can study there. Shouldn't be too difficult, actually.

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 01:42 PM

JennR, this article Writing a Period Ballad may be of some help. Good luck!

Masato

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 02:04 PM

Plagiarism is pretty much what folk song is about. Retelling of previously told stories is a quite usual thing. And not just folks song: Shakespear was a master of the retelling of others' stories. So your basic story line can be adopted, perhaps changed a little to make it your own, and from there a tune shouldn't be TOO hard.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Mudlark
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 02:49 PM

If you are hung up on a tune and play an instrument, a guitar, for instance, try a reasonable chord progression that you like, play it through a few times, then let that suggest the melody. Once you get a melody you like it is easier to fit words to it...you get the feel of the rhythm, where you want the line breaks to be, etc. Love lost is always a good theme for ballads...good luck.

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Cappuccino
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 02:57 PM

Dave O got there before me on plagiarism... and I was thinking of Tom Lehrer's lyric:

"Plagiarize! Let nobody else's work evade your eyes! Remember why the good Lord made your eyes..."

- ian B

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: flattop
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 03:28 PM

Instead of editing yourself and giving yourself a rough time, try writing badly. According to one author, just as many of the things you try to write badly will turn out good and it's a lot less pressure. You could use the ideas on masato sakurai's link to structure a really bad ballad to make mudcatters laugh. Most of us are not important people, except perhaps Little Hawk, so don't worry about it.

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 04:08 PM

Got just the thread for you.....

HOW TO CREATE A FOLK SONG

Spaw

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 05:28 PM

If you are stuck on ideas try the humorous route.
for a ballad the punchline doesn't have to be hilarious - more of a moral tale - and try slipping in a few puns in each verse.
Think of a joke that is truer than it is funny and imagine a scenario around that.
MY guess is that if it makes the ajudicator smile it may be worth a couple of brownie points on its own.
don't forget to keep the interest each verse.

Do we get to see the result after the medals are awarded?

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: CraigS
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 06:43 PM

Sometimes it is easiest to over-write - take a song you know and write a new lyric. The rhyme scheme of the original is a help, and you can change the storyline to suit your purpose. Since this is for a class assignment, you can even avoid step 2, which is to present it to a useful friend as a new lyric and invite him to provide a tune (because you can't get the old tune out of your head).

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Sarah2
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 01:05 PM

Good points and links, all.

If you really get strapped for time, don't forget the option of the standard Blues Ballad format -- write one line, repeat it and then find something to rhyme with it. It can get you there, at least.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 01:44 PM

Write a ballad about the young woman -- five feet zero inches, stunningly pretty, 113 pounds, five months preganant -- who is still unheard from after the collapse of the WTC where she worked.

Use the rhythm and tune, for example, of Barby Ellen.

A.

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: selby
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 01:49 PM

Having written a couple of songs in the past, keep a piece of paper handy jot down anything that comes into your head during the day, relax and above all don't try to hard.This worked for me. Keith

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 02:00 PM

JennR85

It is almost aways easiest to write about something you know and feel strongly about. And if you use the tune of a folksong in the public domain it doesn't violate copyright and you will be adhering to one of folk's oldest traditions.

Writing the first song is the hardest so maybe you should go ahead and write a BS song or two just to get them out of your system.

Good Luck!

Rob

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 02:01 PM

For writer's block: (words)

1) Write in longhand, not at a computer. Write a stream of consciousness that you tell yourself you'll throw away. But don't throw it away, just don't let anyone see it.

2) Try a creative mind stretching exercise called "synectics." (a process for enhancing creativity)

For a tune, I like Mudlark's advice.

Then for plagiarism, try Catspaw's thread.

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 07:18 PM

Several stages here:

Picking a story
Picking the point of view

Picking the mood or tone (sad, comic, heroic, fast, slow)
Writing or choosing the tune.

And maybe more.

The story: Jokes. Retelling the story of previous ballads. Newspaper stories. AND GET THIS, for that last: Go through the Song Challenges for possible comic stories. I would recommend that you NOT read the submitted songs in the Song Challenges.

Presentation technique: Once you've decided on the story, you need to think about the presentation. Is it to be told by a narrator, with occasional quotes of the characters and what might be called "outside description" of the action? Such a beginning as, "In Scarlet Town, where I was born, there was a fair maid" etc. Or will it be entirely in the spoken words of the characters? If told by a narrator, is he/she a character in the tale? Other groundwork decisions like that.

If you are retelling a preexisting song's story, it might be helpful to change some of these things, like point of view, and/or the rhythm, and so on, to avoid unconscious plagiarism. I say UNCONSCIOUS plagiarism. You might want to do so consciously.

More presentation decisions: Is it to have chorus-type content? If so, in ordinary language that may or may not relate to the story, or in nonsense "words"? The later is particularly common if it's to be a lighthearted or comic song. If so, is it in discrete chorus, or internal chorus lines within the verses?

Tune decisions: If you are in the old-song-retelling mode, I think it's well to try to have a different rhythmic structure and chord progression.

I suggest that you avoid writing what I'll call a "fake old ballad." Use modern-day language if you can.

That's all I can think of at this point. Good luck.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Writing tips? Anyone?
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 07:22 PM

JenR85
How's it going?
the writing down jottings is a good tactic - what cousin Mutton Chops & I call by the acronym WRIT (Write/Record Immediately Thereafter). Tape recorders, video cameras, paper, phone your own answer machine etc. When the ideas strike - get 'em down.
I use a pocket memo - sort of tape recorder without tape. Each thought is time and date stamped and recalled individually. Proper tape recorders soon get unwieldy so you have to off-load ideas onto paper (soonest) to avoid searching up to 1 hour of ramblings for the nuggets.
once the ideas flow you just dun gotta record those ideas and leave the mindspace "clear of memorisings" and "full of creativity".
Of course if the muse is upon you don't listen to us just get on with it.