Song lyrics?

[Kettle]

I'm writing a fic where the main character is at a party, it's crowded, the music's loud and whatever he's drinking is having a slightly hallucinogenic effect. Because he's tripping, he's disoriented and he starts to "lose time" - like one minute he's heaving his guts out in a crowded room, then he's in a quiet corridor with another guy, then he's on somebody's bed with someone else on top of him and he doesn't really know how he got from one place to the other. The fic's inspired by a particular song and I was thinking of marking the sudden jumps in location with one or two lines from the song in question. Could this work or is including song lyrics something that should always be avoided?

[hanyou-elf]

it's something that can be done effectively. the thing you want to make sure that you avoid is an excessive use of song lyrics. you don't want to inundate the story with lyrics. too many lyrics and you lose the quality of the story, you make it so that the reader can't focus on what's important in the story: and that's your characters and plots.

other than that, there are some very successful stories that use lyrics in them. the important thing to remember is discretion. and to remember to properly acknowledge the song and it's artist.

good luck!

[Guest Zyx]

I've never seen this done correctly. If you do this, make sure there's no vague resemblances between the story and the lyrics. Pic a song which doesn't perfectly describe the situation but still fit. Before you commence this story warn the readers about the lyrics so they can go listen to the song if they feel the need. I think it might actually add a lot to a story but you need to know the song and that's hardly ever the case.

Randomness:

Interactive reading would fix this... Interactive reading being as good as dead is insane...

[DemonGoddess]

plus, you gotta remember to acknowledge where the lyrics fome from, like beneath the disclaimer or something.

[foeofthelance]

I dunno. Most people I've met tend to frown on songfics, if only because its disorienting to the reader, especially if they're unfamiliar with the song or group in question. It's one thing to lead the entire story with a snatch of song, or have a character sing a few words, as I've seen both done well, and have actually used the latter in one of my own fics. (A guy was playing chess with his girlfriend's father, and started singing a heavy metal song quietly to try and mess with the father.) But musicals only really work on stage because you're being presented the full song and music at the time. It doesn't really work in a story, especially if there's no narrative connection. What you might try is having the song in question playing in the back ground, so that the character's are hearing it and noticing it, instead of just dropping it on the reader.

[Guest Zyx]

Which is where the interactive reading comes in:

Turn the page and the song starts playing. It's genius.

People: you need to start making interactive fiction.

[Avarion]

Song lyrics can work if they are used sparingly and carefully placed within the story to complement the plot. Too many writers are in the habit of writing a few paragraphs then interrupting the flow of their work with an entire verse from a song. No doubt some people enjoy reading this style of writing but I think it feels like a lazy way of narrating a story.

Personally I would avoid using verses and instead use a few choice lines from a song that can be used to accent your work, placing them at crucial stages of the plot rather than peppered around all over the place. Be conscious of timing and read through your drafts to determine if the placement contributes to the flow or hinders it.

[Kimmy_Nagasaki]

It depends on the scenario really. I think during drug instances, a romantic dance of some sort, or karaoke can Songs be put into a fiction.

Mistakes like the ones I'm about to show you probably should not be made into songficcies of the sort. Btw, I did this pretty much when I was a noob. It' horrible, but It's good to see how far I've come from crap XD XD XD

The work of a n00b XD

[Altari]

Which is where the interactive reading comes in:

Turn the page and the song starts playing. It's genius.

People: you need to start making interactive fiction.

People used to do this on AnimeSpiral back in the day. New chapter, new song. My god, was it annoying.

[Guest Zyx]

People used to do this on AnimeSpiral back in the day. New chapter, new song. My god, was it annoying.

must've done it wrong then xD

[Harley Quinn hyenaholic]

I look down on using song lyrics. You'd be horrified at how often a writer pads out their story with lyrics for no reason. But sometimes, when you're in a place with a lot of music (like a bar, or a club) you can use a song, rating from just the chorus, down to the entire song scattered verse by verse through the story.

But make sure that your song is long enough even without the lyrics. How long a fic should be is up to you, but if there's more lyrics to the fic than original work, you're sucking ass.

[clandestine-cassie]

I think as long as you use a few lines and it fit's in well with the story than i say go for it.

[Psychostorm]

I think it can be pulled off. I've read good song fics and I've read crappy ones. I wrote one myself titled "Rei's New Kitten" that I felt turned out well enough. I also have plans for another song fic staring my darling little Rei-chan. Its going to be rapetastic.

[Peace-Love-Yaoi]

I have a fic that started as a songfic, but after it was done, I took all the lyrics out. Mine was inspired by "Hero/Heroine" by Boys Like Girls. (Which is actually kind of ironic since it's a yaoi fic ) But I didn't want to turn people off to the fic if they just didn't like that particular song. Here is a link to my story: LINK

Take a look, if you want, just to see how I did it.

Peace-Love-Yaoi

[Blysse]

It can definitely work, as this example proves.

http://naruto.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=544191533

[Avon]

If you don't feel lyrics would hamper the narrative go ahead and use an appropriate snippet from the song. I advise against using the entire song if a few lines will get your point across.

An alternative to adding lyrics is to make a playlist.com playlist for your fic, and adding a link to it at the top in your Author's Note. The readers will experience the proper mood for the fic without any lyrics breaking the flow of the narrative.

[animefreakandgeek]

Ive only see this done well once

The story was set in a bar

The main character was was watching the man he loved on the dance floor dancing with someone else while he tried to get the courage to go to him

The way this author did it was

-One line from the song that was playing-

"a snippet of what the character was thinking"

-the next line-

"character's thoughts"

and they only did this like 3 maybe 4 times and then it was over and he was on his feet heading for the dance floor.

They only used the chours from the song so it wanst over powering and they did a good job and showing how the lysrics were impacting what the character was doing.

[Guest sylvir]

My first piece of advice is use sparingly and ask yourself questions.

Is the song right for the mood?

How long is the song lyrics typed out? Are there more words in the song than the chapter or story?

Does the reader really need the lyrics to understand the story?

Most of all remember that the reader hit the link to your story to read what you wrote. If we wanted the song we would download it or whatever.

Edited February 24, 2009 by sylvir

[canterro]

I don't like whole lyrics quoted in the story. But I used one, once...

In The Broken Road I have a scene with a music background - at the very late party. The song is suggestive and some short, broken sentences or words depict action quite well. In my humble opinion, at least

When used skillfully, everything can be turned into advantage, as well as into a washout

[Kimba147]

Do song-fics work? Yes. But only in the right situation. There is a story on fanfiction.net that did it wonderfully. It was a multi-chapter fic about Edward Elric and Roy Mustang. The story was beautiful by itself, but, in the last chapter, the author acctually wrapped up the story with a song that the two main chracters danced to. Also, throughout the fic, there were continuous references to a song that Edward had sung, where the characters were using the lyrics as metaphores and seeing the different meanings the song could have. This fic was exelent in it's use of music and well worth reading, despite the fact that there really isn't any hardcore smut. Read it here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2783898/1/Full_Circle

[marley_station]

It can definitely work, as this example proves.

http://naruto.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=544191533

SECONDED.

Nice job, and nice choice of song (even though it's overused in fanfiction, this is the best use of it I've seen so far).

[marley_station]

Honestly...songfics get a bad rap. Like any genre of fanfiction, there are excellent examples, average ones, and the ones that make you blanch. Using the lyrics to a song in your fic is not necessarily the proverbial kiss of death.

I have used song lyrics in my fanfiction and would do it again. However, I do not compromise the premise in order to do so. Writing a fic where all anyone is reading are someone else's lyrics is an exercise in futility. It would be simpler to listen to the song while imagining I read your story.

Look...go for the song, it's your baby. You're not going to develop an instinct for songfics if you don't at least try. Don't let anyone talk you out of what is essentially your evolution as a writer. Even if it is cliche, you are being creative and you should refrain from corralling that process for anyone else's preferences.

[Helluin]

Coming late to the thread, but I have to say: it's very, very difficult to pull off, but it can work. The original posts suggests an IC rationale within the story for why normal, sane narrative is starting to break down. Songfic or inclusion of lyrics, any sort of intrusive device, is exactly that: intrusive, artificial, not normal.

Therefore it can add a surreal, slightly disconnected sense to a scene. But be careful. It can also distract the reader too much from the story, and then you've lost the reader.

I'd like to report a lyrics triumph, after many years of avoiding songfic as bad.

Background: I'm writing an action/adventure serial based on a video game. One of the elements of this game, like so many, is dramatic endgame boss battle sequences where reality starts to break down, the setting goes into crack mode, and gripping, pumping This Is a Big Battle, Yo? music ups the emotional impact of the climax.

My challenge to myself has been to capture many of the elements and tropes of the original game that made it beloved. But how to do this without being cheesy? I hatched on the idea that for a climactic battle -- think the last ride of Théoden in LOTR -- I wanted to try and trick the reader into hearing music in his/her head, in order to add to the impact of the scene.

First, it is part of the story that the hero is gradually losing his mind. He's got voices in his head. This is established from chapter 1. So having reality start to go weird is fine.

Second, I'm recycling a giant mech in the game which -- for cracktastic "It's a video game, silly!" reasons -- appears to operate like a large pipe organ. It's got a keyboard. It's got what appears to be a visual equalizer. There's no obvious displays or controls, the villain just starts banging away Captain Nemo style and this bizarre "I am evil and insane, bwah" music comes out. So there's an IC reason for the music.

But how to implement?

Several friends suggested that it's too much when people quote whole verses or couplets, and tht it would be better to include very short quotes. Not the whole song, just a few particularly apt phrases woven into my text.

For the song, I was lucky: the thrash metal song that begins and ends the game refers to the hero, fit this scene all too well, and would allow me to exploit a piece of music that my readers would certainly know.

I also used several tricks normally confined to poetry -- meter, tempo, caesura, a tiny bit of rhyme, a tiny bit of alliteration and assonance -- to pump up the sounds of my original narrative. In effect, I layered in an audio component, incidental music, using the words themselves. I found meter is the most effective "sound effect" because it's more subtle than rhyme and alliteration. People don't notice it consciously, yet the beat of the words sets the tone of the line. [Listen to the rhythm of that last clause -- do you hear the beat?]

It worked. Reviewer after reviewer described it as powerful, vivid, eerie, jawdrop and so on, and these are reviewers who are not afraid to concrit or nitpick.

Quoth one reviewer who just showed up:

Nice, epic chapter with cool battling and an excellent piece of writing. The song lyrics helped quite a bit, too, perfectly fitting the situation. Your words helped to paint the picture of the battle scene which meshed so well with the music in my head, and Auron's thoughts and feelings and pain communicated well onto the page.

The key, as so many people have said, is to be sparing, to ask yourself if you're using the lyrics as a cheat instead of writing the story yourself, and to use them only in fairly unusual circumstances, because it's not a normal way to perceive an event. One doesn't (often) see something happen and feel as if there's a soundtrack, or that you're hearing poetry in your head. But there are rare occasions when you do.