A couple of months ago I took a trip to Nashville. I stopped by the office of Paramount Song and today I received my Democratic from them for the song I Can't Have Christmas Without You. It sounds wonderful and I am so excited to finally have a demo that sounds professional and is ready to be presented.
I wrote this song when my brother first joined the Marines. It was our first Christmas without him because he was at boot camp. It inspired me to write a song about spending Christmas without someone you care about and this song was the result.
As I prepare to present this demo, my next step is to determine which songs I would like to make demos for next. I will most likely make them as I can afford them, but I have a list of about five songs that I plan to make priorities. Completing song fragments is going to be on the backburner for a little while. I am ready to focus on moving forward!
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Purpose
I have heard so many people say that they love songs and love music because it makes them feel happy. That is certainly a good thing, but I have to disagree when I hear them say that the purpose of songs is to make us feel happy. I believe that the purpose of songs is to make us feel and happy isn't the only emotion a person can feel.
Writing lyrics makes me feel happy no matter what emotions led me to write them. Songwriting can help me express my happiness or help me deal with my sadness. Above all, it is the best way I know how to truly be myself. Maybe it will never take me anywhere and maybe no more than a few of my friends will ever appreciate anything that I write. That's a very real possibility, although I hope it's not the case. Either way, writing these songs didn't just help me feel happy. It helped me feel. And I am so grateful for that.
Sharing what you have to say is a powerful thing though. And knowing that you can get someone to listen to something that's important to you is a valuable thing that should be cherished by every writer, whether you have one person listening to you or a million. Whatever your purpose is for writing, always keep it in sight.
~Eliza
Writing lyrics makes me feel happy no matter what emotions led me to write them. Songwriting can help me express my happiness or help me deal with my sadness. Above all, it is the best way I know how to truly be myself. Maybe it will never take me anywhere and maybe no more than a few of my friends will ever appreciate anything that I write. That's a very real possibility, although I hope it's not the case. Either way, writing these songs didn't just help me feel happy. It helped me feel. And I am so grateful for that.
Sharing what you have to say is a powerful thing though. And knowing that you can get someone to listen to something that's important to you is a valuable thing that should be cherished by every writer, whether you have one person listening to you or a million. Whatever your purpose is for writing, always keep it in sight.
~Eliza
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Writing Stories and Songs
I feel refreshed and I feel like I'm back! It's time to move on. No more wallowing and no more pity parties. I've got a new attitude and I'm ready to make the most of things and remember the good things about this experience instead of focusing on the negative and the parts about this that hurt me.
As far as my writing is concerned, I would like to focus on writing stories for a while, a few weeks at least. I found some anthologies and contests that would be interesting to write for and I'd like to give it a shot.
This doesn't mean giving up on songwriting and it certainly doesn't mean giving up this blog. I love writing lyrics and I love writing for my blog, so I'll continue to post updates on my blog while I'm working on these projects.
Songwriting and story writing both come with their own challenges. For songs, you have to convey your thoughts with a much smaller amount of words and some of the words you use for that song are repeated over and over in the chorus. In addition to having a limited number of words to use to convey an emotion or a story, those words have to be put together meticulously so that they will fit into a rhyming pattern or specific melody.
For stories, you can pretty much use as many words as you want, make it as long or short as you want. This comes with a greater responsibility, however, requiring the writer to have a higher understanding of how to create and describe characters, develop a believable and interesting storyline, grasp the fundamentals of storytelling, and write well enough to convince an editor to publish their story and entertain the readers that see it. These are challenges that I have not really faced. I have written several stories that I felt weren't quite ready to send out yet, but lacked the dedication to follow through and make the changes that would make it better.
I consider writing lyrics to be easier. They come to me quicker and they're generally more fun. Once I write lyrics, I start singing them whenever I get bored. When I write a story I usually don't sing it. Now that I'm feeling more inspired and energized, I'm ready to tackle story writing again and see where it takes me. I'm very excited about these projects I'll be working on the next few weeks, and when I'm done my songbook will be waiting for me.
~Eliza
As far as my writing is concerned, I would like to focus on writing stories for a while, a few weeks at least. I found some anthologies and contests that would be interesting to write for and I'd like to give it a shot.
This doesn't mean giving up on songwriting and it certainly doesn't mean giving up this blog. I love writing lyrics and I love writing for my blog, so I'll continue to post updates on my blog while I'm working on these projects.
Songwriting and story writing both come with their own challenges. For songs, you have to convey your thoughts with a much smaller amount of words and some of the words you use for that song are repeated over and over in the chorus. In addition to having a limited number of words to use to convey an emotion or a story, those words have to be put together meticulously so that they will fit into a rhyming pattern or specific melody.
For stories, you can pretty much use as many words as you want, make it as long or short as you want. This comes with a greater responsibility, however, requiring the writer to have a higher understanding of how to create and describe characters, develop a believable and interesting storyline, grasp the fundamentals of storytelling, and write well enough to convince an editor to publish their story and entertain the readers that see it. These are challenges that I have not really faced. I have written several stories that I felt weren't quite ready to send out yet, but lacked the dedication to follow through and make the changes that would make it better.
I consider writing lyrics to be easier. They come to me quicker and they're generally more fun. Once I write lyrics, I start singing them whenever I get bored. When I write a story I usually don't sing it. Now that I'm feeling more inspired and energized, I'm ready to tackle story writing again and see where it takes me. I'm very excited about these projects I'll be working on the next few weeks, and when I'm done my songbook will be waiting for me.
~Eliza
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