Reddit reviews Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice
We found 4 Reddit comments about Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Not necessarily confined to the travel writing genre, but this book really helped me become a much better writer in general. It's basically an exercise book with writing prompts that force you to hone your use of metaphor and simile—brilliant stuff. Apart from doing the exercises and building that creative muscle though, the real benefit of this was writing lots of cool stuff that I could then incorporate into my actual writing. Cannot recommend it enough!
Agree about the Pattison book. He has another book called Songwriting Without Boundaries which is great too. He provides so many tools and different strategies to approach your lyrics.
Read everything you can get your hands on by Pat Pattison (Professor of songwriting at Berklee). Specifically I would start with Writing Better Lyrics which is a good start.
His Songwriting Without Boundaries is a collection of writing exercises that builds on the first book - its a practice manual. Writing is like a muscle - you have to write often to write well. You do not have to show other people your early rough stuff though. :-)
Your Writing;
Some good writing in your details and solid word images. You have a good sense of humor, I would have enjoyed more of your dry timing. The story and characters, that was very difficult for me to follow. The paragraphs seemed to dance, move to one thing or another, almost like it didn't need to connect. They did connect but It felt to me I had to work hard to get it.
I stopped when Owen got to Lake Tahoe.
I found it hard to understand when it's the Mc thinking, or a dream, or something else. It didn't feel very real to me. I didn't get a any sense of a 'when', no sense of time passing, nor a viewpoint that let me understand what I was reading.
I thought Owen was a type of kid I wouldn't much like to hang out with. The red haired girl, not sure. Good world building, a firm start.
Other ways to get better feedback;
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Sharing the writing process;
A lot of us here are working and struggling with becoming better writers. So you are not alone in this painful process.
I myself find the task of becoming a good writer very daunting. I only keep going because I create a belief in myself. After that I go through the slow hard swim in the deep dark oceans of the unknown. I have no directions, no compass, only fear which if allowed becomes an anchor.
It would be good to know something about your skill level, things you've already read to improve crafting stories, classes you've taken, daily exercises or how much you write each day.
Myself; I do a daily poem, then write from 5/6 am to 9 am, that will be either my current novel or on a short I plan to submit to a magazine. I listen to Podcasts and do exercises from Writing Excuses
Books I use as my reference on writing;
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