Page 4 - Write Away Magazine Dec 2019

Finding Your Words has far more rhyming than other genres, but even then it’s
not required. It’s just stylistic.

Show what you mean - don’t tell. “I’m so sad, I just feel Try non-standard rhyme schemes. If you do want to make
bad, my girlfriend left me today...”....Not the best way to your rhyming stand out a bit more and avoid sounding
express your words. This is a fast way to make your song cheesy, you can experiment with different styles of
forgettable. rhyming. Did you know that there’s more ways to rhyme?
Explore assonance/consonance rhymes, pararhyme,
The best lyrics, like any good writing, get us to feel emo- alliteration, forced rhymes, etc.
tions because they capture that experience, not because
they tell us what to feel. Try to write about what it’s like to Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to
feel something, instead of just create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and
telling your audience. together with alliteration and consonance serves as one
of the building blocks of verse. Assonance does not have
A good example of an alternative to this “I’m so sad” thing to be a rhyme; the identity of which depends merely on
is from Damien Rice’s song The Animals Were Gone: “At sequence of both vowel and consonant sounds.
night I dream without you, and hope I don’t wake up;
‘Cause waking up without you is like drinking from an Consonance refers to repetitive sounds produced by
empty cup”. consonants within a sentence or phrase. This repetition
often takes place in quick succession such as in pitter,
Brainstorm some ideas so you can see what you have and
choose or even build off of an existing idea. It is probably patter. It is classified as a literary term used in both poetry
best if you have an inspiration. as well as prose. For instance, the words chuckle, fickle, and
kick are consonant with one and other due to the
https://www.rhymezone.com/ - Check this out if you’ve existence of common interior consonant sounds
never used it before. It’s a great aid to rhyme.

Rhyme within reason. You know when you see a song
written by someone who isn’t very good and the lyrics just
come off as cheesy? This is often because they rhyme too
much or very badly. Aim to avoid having all of your lines
rhyme, and look for rhymes that you do use that look
natural. Don’t put weird phrases or words into your lyrics
just to get a rhyme. Really, your lyrics don’t have to rhyme
at all. Plenty of songs have non-rhyming lyrics.

Good: “You make me feel real again/You just have to smile
and I know/The sun’s coming out - Amen!”

Bad: “I really love my cat/My cat is where it’s at/Her tail
looks like a bat/She’s getting kind of fat...”

Of course, there are some genre considerations. Rap often

04 www.writeawaymagazine.co.uk