Well again, we could just start writing and see where it goes.
But, I've found that there's a probably better way, although it takes a little
bit more time and you don't get to rush right in and start writing.
it takes a little bit more time but is is a pretty efficient way to start thinking
about the ideas. And I call this a Worksheet.
Now, the concept of worksheet, that is doing something in advance of doing your
writing is something that that many writers have used and continue to use.
two primary examples of people who use this worksheet concept, Stephen Sondheim.
A great Broadway writer who, when he gets an idea for a song immediately starts
exploring the key elements that might be relevant idea.
And by the way, in doing that, he relies on his thesaurus.
He just takes whatever the concept is, goes to the thesaurus to find the various
neighbors that idea has, and then takes those ideas and goes to his rhyming
dictionary. And uses the rhyming dictionary, not to
find rhymes, although he's finding rhymes.
But not to use rhyme, find rhymes, but rather to find what ideas might be there.
That is he's using the rhyming dictionary in order to ex, in order to explore what
the idea might have in common. He's sort of playing tennis with his
rhyming dictionary. He'll look up a word and and then
there'll be several rhymes for it. And each one of those will be an
audition, will be a suggestion saying, hey, if I were in this song, here's what
I'd do. I could bring in this kind of idea or
this kind of idea and Stephen Sondheim will say wow, okay, I never would have
thought of that other than I found it in the rhyming dictionary.
And if by the way he finds a really good idea in the rhyming dictionary, then not
only does he have a good idea, but he has an idea that also works sonically with
other ideas that he's already approved of.
So that you're working by using a rhyming dictionary is a brainstorming tool, as a
search engine for ideas. You're using your rhyming dictionary to
compose or to brainstorm on two levels simultaneously, the level of ideas.
And by the way, the level of sound. So that if you find something in your
rhyming dictionary, you're getting two things rather than one.
As opposed to if you simply start, let's see, what could this mean, what could
this mean. and find ideas, then you're probably
going to end up writing your line and then saying, okay, now I need something
that rhymes with this. But if you already have a series of
sonically related ideas, then you're in a position to choose from among his ideas.
Then, you'll have something that already rhymes so it's a much more efficient way
to look. So, Stephen Sondheim, there he is,
writing Broadway. I don't know how many of you want to
write Broadway stuff. But there it is.
So, should all Broadway writers do it? I don't know.
Should all writers do it even if you don't want to write Broadway?
Well, look at one other writer who does that sort of thing.
Eminem. If you take a look at Eminem's movie 8
Mile, there is a scene in the movie where he's writing Lose Yourself.
And he's on the bus, headphones on. And the track for Lose Yourself is, is is
playing. And he's got this legal pad, a yellow
legal pad. And the camera at one point comes around
and you get to see the legal pad just for a second.
Pause the DVD right there. And take a look at that very, very messy
yellow legal pad. Because what it is, is a series of rhyme
columns. And in fact, that is the piece of paper
that he actually used in the composition of Lose Yourself as he was working
through the movie. So that using sound, using a series of
rhymes as a search engine for ideas is not new news.
So, why don't we take a look at this idea, hobo wind.
And let's see what we can find that might fill out, flush out, this whole idea of
hobo wind that might work through the boxes.
And give us ideas that perhaps we normally wouldn't have gotten, simply by
thinking, simply by going inside, but using the various suggestions that the
rhyming dictionary makes to go from the inside out.
Say, what does that word give to me? And in the process of doing this, we're
going to put into play, all of the work that we've already done on rhyme times.
And so, get prepared for the next segment where we are going to be looking at rhyme
types as they evolve from the keywords that we'll be using to explore this
concept of hobo wind. And I, by the way, mean keywords, almost
musically. In the key of, in the key of wind.
In the key of hobo. So, it's going to be some technical work.
But as you will see, all of these various exercises that you've been doing on rhyme
types are going to come into play and be very fruitful as we move forward.