A Writer’s Dream
I had a post about half-way done, but I had to drop it to write this one.
I was listening to music this evening and I heard this song that is amazing. It’s by the Judds and the title is, “Flies on the Butter (You Can’t Go Home Again)”.
Here are just a few of the lyrics written by Allen Shamblin, Chuck Cannon, and Austin Cunningham:
Old tin roof, leaves in the gutter
A hole in the screen door big as your fist, and flies on the butter
Mamaw baking sugar cookies, we were watching cartoons
I heard her holler from the kitchen which one of you youngins wants to lick the spoon?
Talk about simple lyrics that pack a punch. You can easily picture this. As a writer, this is the type of writing I want to accomplish. Personally I don’t like overly descriptive writing. I don’t care what the chair in the corner looks like, I want the meat of the story. A book that describes every little detail of everything will find itself on my “nope” pile real quick.
So when I heard this song I put it on repeat, not only because it’s a good song, but because the lyrics were inspiring. That’s what I do with songs I feel are well written. I analyze them. I think I must want to be a song writer deep down. Honestly though, you can learn a lot from a song. Songs in their basic form are stories. Well, not all songs are, but I won’t get into that.
You have to be good at your craft to be able to tell a story in a short amount of time. Songs have the benefit of music which helps the listener to feel the emotion the writer is trying to convey. As a writer, you don’t have that luxury but you do have the ability to use more words. We aren’t limited to a three to four-minute time frame.
This year I’m going to concentrate on honing my craft even more. I want to compose my words in a way that grabs you by the heart and won’t let go. Most of us want to do that. I only know how good writing affects me, and I want to recreate that with you.
In closing pray for me. Pray that God would help me to learn what I need to learn to help me in this. That being said, I’ll be going to the Asheville Christian Writer’s conference next month, pray for the conference and pray for me that I would be open to learning everything I am taught and that God would set up divine appointments for me.