Constructing a great story

As I've written many times already, having a great story underneath your music is probably the most important thing you can do if you want your music to be meaningful and compelling.  The audience will forgive you for making mistakes, but they won't even pay attention for more than 30 seconds if your product is hollow.

So great, let's all write stories.  But we want them to be great stories, not just mediocre and certainly not counterproductive.  How can we tell if we're on the right track?  Here are some guidelines.

First thing, there's got to be some conflict in the story.  Not a fist fight, necessarily, but some tension that inspires activity.  Trying to convey the message that you're completely content is a boring choice.  If your song lyrics don't hand you the conflict on a platter, dig for it.  For example, singing "Lazy Day" like you're having a lazy day is a snorefest.  Don't be so literal!  If you read between the lines, it's a seduction song.  The tension is because you want something you don't have and you're not sure you will get!  Which leads right into...

Objective.  Why are you singing this song?  In order to answer this, you need to understand who you are, and who you are singing to.  Lots of songs are in the second person (you, you, you) and that can make it easier to figure out.  But in a third-person song, the choice is generally wide open.  Choose something interesting and worthy of the audience's attention!

Often there are lots of good choices for the scene, in which case you may as well pick the one with the highest impact.  If people wanted every day life, they would have stayed at home.  If the song might be about a boy who misses his Daddy, don't make the Daddy a stock broker, make him a soldier on the front lines.  Nobody cares if stock brokers come home.  (Oooh - burn!)

The story has to hang together.  It has to make sense from beginning to end.  Once you've picked an identity and an objective, make sure all your choices fit with that.  You don't get points for confusing people.

Thinking a bit long-term, you're going to want to pick an identity in the story that reflects well on you.  If you're singing "Masquerade", be the kind of guy who has compassion for the girl's point of view, rather than the angry, abusive type.  I mean it might be realistic enough, but it will interfere with everyone's future hero worship of you.  That's why 99% of novels have a protagonist for whom you can have sympathy.  It just works better that way.

Finally, to end my arbitrary list, the story has to be believable.  If you expect the audience to suspend disbelief, give them a fighting chance!  So whatever your story is, it has to be somehow possible.  And it has to make sense for your ensemble, so if you're 17 years old, don't go with "When You And I Were Young Maggie".  Unless you're into comedy.