POST-DRAFT CHECKLIST

FORM:

1. Have I grabbed my listener on the first line and interested him/her enough to want to hear more?

2. Have I chosen the most appropriate song form to develop my idea:
AAA, AABA, Verse/Chorus, or Modified Form?

3. Does the story progress logically?

4. Does the bridge (if any) add a new dimension to the plot?

5. In a Verse/Chorus song, is the chorus a reasonable outcome of the verses?

6. Is the title a synopsis of the chorus?

7. Did I repeat the title enough so that the listener--without needing to be told-- would know it after one hearing?

8. Have I varied the rhythm enough from verse to chorus to bridge to enable a composer to write an interesting melody?

BACKDROP:

1. Is the setting of the story clearly indicated--barroom, bedroom, or boardroom?

2. If I changed locales or time zones, did I include a well-defined transition?

PLOT LINE:

1. Does the plot move forward in each verse, or did I merely repeat the same thoughts in different words?

2. Midway through the song, can the lyric pass the who, what, where, when and why test?

3. Have I maintained a consistent interior monologue, or a definite dialogue? (Decide which one the singer is doing.)

4. Have I kept to my one idea? (Remember one idea is enough.)

5. Is every aspect of my plot spelled out in the lyric, or are some essential details still in my head? (The audience can only know what the lyric states.)

6. Did I consider doubling my recording potential by adjusting a specifically female or male lyric to a unisex one?

EMOTIONAL CONTENT:

1. Have I maintained a consistent tone and language style throughout?

2. Did I edit out any clever line that calls too much attention to itself?

3. Did I put the singer in an attractive light and avoid unappealing tones such as anger, sarcasm, and self-pity?

4. Was I careful not to preach or moralize concerning the rightness or wrongness of anyone's personal conduct?

5. Have I built to a satisfactory emotional payoff?

6. Does my lyric express a universally understood meaning?

7. Can I imagine several important recording artists singing these words?

SYNTAX:

1. Are the tenses of my verbs consistent?

2. Is the language conversational?

3. Are my pronouns in place to show who is doing the thinking or feeling?

4. Did I clearly indicate when someone is speaking, by including such expressions as "I said" "He told me" or "she whispered"?

5. Did I catch and delete any homonym that must be read to be understood: "Chairman of the bored", or "thyme on my hands"?

6. Was I mindful not to reverse the natural word order, such as: "Upon your smile I still depend"?

7. Did I make sure every quote is clear? (You can't hand out explanations.)

8. Did I eliminate clutter: very, a little, sort of, and so on?

9. Did I delete trendy expressions that obsolesce quickly and will date my lyric, such as: outasight, get down, uptight, go for it, where's the beef?

RHYMING:

1. Did I maintain the rhyme scheme I established in the first verse throughout subsequent verses?

2. Is my rhyme style consistent? (If you've set up a perfect rhyme pattern, stick to it, especially in theatre songs.)

3. Did I weed out any tricky rhyme that marred the lyric's naturalness?

4. Are the sounds of the rhymes varied enough, or are there too many of one kind that would bore the listener?

PROSODY:

1. Are the accents stressed the same way they are when the words are spoken:
e-TER-nal-ly, not e-ter-nal-LY?

2. Do the important words fall on the important notes? (Don't give it and but to sustained notes)

3. Did I make sure not to give the singer too many s sounds in a row?

4. Is there space for the singer to breathe? To phrase?

5. Did I give the singer an open vowel to sing on the sustained words at the ends of phrases? (Open i, a, and o vowels are easier to sing than e.)

6. Do the words and music feel married to each other?