Because the passion, drive and ability to convey clearly and crisply, and with striking originality, I think are key ingredients in both cakes.
Musician could've been a novelist?
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Because the passion, drive and ability to convey clearly and crisply, and with striking originality, I think are key ingredients in both cakes.
There's the time difference, in several respects, for both the writer and the reader. You can write a song in ten minutes, and there are a few diehards on FAWM this month doing "feasts," writing over a dozen songs a day. And song only takes a few minute to perform and listen to, and that's another difference - a song plays out over a specific amount of time, whereas a novel can be read at (almost) any pace.
But what really strikes me is you can write a song in ten minutes, and I've heard of many hit songs written that quickly, but the fastest I've ever heard of a novel being writen is three days - I only heard of this recently, and just found the link:
http://www.3daynovel.com/
The comparison is like running 100 meters vs. running a marathon. It's a whole different level of, well, commitment.
But what really strikes me is you can write a song in ten minutes, and I've heard of many hit songs written that quickly, but the fastest I've ever heard of a novel being writen is three days - I only heard of this recently, and just found the link:
http://www.3daynovel.com/
The comparison is like running 100 meters vs. running a marathon. It's a whole different level of, well, commitment.
Good points, however I should qualify why I originally wrote this post. Not because I felt song writers necessarily had the technical knowhow of plot and literary devices necessary to write a novel. Just that they have the...whatever I said in the last post I made in this thread...to write scenes, images and characters that could easily appear in fiction. Stuff you (as in, "I") wish you (I) would've written in a story.
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You know what I mean
-- skills that are specific to novel writing. If not specific, at least on a grander scale. Character development, plot movement, dialogue (although one can argue lyrics are dialogue -- at least monologue), cliffhangers, show vs. tell, etc.All arts are related, though. It's not to say a songwriter is automatically a good novelist, but there are common skills one can draw from. If you can tell a complete story in three verses, chances are you're already ahead of the curve -- you just have to do a more complex story in 100,000 words instead of 120.
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