English Major Monday: Why #WriteLikeARockStar?

Southern Writers Selfie

It was brought to my attention while I was at the Southern Writers Symposium on Saturday that I am not the only person out there encouraging people to Write Like a Rock Star. Apparently, one of the presenters at the symposium uses this as her tag line as well. I'm not sure about what her meaning is exactly since I didn't get to see her presentation, but finding out that I'm not that original got me thinking about what I mean when I say Write Like A Rock Star.

I mean several things.

First of all, I mean for you to be fierce and bold when you write. I mean "Rock Star" hyperbolically. I want you to be larger than life. I want you to believe in yourself and your writing. Have confidence. When you write, pretend you are Steven Tyler, or Mick Jagger, or Marilyn Manson even. Do whatever it takes to get your story on the page. Write Like a Rock Star.

But I also mean something else. I want you to literally Write Like a Rock Star. I want you to consider how Rock Stars write their song lyrics. What makes them memorable and catchy? What stories are they telling? What is capturing the attention and the imagination of the listening public? Are these things that you could incorporate into your writing wither in content or style?

What do I mean? Maybe you could get neat story idea from a song. For example, "Janie's Got a Gun" is a short story looking for a place to happen. There are plenty of narrative songs that could be springboards for interesting writing exercises. Similarly, there are less narrative lyrics such as Oasis' "There are many things I would like to say to you but I don't know how," or Duran Duran's "Come on over to my place, we're playing with uranium and when it blows up in my face I'll see you on the other side," that are vague and yet evocative enough to inspire a writing exercise.

Conversely, one might look at the structure of a song for poetic or narrative devices. I have said it before and I will say it again: song writers are WRITERS and we can learn a lot from them. I would argue that they are the most widely read writers on the market in the world today because everyone listens to music. Their work is ubiquitous and prolific. As writers or poetry or prose we have a lot to learn from them.

An unlikely friend I made on the way to the symposium.