Writing Exercise: Write the Story that Lyrics Imply

I mentioned in my previous post that lyrics are the essence of writing. Lyrics imply a story, but they are incomplete. This provides an excellent exercise for writers. Take the lyrics of any song, hopefully one you enjoy. Study the lyrics and try to fill in the missing parts. Write the complete story that the lyrics imply.

As an example, I've chosen the song Flying by Neulander. The lyrics are as follows:

She was a lonely girl
Doesn’t have a lot of something to remind you
Lives in a lonely world
She’s always been there riding right behind you
She traveled around the world, going about it all the wrong way

She traveled alone until something comes up, but you know that it never will
Flying around the world
Oooohhhh, a lonely girl

She was a lonely girl
Grew up in her own society
It took a little piece of her
Like it took a little piece of you and me
She traveled around the world
In order to get away from her mother and…
Well, it was strange because, one thing never really led to another and…

Flying around the world
Oooohhh, a lonely girl

If you see her you should remind her of all the things she said
If you see her you should remind her she’s better off ‘cause she’s…
Not dead…

Flying around the world
Oooohhh, a lonely girl

I’ve lived in golden cities and I’ve lived in funeral towns
Went to the roof of the world and i didn’t ever want to come…
Down…

My mother is dead and my father is dead
And all my brothers and sisters are dead
And my heart goes boom, boom, boom

For the sake of not making this entry too long, my story will be on the short side:

A man sits in his seat, waiting for the jet to take off. He is wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, and sandals. Everybody is glaring at him, partly for being an eyesore and partly for being obnoxious. In the seat behind him is a girl that nobody notices. She's dressed in a red t-shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. She's been on more planes than any of the passengers, been in more countries than any of them, and has spoken the fewest words.

She would never start a conversation with any of them, but she desperately wishes they would start one with her. She wishes somebody would ask her about herself. She wishes she could tell her story, about her horrible, overbearing, slave driver of a mother, about how she left at age 16, about how she has been to over half the continents since then.

But nobody ever starts that conversation. That's the reason she has traveled so much. When she left the house for the last time, her mantra was "I'll travel until something comes up. Then one thing will lead to another and I'll be where I should be." But nothing did come up. One thing never really led to another. And so she continues to travel, but no longer does she have the hope. She simply has nothing else to do.

And although she wants somebody to ask her about herself, what she needs is something different. She needs somebody to remind her that she's better off because she's not dead. She needs to be told that, no matter where you go and what you do, being alive is the greatest part of being alive. She needs somebody to tell her about their life, somebody who will say "My mother is dead and my father is dead and all my brothers and sisters are dead. And my heart goes boom, boom, boom."


A few notes on this example of what I've done. This is not an entirely faithful representation. Certain details I have added to it. I took the role of a narrator, but not necessarily the same narrator as the one in the song. I made up most of the story, but I did borrow certain lyrics directly.

There are no rules in how to do this. You can try to be so faithful to the lyrics that you just retell them as prose. You can try to fill in the gaps by adding a little of your own ideas. You could retell the story through the eyes of a different person (e.g. I could have told the story as the girl, as the mother, as the obnoxious passenger). You could also use the lyrics as a base and totally make up your own story (this is a great technique for especially vague lyrics). Whatever gets you writing is good. If you need some restrictions to get you started, then stick with the faithful-but-filling-the-gaps version.