Scotland’s Stories writing prompt: Friends for Life

You can also access this prompt in Gaelic.

Scottish Book Trust is asking people all over Scotland to submit their true, personal stories of Friendship. Use this story prompt to find inspiration for your story and ideas of things to write about.

Submit your story

Friends for Life (writing song lyrics)

The people who’ve been with us through it all. The ones we have our own language with, a set of memories that grow more important with each passing year, each milestone, each celebration. These are the people we can rely on to provide perspective, bring some joy or simply listen to us when we need to vent. The ones that don’t demand anything from us. They know who we are – and why we matter.

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead. Walk beside me… just be my friend” ― Albert Camus

This writing prompt will help you get started writing song lyrics on the theme of friends for life. 

Warm up

Sing a song of Friendship

What are your favourite songs about friendship? Which songs remind you of your friends? Take some time to go and listen to them, to read the lyrics and to remind yourself what it is that you connect with.

If you need some inspiration, take a look at this playlist of songs about friends and friendship which we have pulled together.

Brainstorm

Think about a friendship that you have had for a long time, which has been significant in your life.  Think about the person who has been with you through thick and thin, the person you see every day and never get bored of, or the person you can not speak to for ages and pick up right where you left off.  The person you can call if you are in trouble, and for whom you will always pick up.  The person who will always tell you the truth, always make space to listen and who can always make you laugh.

Choose three memories from your friendship. For example:

• A moment from the beginning – how you met or why you became friends in the first place,
• The most memorable moment in the whole course of your relationship. 
• Your most recent memory.

Imagine each of those moments as a polaroid – describe what you can see. Which detail strikes you? Is there a thread that connects them?

Start Writing

Structure (A,A,B,A,B)

A good place to start writing a song is to consider the structure you want to use.  The most straightforward structure is A, A, B, A, B – where A is a verse and B is a chorus.

Starting with your three moments above, trying capturing each of them as one verse of your song.  Keep it specific and authentic to each memory.  Try to write a four line verse about each of your “snapshots”

From the specific to the universal (being authentic will make it universal)

Having written your three verses to capture particular moments, use the chorus to try and capture what makes the friendship important and special to you.  Try to be specific, what is it that matters about your friendship. What was the thread that you noticed from your snapshots?  Writing with a particular friend in mind will help you to write authentically and avoid cliché.

Rhyme, rhythm, momentum

With your three verses and a chorus written, now you can start working on your lyrics as a whole piece.  Arrange the component parts into your A,A,B,A,B structure  - and then read the whole piece aloud (or try recording yourself and playing it back).

Think about language choices – play with your word choices to build satisfying rhyming schemes which will stick in the listener’s brain.  Also consider using alliteration, assonance and consonance – you’ll find more information about this on Your Dictionary(this link will open in a new window)

As you read and listen back, try to find the rhythm of the piece – are there ways that you can enhance the lines to find or emphasise the rhythm of your song.  Does the rhythm change from the verse to the chorus – what is the effect you are trying to achieve?  Songwritertheory.com(this link will open in a new window) has some useful advice.

Finally, is the overall structure of your song working – does it build over the verses and the repetition of the chorus? Are your three verses in the right order to best convey the meaning and emotion of the song (that may not be using the verses in chronological order).