Songwriting Without Boundaries (32 page)

Deep-sea diver → Linking quality:
Surrounded by an unfamiliar landscape
→ Target idea:
Astronaut on the moon

An astronaut on the moon is a deep-sea diver.

Stars floating in a black sea, kicking up slow-motion dust, the noisy intake of air, slow motion arms paddling through the dense air, your skin saran wrapped in white puffy material, feet grasping for purchase on the rocky bottom, the cocoon of silence outside your glass mask …

Many family members and many notes in each key are shared by the diver and the astronaut. But to see the universe of stars as “floating in a black sea
”
is pretty special, once again brought to you by your friendly sponsor, the diver’s linking term, s
urrounded by an unfamiliar landscape.

CHANELLE DAVIS

Deep-sea diver → Linking quality:
Surrounded by an unfamiliar landscape
→ Target idea:
Tourist

Tourist is a deep-sea diver.

Submerged in crowds of people with unfamiliar accents, beautiful slim woman gliding along the city streets covered in treasures, diving in and out of cafés, high buildings with shimmering windows, speeding on the subway through dark echoing tunnels, shimmering flashes of colour from massive billboards like coral reefs, rushing around with my camera trying to capture beautiful statues under jellyfish clouds suspended in the sky.

I’ve never looked at a city like this before. Fresh and interesting. I love “jellyfish clouds suspended in the sky
.”
Thanks, Chanelle.

Your turn. What else is
surrounded by an unfamiliar landscape
? Find your target idea and take ten minutes to explore it through the lens of
deep-sea diver.
Again, remember to stay as locked into sense-bound language as you can.

Deep-sea diver → Linking quality:
Surrounded by an unfamiliar landscape
→
Target idea:_____________

DAY #3

LINKING QUALITIES
TO TARGET IDEAS

Prompt: Guitar Solo

Once again, you’ll go through the process. It’s a pretty healthy exercise, and it really tones your writing muscles. Tomorrow you’ll take this exercise another step further, but for now, use three qualities of a guitar solo as your linking qualities. Try these:

Building intensity

Going somewhere new

In the spotlight

Now link each quality to a target idea—the ideas that
guitar solo
can be a metaphor for, by asking:

What else has that quality? What else is
building intensity?

Take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of
guitar solo.

CHANELLE DAVIS

Guitar solo → Linking quality:
Building intensity
→ Target idea:
River

A river is a guitar solo.

Water swelling up, building momentum as it flows, bending through the landscape, accelerating, rising in rapids, creating tension against the rocks, reaching its highest pitch as an audience of trees sway in adoration, the river descends down the rock face …

If you didn’t know the prompt, Chanelle’s writing would be a pretty exciting look at a river, with subtle members of the river and guitar families sharing “bending.” I’ve never seen trees (swaying) at a rock concert before, but I guess there are plenty of rocks to go around. Nice.

CHARLIE WORSHAM

Guitar solo → Linking quality:
Building intensity
→
Target idea:
Lawyer’s closing argument

A lawyer’s closing argument is a guitar solo.

He rises with silent determination and strides forward into the spotlight of the packed courtroom. The crowd holds its breath, knowing that this will be the moment they take home that night and replay in stories and in dreams over and over and over. He turns to face the jury with a nervous swagger, lifts his arms, and begins to speak. The first few words are calm and spaced with even phrasing, even tone, and simple inflection. You can see the faces on the front row nod to the rhythm, pick up the theme. Louder now, his words echo across the room, masterfully driven toward each pair of captive ears. He explores the stage in front of the judge’s bench, the fervor and intensity building as his plea grows more desperate. He drips sweat from his brow, his collar tearing loose as his body moves to the wordplay, arms pointing and diving to exaggerate the message and drive it home. He draws in every last ounce of energy in that room, held silence in his palm for a moment, and with the outpouring of a sudden thunderstorm, lets the last sentence land onto the polished wood floor like a guitar crushed and burning, screaming and wailing through a humming tube amp. The crowd erupts into a frenzy, the drumming gavel of the judge comes down again and again. He moves over to the waiting wings of associate lawyers, sits down, and bows his head, completely spent.

Yikes! Jimmy Page, move over! I love how the linking qualities lead to such interesting places. You can do it easily, too, step by step. Go ahead.

What else
builds intensity
? Find your target idea and take ten minutes to explore it through the lens of
guitar solo.
Again, remember to stay as locked into sense-bound language as you can.

Guitar solo → Linking quality:
Building intensity
→ Target idea:___________

Next,
Going somewhere new.
Write for ten minutes.

GREG BECKER

Guitar solo → Linking quality:
Going somewhere new
→ Target idea:
First date

A first date is a guitar solo.

His heart races as he stands on the stage of her porch and his blood starts pumping louder. His fingers curl into a fist and he raps his knuckles on her door to the beat of his thumping heart which he can feel all the way to his feet. The surrounding world vanishes as the door opens he feels naked in the spotlight of the overhanging porch light and the sounds of the evening are silenced as she reaches out for his hand from the darkness. The evening is a three hour crescendo a with all words, jokes, quick glances and touches leading to the final ten seconds where their lips finally consummate the relationship and a new light is sparked and lifted from the crowd of lovers across the dark night landscape.

Not only does this create an interesting picture of a first date, it also creates an interesting picture of a guitar solo. As you’ll see tomorrow, sometimes it’s good to go both ways. I love the porch light as a spotlight.

CHARLIE WORSHAM

Guitar solo → Linking quality:
Going somewhere new
→
Target idea:
Piloting an airplane

Piloting an airplane is a guitar solo.

Strapped in, waiting for our chance to take off, we roll across the stage of airplanes and personnel standing on the tarmac. Once I get the nod to take the main runway, we can feel the momentum build as the main engine kicks into high gear. Picking up speed, I feel the wheels leave the ground—the rush of being suspended in midair. Thrust upward, watching the night sky engulf me as the twinkling lights of the city below flicker like lighters and cell phones in a crowded arena. The great, powerful rumble of the jet surrounds me, yet in my hand I hold the keys to a new frontier. A throttle and steering mechanism—my instruments of choice—to lead me to places I’ve never been. I know where I will land; I do not know exactly how I will get there, soaring above the clouds and across a vast ocean below. I will roll onward post-landing, waiting for my next chance to take off, reflect the glow of a moon spotlight, dance among the stars, swoop and dive through the air. Each minute adjustment of my fingers and hands result in giant sweeps of movement that reverberate for miles and can be seen and felt by all in its wake. The cockpit, like my brain right now, locked safely from the surrounding chaos and noise, it is here I will steer the arc of my flight, my half composed, half fate-driven solo beneath the stars.

Looking at an object through a lens of another thing can transform and enlarge that object, as shown here. Charlie’s description of the flight wouldn’t be as focused without the lens of
guitar solo
. It allows the flight to become something fresh and new, something recognized and not recognized at the same time. Lenses.

Your turn. What else
goes somewhere new
? Find your target idea and take ten minutes to explore it through the lens of
guitar solo.
Again, remember to stay as locked into sense-bound language as you can.