Songwriting Without Boundaries (39 page)

What a lovely way to look at a singer’s voice. See how important finding a strong linking quality becomes? And you can do it. Easy, right? Okay, do it.

Swimming hole → Linking quality 1:___________

Swimming hole → Linking quality 2:___________

Swimming hole → Linking quality 3:___________

Now, using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them. Then take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of
swimming hole.

Swimming hole → Linking quality 1:______ → Target idea 1: ____

Swimming hole → Linking quality 2:______ → Target idea 2: ____

Swimming hole → Linking quality 3:______ → Target idea 3: ___

DAY #10

FINDING LINKING QUALITIES: WORKING ONE DIRECTION

Prompt: Afternoon Nap

Once again you’re on your own to find your linking qualities before you find your third qualities. Then move only in one direction, as you explore your target idea through the lens of
afternoon nap.

Try this. First find three interesting qualities for
afternoon nap.

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:___________

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:___________

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:___________

Using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them.

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:______ → Target idea 1: ______

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:______ → Target idea 2: ______

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:______ → Target idea 3: ______

CHANELLE DAVIS

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:
Everything slows down

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:
Recharge your body

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:
Close your eyes

1. Afternoon nap → Linking quality:
Everything slows down
→
Target idea:
Autumn

Autumn is an afternoon nap.

Leaves curl up, slowly sinking into the ground knitting themselves together like a warm blanket, white pillow-shaped clouds hanging in the sky, the earth wrapping itself ready for winter dreaming, soft snoring of crickets outside my window …

Great picture here, with a very effective linking quality. Note how useful simile is in connecting these families. As you saw in day 14 of Challenge #2, simile lets you make a comparison without totally committing to the idea. It keeps you focused on the first term of the comparison rather than sending energy and commitment through to the second term. Much of the family introduction in this challenge has been through the use of simile. Chanelle doesn’t commit to a
knitted blanket
with “Leaves curl up, slowly sinking into the ground knitting themselves together like a warm blanket,” but she does introduce you to the family member. Simile lets you have it without committing to it. And note her “white pillow-shaped clouds,” which aren’t real pillows, but hand the pillow a glass of wine to drink outside on the porch, rather than actually coming into the party.

2. Afternoon nap → Linking quality:
Recharge your body
→ Target idea:
A holiday

A holiday is an afternoon nap.

Escape office life, under the palm trees and sunshine, no alarms as hours close their eyes, drifting into each other, dreaming, breathing slowly …

I like how the
hours
close their eyes rather than a person actually taking an afternoon nap on a holiday.

3. Afternoon nap → Linking quality:
Close your eyes
→ Target idea:
Kissing

Kissing is an afternoon nap.

Move my tongue slowly in your mouth, soft dreamy lips relaxing and letting me in, eyes shut tight, feeling your waist with my hands, warm and wrapped in each other like a cocoon …

Only through
close your eyes
can you turn kissing into an afternoon nap. Nice job, linking quality!

SARAH BRINDELL

1. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:
Feeling safe

2. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:
Relief from stress

3. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:
Waking up after dark

1. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1: Feeling safe →
Mother’s smile

My mother’s smile is an afternoon nap.

She glides into the room as sunbeams pour through the open door, soft words breeze the afternoon dust particles around, as they swirl in the golden light toward my pillow. My mother’s fluffed gray hair hangs shoulder length in wisps as it tickles my cheek, she whisks it away with her hand and kisses me, accompanied by her famous “muh” sound, gently tugs at the comforter till it tautly binds the bed into a cocoon shape, and there, amidst the luminous beams of floating powderlike dust only visible when daylight hangs low in the sky, her face transforms into an effortless orb of laugh lines surrounded by her hair like a glowing atmosphere. Straining to see it amidst the blinding shafts of sunlight, my eyelids slit, and then close. I am safe and warm in my mother’s smile.

A great mom tribute. Linking terms seem almost magical in their power to transform one thing into another, but of course, as you’re discovering, there’s no magic involved. It’s a step-by-step process that almost always yields fresh, interesting discoveries.

2. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:
Relief from stress
→
Target idea 2:
Drinking cold soda on a hot day

Drinking cold soda on a hot day is an afternoon nap.

You feel that first bubbly froth meet your tongue cold and sweet it lulls your thoughts in a lullaby of sips, swallow after swallow, the liquid sputters on a bedlike raft made of lime rinds bound together by sugar, racing toward a misty waterfall that begins at the edge of your throat, catching speed as it drops off past the tonsils, steering through the rapids of your intestinal walls till it settles and collects in crackling pools funneling toward your bladder, assimilating into your sweat glands and bloodstream and as you let go of all worry and drift off into a careless dreamlike sugar buzzzzzzz. The sun melts into the frothy Pacific as the soda melds your muscles into the folding chair, free of the steam and muck that had incessantly risen from the pavement and beaten your throat dry all afternoon. A cold carbonated liquid time-out session that leaves you satiated, finally at peace with the waning heat.

I like “a lullaby of sips.” There’s a party in your body, and so many of
afternoon nap
’s friends and relatives are invited, courtesy of engraved invitations from
relief from stress.

3. Afternoon nap → Linking quality:
Waking up after dark
→ Target idea:
Realizing that your lover has left you

Realizing that your lover has left you is an afternoon nap.

He awoke to find all aspects of her gone. The bed was made on her side only, there wasn’t even a crease in the sheet where her naked body had been writhing in ecstatic pleasure just a few hours prior. All that light twinkling as it caught the glitter on her cheeks, all those soft words her hips and lips had woven on his chest now unraveled and disintegrated into the night air. The bedroom did have a faint smell of jasmine after dark, when its pungency permeates so heavily that it overwhelms any man within nose-reach, demanding him to indulge in a fantasy for a woman not there, perhaps a one-night-stand woman he could never forget. His bare feet padded across the cold tile floor and toward the door, offering up a few hopeful steps that suggested she might have just slipped into the bathroom for a moment or perhaps was making tea in the kitchen wrapped in that silk wine-stained robe, and soon would return to his side. All rooms revealed nothing but darkness, a hollow dark that somehow enveloped the space and expanded it while he wasn’t noticing. Under her spell, he lost himself until there was nothing left of her. He had awakened too late, only aware of her fleeting presence because it didn’t exist anymore. The jasmine smell unfurled and escaped out the left-open window, which now emitted a frigid gust of wind as he reached for his evening slippers.

You try.

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:___________

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:___________

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:___________

Using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them.

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:______ → Target idea 1: ______

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:______ → Target idea 2: ______

Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:______ → Target idea 3: ______

DAY #11

FINDING LINKING QUALITIES: WORKING ONE DIRECTION

Prompt: Traffic Cop

Today’s exercise is a little different. You will explore your target idea through the lens of
traffic cop.
After finding your linking qualities and doing your usual ten minutes for each one, you’ll spend another ten minutes reversing directions, looking at
traffic cop
through the lens of your target idea.

Try this. First find two interesting qualities (linking qualities) for
traffic cop.

Traffic cop → Linking quality 1: ________________

Traffic cop → Linking quality 2: ________________

Now supply the target idea for each of them.

Traffic cop → Linking quality 1: _______ → Target idea 1: _______

Traffic cop → Linking quality 2: _______ → Target idea 2: _______

CAROLINE HARVEY