To the YAA Students Passing By...

The post you're looking for is the only one in July 2020. We make a wonderful geeky choir, don't we?

For the rest of you, first, it's been a minute, hasn't it? Second, today I had the honor and joy to speak at the BYU Young Authors Academy. The teens there were a wonderful audience: fun, well-read, and conscientious about their writing and how to improve. It was wonderful all around.

So, YAA folks, if you're reading this, you're rad. Stay frosty, friends, and if you found this blog, say hi in the comments!

Anyway, today at the conference I ended up showing (and singing) my lyrical adaptation of "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton. Since in my speech today I mentioned constraints, I want to briefly talk about the constraint of adapting song lyrics like this and why it might be a great writing exercise.

Well, I like it as a writing exercise.

First, it's fun. You can adapt lyrics to talk about anything you want. The sillier is often the better. A fun writing exercise is vastly preferable, in my opinion.

Second, though, you really have to think of language and meter. Songs have specific line meters and while you can fudge some a little bit, others are a little harder to change. Then there's rhyme. Some rhymes are easy to find, while some of the more clever songwriters use internal rhymes that aren't as obvious but can snag if missed in an adaptation or parody.

Adapting song lyrics requires careful focus and precision. Trying to make the words work, so one syllable isn't unnaturally stressed or the line isn't rearranged in an order that looks convoluted, just to make the rhyme work, takes effort. You have to pay attention to words and their sounds. You have to be willing to change your mind (and the line) to make it work. You have to be very creative in the bounds the songwriter left for you.

And that's just so much fun, to me. You'll probably see some more adaptations before I'm done.

Speaking of adaptations, my book The Explorer's Code is now an audio book! Here's the link to the Authors Direct page where you can find it, though it, of course, is sold at other places audiobooks can be found, like Amazon and Audible.

In other news, my next book Secrets of Stone and Sea, is set to come out from Macmillan next year. I'll give more details as I get them; it's still going through the edit process. This one is about twin boys who accidentally raise an ancient sea monster and need to figure out how to get rid of it. I call it my "Cthulu Light" story, so if riddles, folklore, and giant monsters sounds cool to you, keep an eye out for it.