AVOIDING SECOND VERSE HELL
One of the main things I do is watch a LOT of television. Now while a lot of people would say I am just lazy as hell and that would be correct. there is actually a method to my madness. I watch everything. Movies, documetary's, biographies, television shows, pretty much everything. I watch movies several times, in fact, I am watching THE MISFITS right now, the last movie of Clark Gable and Marylin Monroe, from 1961. I often will watch DVD's and listen to the "director's commentary, going, which narrates what is going on in the movie from the director or actor's point of view.
I do this for STORYTELLING purposes. I look at scope, character development, dialogue, camera angles, lighting, background in scenes, composition, etc. I study a lot of things. This helps me a lot in developing narratives, which is what we are doing in songwriting. We are just doing it in a very quick time frame. I often watch new shows or movies and try to think how I would take this.
The way I avoid second verse hell is in always directing scenes in my mind. I am Steven Speilberg when it comes to my mind videos. And I use many things that are around me in the structure of the story lines. I use real experiences of people I know, and have been known to "borrow' from other mediums.
You can do "a flip" where you have the second verse actually fitting better as a first verse, or backstory on how you got there. Phil had that right. To me, if you are getting stuck, you are probably using too much emotion and not enough visual furniture. Emotions can tie us up in knots, because there are not that many ways to take emotions. Where as if you have ACTION, you can always take the story somewhere.
Then the trick is in finding a "different way" to take the story. That is the twist.
Most of this is just donig it for a long time. Might as well get used to the fact that it takes a while. One of the things about writing is that just when we think we have got it, we run into walls, write the same song over and over, or really are just not as good or as far along as we think we are. Humility is one of the things this all teaches you.
A kind of funny thing is that a few weeks ago when I was in Gatlinburg, and was hanging out and talking to my good friend and co-writer, Kim Williams. We were both talking about how new writers never seem to be humble when they are coming to this town. They all think they know it all. And they are usually just not very good.
This town and craft will always teach you lessons. And always keep you humble.
MAB