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In Writing Better Lyrics, Pat Pattison talks about the power of putting visual, place-making language first in a verse. Such details color and frame whatever words follow them, he says.

Here’s an example of this at work in Everything is romantic by Charli xcx:

Bad tattoos on leather tanned skin
Jesus Christ on a plastic sign
Fall in love again and again
Winding roads, doing manual drive

The details here are intensely evocative. You can feel the heat and hedonism, even before you learn the song is about falling in love (again and again).

This kind of place writing is not the only way to write emotionally potent or vibey lyrics, but from a craft perspective it’s a very “grab-able” tool.

It’s all about focusing on physical details: “bad tattoos”, “plastic sign”, and “winding roads”. These phrases even on their own are loaded with meaning. Place them alongside more direct language (“fall in love again and again”) and you get something evocative, relatable, specific, original.

This week, some ‘Entry Points’ that help you dig into place in your writing.

With love,
Lucy

‘Entry Points’