DO NOT USE POP SONG LYRICS IN YOUR BOOK.
It’s the one piece of advice I consistently give other writers and the one piece of advice that is most consistently ignored. Yet if they were to listen to just one thing I tell them, this would be it:
DO NOT USE POP SONG LYRICS IN YOUR BOOK.
It is expensive — often prohibitively so — and it’s often unnecessary if you stretch yourself. I rewrote a lot of song lyrics out of my first book, Mahogany Slade. At the time, I didn’t see how it would be possible and the, once complete, I was glad I’d removed the lyrics, as they had become anchors on the story. Instead, I found other means of conveying how important music was to the characters.
Blake Morrison wrote a great “learn by example” piece about this in The Guardian.
Now did I forget anything? Oh right…
DO NOT USE POP SONG LYRICS IN YOUR BOOK.
serhasacomplaint 
Kelly Clarkson, Coffee Ambassador…
My favorite part of this Green Mountain coffee commercial: “Ambassador” Kelly Clarkson manages three Spanish phrases (“buenos dias,” “salud,” and “cinco”) yet asks the Peruvian coffee bean picker a full English sentence and apparently expects him to understand. And he probably does, which is the ultimate indictment of our education system.
Posted by Stephen Robinson on November 5, 2013 in Pop Life, Social Commentary
Tags: Green Mountain coffee, Kelly Clarkson