What are the rules concerning a character singing a song? If I had a musician character singing a song on stage in front of a crowd, with different verses and a chorus, would it be okay to write the full song without quotation marks and italicized? Kind of like this... The musician started singing on stage. Verse lyrics Verse lyrics Verse lyrics The musician ran around on the stage, and sung the chorus. Chorus lyrics Chorus lyrics Chorus lyrics You get the idea for a full song. To me, it would just look silly having a full song written like this... The musician on stage sang, "Verse lyrics, verise lyrics, verse lyrics." The musician ran around on the stage, and sung the chorus. "Chorus lyrics, chorus lyrics, chorus lyrics." The second example ruins the effect, flow, and format/structure of the song, I think. Especially if it was a full song. I was just wondering what the rules were with a character singing songs. Does anyone have a good source site or anything concerning that?
If I recall in Dune when Gerny or whatever his name was sang a song it was like this. Gerny sang, "Lyrics, Lyrics, blah Blah, lyrics, blah Blah, blah, lyrics."
it should still have be enclosed in " " since it's in effect, 'dialog'... but sung lyrics are usually indented on both sides, as a block, unless it's only a single line... that said, be sure you're not using copyrighted work without permission!... citing the lyricist by name is not enough, if the copyright on the song is still active...
Okay, that makes more sense. And nope, it's going to be an original song. I am so paranoid about the copyright Nazis that I will never use any brands or songs or anything like that. Also, this is kind of off topic, but doesn't underlined titles in novels just look awkward and stupid? I always thought so.
isn't that what i'd just said, cog? where have you seen that done?... i don't think i ever have, and i've read many thousands of novels, in the past 60 or more years...
