It took me two days to get 32. It took a day and two hours to get the other 20 after I started on the musical.
Who else finds the use of really long lyrics a nice pagecount booster? Because it is totally making me rethink all those bad things I used to think about musicals and how soppy some of them are.

I've only just started but am finding that really short lyrics can boost the page count!

Take a pretty sparse song like "Bring Him Home" from Les Miz:

God on high
Hear my prayer
In my need
You have always been there
He is young
He's afraid
Let him rest
Heaven-blessed

Six lines in only 24 words!

Compare with "War is a Science" from Pippin:

The army of the enemy is stationed on the hill
So we've got to bring them down here, and this is how we will
Our men in the ravine (That's this area in green)
Will move across the valley where they plainly can be seen
And the enemy (in blue) will undoubtedly pursue
For that's what you depend upon an enemy to do

Also six lines but requiring 63 words!

So I've decided all my characters will be singing in haikus.

I only signed up for Script Frenzy because I already had a couple of half completed lyrics going round my head that have no place in my usual music stuff.

Apart from anything else, you wouldn't get away with repeating the same 8 lines three times within as many minutes in straight theatre.

I was finding it easy at first, but it's suddenly become more difficult because I've stupidly set myself up so that a complicated explaination has to be dealt with in one song.

Are you writing your songs along with the script when they feel appropriate, or as a seperate task from the talking bits?

I always write the lyrics along with the talking bits, but never worry with music or notes until after completion.

I've got to say, lyrics are a HUGE help. I mean, you can repeat them over and over and over. Take "Will I?" from RENT--one line in the entire song, just repeated over and over, or "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" which gets reprised about 6 or 7 times in the original

So yeah. Lyrics help.

GotItMemorized
RENT and Axel forever

Currently obsessing over: Musicals involving cannibalism, murder-by-razor and a LOT of songs called Johanna xD

NaNo 07: Discord: 50,099 WON
Screnzy 08: Survivor: Broadway

I was actually intending to write the songs separately and just put in something dumb like:

FMC
Say, I found my lost cat.

MMC
Oh, that's great! Which reminds me...
["Still Standing," MMC, FMC, Extras 1-5]

But now that you bring it up, if they'll boost my nonexistant page count, I think I will stick 'em in there!

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NaNo 06 - Sand - WON
Screnzy 07 - Talking In Its Sleep - EPIC FAIL
NaNo 07 - Child On Fire - WON
Screnzy 08 - Pleistocene Lovesongs - 0/100

"I was finding it easy at first, but it's suddenly become more difficult because I've stupidly set myself up so that a complicated explaination has to be dealt with in one song."

I'm stuck there too! Argh! I'm beginning to rethink the musical idea at the moment...

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Inspired by Poe
Driven by Christ

I noticed it last year. This year, I'm working with lyrics that I wrote (with the exception of one song). Right now, my lyrics are more like poems, so there aren't quite as many random repetions. They still help though. ^_^
___
NaNo 2006: Steel Bars - 59,233 words
Screnzy 2007: The Enchanted Forest - won
NaNo 2007: Turning Beetles into Buttons - 51,949 words

I take back what I said before. Inspiration struck, an oracle snuck in and stole the opening scene with a chanted prophecy, an angry mob decided they wanted a nice long song while burning a manor to the ground in the second scene, and all of a sudden, I'm writing it over and ignoring all hopes of rhyming as all dialogue turns to emotional song.

Already I've managed three pages in minutes! Woo!

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Inspired by Poe
Driven by Christ

I just changed the font on my song from 12 pt. Courier to 10 pt, because I felt I was cheating. One song took 3 pages! (Also, my songs are parodies, because I can't write music [or I'm too lazy to try to], so not only were the lyrics taking up too much room, but a lot of that was not even mine. Some songs I'm rewriting completely, but this one had a lot of stuff in the original lyrics that fit too well in my scene for me to change them - chorus stuff.)

Maybe I'll make myself write 125 or 150 pages, to make up for it... or something.

Criss, la Reina
www.crisswrites.com
www.xanga.com/reinacristina

Right now, I'm focusing on the script...the lyrics will have to wait. But you're right, it is good padding :)

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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
~Jack London

Screnzy '06--The Underdogs
NaNoWriMo '07--Zella
Screnzy '08--Jonah! :)