Replay Thursday: Concrete Imagery

REPLAY THURSDAY is an opportunity to keep writing between Seven Day Challenges. Write another songs and feel free to share it with us!

What is the world made out of? Love? Happiness? Sadness? Doubt? Although these things exist in the world they are not physical objects. The world is made of dirt, clouds, skyscrapers, asphalt, sunflowers and rent-controlled apartments. The technical term here is "concrete images," but let’s understand that "concrete images" really just means things of this world. Tom Waits is a master at this. Look at the opening lines of "Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night":

You gassed her up behind the wheel
with your arm around your sweet one in your Oldsmobile
barreling down the boulevard
looking for the heart of Saturday night

Do you notice how every line has an image from this world? The steering wheel, Oldsmobile, boulevard. These are simple tricks to create a vivid moment within a small verse.

Try writing a song where each line ends with a concrete image--something from this world. An example might look like:

She was waiting in an empty parking lot
with her hands inside her jacket pocket
watching the clouds fall over the city
as a thunderstorm came from Tennessee

Notice how these lines are more evocative of a scene? Let us know how it goes.