Starting Your Copybook
Your job with a copybook is to simply notice things you love, capture them into the notebook, then examine them closely to try and analyze their appeal (and possibly their faults) in technical detail. It goes like this:
- Encounter an interesting piece of music or writing.
- Copy the best parts down. Be sure to cite the source.
- Study the piece’s form and content in technical detail until it gives up all its secrets.
- Repeat.
You can start your copybook in a separate notebook (or separate section of the notebook) from your practice journal, or you can mix it all together. My only word of caution is to make sure you note the source of the passages you copy down, so you don’t stumble upon someone else’s work in your notebook months from now and mistake it for your own creation!
1. Get your copybook started by writing down passages from a few of your favorite songs. If you have access to an “official” written copy of the lyric, use that to make sure you’re accurate.
2. Mark it up. Label all the creative writing techniques and figures of speech that you can identify in the song’s lyric. You could: notate the rhyme scheme, identify the rhyme types (perfect, oblique, etc.), underline particularly strong bits of sensory description.
3. Keep your copybook close. Next time you hear or read anything that impresses you or moves you in any way, capture it into your copybook.
Make the habit of collecting passages you love in a safe place where you can study them in greater detail and return to them later. Remembering to do this might be as simple as just keeping your copybook close to hand. Just having it nearby may help to keep your ears and eyes open for great writing and dialogue wherever they appear in your daily life.